Having watched a fellow Astro-holic carry his toys back and forth, damage them and fight with sharp edges, get dust on the mirror, loose grubscrews....etc..etc,
I decided to show him how I had decided to store my scopes and bits & bobs,
here is the box for my LX200, the Borge Travel set-up ( it has a selection of eye pieces and diagnals etc) and my accessories case.
all three are shock proof, padded and can travel!!!
my 6 inch refractor ( sorry no pic yet of the case, duew to it being stored at present) is in a wooden carry box, with two handels and wheels.
so what do you use to keep you near and dear clean and dry and out of harms way???
dob in spare room standing upright.... no cat zone
Eq standing next to it.
EPs in briefcase with cutout foam
i like your setup better
My wife says I'm quite anal when it comes to perfection!!! lol
I took about three months to decide the set up and design, them got a gunsmith, that does gun cases, to make the main LX box for me. The other two cases I got in the Hardware store, they for tool for tradies in the electrical game.
I made the LX case capable of being dropped and bashed when flying with it. It has six latch's to sendure it stays close all the time
I keep my dob assembled in the dining room with showercap on the mirror end. For transportation I put the OTA in its box with the original styrofoam packaging and on the back seat it goes. My good EPs are in a foam lined case. My crummy ones are in a plastic bag in a cardboard box and never see the light of day or night anymore.
BTW. Ziggy, you can just attach and upload images with your post. You don't need to use an external image repository. I'm sure those on dial-up would appreciate not having to download animated advertisements in order to look at the photos.
I keep my dob assembled in the dining room with showercap on the mirror end. For transportation I put the OTA in its box with the original styrofoam packaging and on the back seat it goes. My good EPs are in a foam lined case. My crummy ones are in a plastic bag in a cardboard box and never see the light of day or night anymore.
BTW. Ziggy, you can just attach and upload images with your post. You don't need to use an external image repository. I'm sure those on dial-up would appreciate not having to download animated advertisements in order to look at the photos.
lol...ok point taken, we city folk in the big smoke, forget we got ADSL... and hige bandwith to abuse...lol
I keep my dob assembled in the dining room with showercap on the mirror end. For transportation I put the OTA in its box with the original styrofoam packaging and on the back seat it goes. My good EPs are in a foam lined case. My crummy ones are in a plastic bag in a cardboard box and never see the light of day or night anymore.
I'm with you steve, both scopes left assembled witha sheet over em, and I use the original cardboard boxes and foam to transport. Good eyepieces in a nice foam lined alum case and along with other astro bits kept in a old cupboard with the "lesser" eyepieces littering the cupboard bottom...
Dob in the bedroom (yeah that was popular with my better half and may not be permanent), but only room without cats. I use Glad Handi Covers on both ends (basically like shower caps but slightly less daggy).
Wow, look at that lovely concrete yard! Didn't realise you were a fellow wog, Davo! How is the chipboard dobbie base handling the strain in that polar aligned position?
I keep my tube in a wooden box I built specifically for transporting it everywhere. First time I tried putting it in the car I found the speakers on the rear shelf hung down into the boot too far and after getting it into the boot, it got jamed and I couldn't get it out! So I had to unscrew the lid hinges and take the box out in bits. Now I just use the box to store it in the house with the tripod straddled across it, boxes of other bits sitting behind it. My girlfriend wants me to move it because it looks too much like a coffin....I guess it does!
I have hinted for my birthday that Sirius in Queensland had an ad for a zip up bag for scopes...she would just need to take some measurements and see if they make one to fit. At the moment, I just put the tube in the boot and put a doonah over it and tuck it in a bit. By the time I put all the other bits in the boot, there isn't a lot of room left...need a wagon, or buy back my old Pajero!
I keep my OTA in a 65l plastic storage box with slightly modified original packing (so I can keep the finder scope and piggy back mount on). My mount is in it's original packing in another 65l plastic stroage box. EPs and filters in an EPcase. Power tank dew sheild, etc in a milk crate (doubles as a step up if necessary), and an aluminium electrical techo's case for the rest...
I keep my LX assembled on the tripod in the loungeroom. HRH constantly tells me "Why don't you sell that big ugly thing and get a proper one" (meaning one that looks like an el cheapo refractor). Transportation is simply taking it off the tripod and laying on the back seat of the car. I am planning on making a padded softcase for the OTA.
I have 3 scopes, a 4.5" Newt, 8" SCT and an ED80, they all have their own case for both storage and transportation (of the OTA) the first two are ply, the thrid is steel and is actually shown in a thread in the DIY section of the forum. I also keep the extras (ep's ,filters etc) in a separate case. The problem I have is I never quite leave enough space in the case for the extra bits such as the tripod.....
Well I keep my the 9.25 OTA in a scope case, the Mount in a 1650 Pelican Case, My accessories in 1500 Pelican case and the tripod I just through in the back of the truck. I like the Pelican cases, water tight and very strong.
For the LX200 I have a JMI case. Good cases but very expensive to purchase here in Australia.
I've got a 13.1" Dob built by Argonavis some years ago. I purchased it off him and have since made one modification - I've put 3 heavy duty casters on the base so it can be wheeled around the yard. Once on a bit of grass, the effort to move it via the wheels is more than that needed to rotate it in azimuth. The only problem are the bricks around the pool. They judder the 'scope something horrible and I end up with such whacked out collimation that Jupiter looks to be spinning retrograde. On the very infrequent times I go on astrocamp, I wheel it down to the car where it is thrown....umm...placed gently and with great reverence...into the back of the station wagon.
I built a box out of wood to carry mine (8" dob). Specialy designed it to have a compartment for the OTA, a compartment for books and stuff, EP draws, wheels and a spot on top to put the base so everything can be pushed along at once. Only problem though was that I forgot to think about the weight so I built it out of chip board I had lying around. So much for portibility, takes two strong people to lift. On the plus side though it does store the scope well. I have put it on a tralier and driven 300km (about 10km of that on extremely bumpy dirt road) and it didn't go out of collimation in the slightest.
How is the chipboard dobbie base handling the strain in that polar aligned position?
So I had to unscrew the lid hinges and take the box out in bits. Now I just use the box to store it in the house with the tripod straddled across it, boxes of other bits sitting behind it. My girlfriend wants me to move it because it looks too much like a coffin....I guess it does!
