My telescope (when purchased...) will most likely have to spend its life in my garage with the bounty of my other hobbies (cars, bikes etc) as there is not a great deal of room in the house.
What can I do to make sure a telescope will survive in that kind of environment?
Also, does one type of telescope design handle this better than others?
No doubt others will have more to say on this, but I can't see a problem as long as it is a dry place and the scope is kept covered against dust and cobwebs.
It's not very different to a backyard observatory after all.
Give it lots of hugs and tell it how much you enjoy your time together. Promise it, and deliver, new and expensive eyepieces from time to time.
And try to keep it dry and well covered, even sealed where possible, from dust. Make sure it dries out well after a night under the stars before you cover/seal.
I would suggest that you keep it in the driest, coolest place you can find, well away from solvents, paints, petrol etc. If you can, wrap it up in good soft clean cloth, and then put that in a thick plastic bag.
That's probably a bit of overkill, but there are a lot of chemicals found in the average garage that are not kind to telescopes.
A coulpe of bags of silica gel inside the focuser will help keep the moisture down in the OTA. Also, give the OTA a coat of car wax and shine before covering it up.
Cheers!
And to add further to what everyone else has added...
as long as there is nothing already rusting there, as that's not a good indicator for the safe storage of your scope (so I've heard anyway).
Promise it, and deliver, new and expensive eyepieces from time to time.
