Transportability (durability) of DOBS

I'm thinking of buying a Dobsonian, maybe a Starmaster 11, Teleport 10, or Tscope 13. One big question is this: I live about 100 miles from dark skies, and about a 6-hour drive from really dark skies. I probably do the 100-miler 10 to 15 times a year. Longer trips might even be multi-day drives to the southwest from New England, stuff like that, once or twice a year. I drive a standard pickup, so there's room on the seat if the scope isn't too big, or I could put a shell on the bed.

The question is: can any precision Dobsonian be expected to stand up to that kind of repeated jostling, wear and tear. Would this be expecting too much? Should I maybe just continue as a happy refractor user?

Steve

If you have a pickup, your in a good position. If I had a truck, I would make a wooden box and pad the inside, then you'd have almost zero wear and tear and minimal jostling. :-)

Ron

If you put the camper shell on the pickup and secure the scope well, it should be just fine. I don't have a shell but I only drive 1 hour at a time on hiways. Smooth roads mostly for me. I do know others that use much rougher roads and have no problems, just the ordinary collimation before use.

Regarding the durability of DOBs. I really cannot comment on the "Precision" DOBs, just your basic commercial DOB. With reasonable care, the sort of care you would give any scope, they stand up nicely. I transport mine 60 miles to the mountains a couple of times a month, 2000 miles trips around the Southwest a couple times a year and they stand up nicely.

I just keep covers over both ends and makes sure they are resting comfortably on a blanket or in a padded scope bag.

One of the nice things about Newts/DOBs is that they are not as delicate as other scopes. They can stand some banging around, sure that might mean recollimation, but that is easy. If you want to install a new finder, drill a hole....

Robust is the word I would use.

jon

I once tripped and fell while carrying a 10" Orion dob tube (built by Discovery) on my shoulder. No damage was done (this was on sandy ground, if it had been concrete I'm sure there would have been damage.) I've been transporting 10 and 14 inch Sonotube Dobs for several years; they are very rugged and only need occasional collimation.

There is no problem transporting a well-built dob--they are designed to be carried around. I've carried my trusstube 14.5 around for years, and the previous owners hauled it all over the country since it was built in 1992, and there have been no problems with it other than a few scratches.

Just makes sure that it doesn't slide around in the bed of the truck--that's how they can get damaged. Bungee cords, nets, foam rubber are the kinds of things to use.