Can I Hike With a 4SE?

[BinaryBen (Ben)]

Hi this is my first post. I wrote a long-ish post which the forum lost when I tried to post it. Maybe it should have a draft feature?

Anyway, it boiled down to:

• I'm looking for a first telescope and am leaning towards one of a Celestron 4/6/8SE or a 130 SLT.
• Is a 4SE small enough/rugged enough to carry in a custom backpack and hike with for a couple of days?
• Understandably, the 130 SLT is probably too big to take anywhere hiking. What about a 6SE though?

Also, if none of them are "compact" enough for short hiking trips (up to a day, probably half a days walk though), then which is better value between the 130SLT or the 4SE? Also, would your opinion change for someone who enjoys hobby engineering and would enjoy hacking the AUX port on the 130 and attaching a Raspberry Pi or similar?

I'm really disappointed the forum has eaten my original post as it probably held more information. It happens though, so just ask any questions you think will help give better advice.

[dannat (Daniel)]

The other item you could hik with is a heritage 130p, mini dob_its all manual though

[BinaryBen (Ben)]

Thanks very much Daniel for the reply. I really enjoy hobby engineering/making/hacking so a) I am hoping to build my own dob at some point in a couple of years if I really get into astronomy and b) I am really hoping for a computerised/automated scope as my first and "everyday" scope if possible.

I'll make sure to have a look at the one you mentioned now though xD

[traveller (Bo)]

The other option is a 80mm f4 short tube refractor. Light and compact and provides rich views of star fields. A couple of decent eyepieces and a Barlow and you are set to go.
Plus the tube can be re used as a guidescope later if you want to.
Bo

[Atmos (Colin)]

As long as the SE4 is in a reasonably well padded bag you should be okay. I've only ever had a quite brief look through one so from that one experience I'd say the optics were OK.
For hiking, I'd probably look at the 4" over the 6" simply for versatility.

[dannat (Daniel)]

the other scope you might look at for hiking is the virtuoso virtuoso
it is not GOTO, but has a tracking drive, & is smaller than the 4se, & no long tripod to lug around either

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

I'm a fan of cats but it's hard to beat a 130p for versatility, just check one out before you buy as its not as small as they look in the pictures

[julianh72 (Julian)]

Meade USA sell the ETX80 Observer, which is an 80 mm f/5 achromat on GoTo Mount and tripod, all of which fits in the supplied backpack.
http://www.meade.com/etx80-observer.html

You'd have to get it imported on special order, as I don't think any Australian retailers stock it, or you could assemble something similar by buying a comparable compact OTA, GoTo mount, etc, and making some padding for a sturdy backpack or camera bag.

[silv (Annette)]

Daniel's non-Goto Virtuoso suggestion upgraded: .
Skywatcher Merlin with Synscan GoTo
Its weight is 3kg and it can carry a 4kg tube for visual use - the shorter the tube the better for balance and usage.

It can be mounted on a normal tripod for more comfortable use in the table-less field.

It's also nice to just mount your camera and lens on it and do astrophotogaphy with exposures up to 30secs - before field rotation kicks in.
Stacking a bunch of those exposures in software like DSS makes pretty Hubble-like images.