transporting a reflector scope

[drylander (Peter)]

Hi just a dumb question but I am going to take my 130mm reflector with us when we travel with the caravan. How do I safely transport the scope so the mirrors don't move out of focus?
Cheers
Pete

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

hi Pete

got a spare bed in the van?

tuck it in - or strap it on top

geoff

[Rick Petrie]

Originally Posted by drylander

Hi just a dumb question but I am going to take my 130mm reflector with us when we travel with the caravan. How do I safely transport the scope so the mirrors don't move out of focus?
Cheers
Pete

Follow Mr Owl's advice to transport or have it wrapped in something to avoid any sudden jolting.
If it does come out of alignment, as a newtonian reflector owner, you should/will need to become proficient at collimating, and once familiar with that, you may need to tweek occasionally to get good views.(plenty of excellent threads in here on this subject Peter) Cheers
eg.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-390-0-0-1-0.html

PS; I think Geoff means on top of the bed, not on top of the caravan.

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by drylander

Hi just a dumb question but I am going to take my 130mm reflector with us when we travel with the caravan. How do I safely transport the scope so the mirrors don't move out of focus?
Cheers
Pete

Hi,

Look, you can't, IMHO, not completely. You'll have to carry a collimation (not focus, but optical alignment, different) system of some sort to achieve best results. They are small, not expensive, and there is an immense amount of info here in IIS about it.

I liked collimating with a Barlowed laser. I found it sufficiently effective and quick once I got the hang of it.

There are other methods which have their adherents.

Cheers

[drylander (Peter)]

thanks for the info guys not sure I can colliminate a scope as I'm an amateurs amateur Guess another learning curve coming up so much for older & wiser
Pete

[RobF (Rob)]

Definitely worth teaching yourself how to do it one day armed with a cheshire. My 8" F/5 rarely moves much at all, so with luck you'll find its a hardy beast anyway. Larger scopes (especially shorter focal ratio scopes) can have very tight collimation tolerances meaning a very small change can make a big difference. Every scope is different (probably like every jolt...)

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

The first couple of times you collimate, can take ages and ages to do.
But once you get the knack, you'll be able to do it in just a couple of minutes.
I use an old film cannister with a pin hole in the middle to collimate.

[RobF (Rob)]

I meant to say too, don't be precious about it - just under the 3 secondary screws (or the master central screw) until the secondary is floppy. Then get your hand in behind and figure out what you see as you tweak each screw BEFORE you're doing it with a screwdriver.

There are lots of websites that describe the various reflections and how to get things lined up, but if you do the above you can figure it out yourself pretty quickly, however its not so obvious when you're looking down into it all tightened up as it would be now.

Disclaimer: Robert Enterprises cannot be held responsible if your scope is never properly aligned again...