stock vehicle built for astronomy

This is a little off-the-wall, but it might be of interest.

I've been looking into getting a new Honda Element AWD. The Honda Element is the boxy, Hummer-wannabe looking little SUV rather oddly mis-aimed at the Gen Y crowd. Well, not only is the inside made to be mud and spill friendly, but the back seats can be either swung up to the sides or removed altogether for almost small pickup carrying capacity. Not only does this mean that bulky scopes and mounts would fit far easier than in most competing small SUVs and minivans, but the Element has an element that is of particular interest to astronomers.

The 4WD models come with a moonroof, (misnamed 'sunroof' ;-), that is in the rear, over the cargo compartment. It's generously sized and directly over an area that looks like it would easily fit a small camp stool and tripod. I haven't taken any measurements, but it looks like it should be quite feasible to drive the vehicle to a dark sky site, and then sit inside the vehicle, well out of the cold, with a moderate sized, rear eyepiece scope poking up right out of the moonroof.

How cool is that? Well, if it's not quite enough, the seats can be laid back, with headrests removed, to form a bed. From a camping, birding, fishing, astronomy, mtn. biking point of view, this looks to me to be THE vehicle. It also gets gas mileage comparable to most smaller trucks and is priced more reasonably than most SUVs.

Just thought I'd pass that along. I've never really been psyched up about a vehicle before, but this one is pretty interesting.

Mike Swaim

You mention that you could sit inside out of the cold. . .if the heat is on, your viewing could be terrible if all the heat is going up and out the moonroof. Otherwise, you would not only have to wait for the scope to cool to outside temps, but the interior of the car as well.

Also, you would have to deal with movement in the car. . .every time you move, the car moves and so does the scope. Kind of like centering a star on a rocking boat.

Finally, your field of view could be very small depending on the scope size and moonroof opening and you may need to study gymnastics to contort yourself to view.

I believe that not too long ago, there was a post in the home observatories forum where someone posted a photo of a towed observatory. This may be easier to use. - Jason