What's your "travel scope"?

Just wondering what people use when they are on the road. I am always looking to steal a little observing time when on business travel, because I live in a horribly polluted area.

If I travel by car, I can sometimes find room for my c8, but mostly it is the c5 at f/10 and camera tripod that comes with me. I don't do a whole lot of plane travel, but I would probably put the tripod in checked luggage and carry-on the c5 in its hard plastic case if I were so inclined.

I also bought a "ball style" 114mm f4.5 newt with the optical window, which seems like it can stand up to the rigors of camping with the intention of using it with my son when he gets old enough (he's only 3 mos.). It also seems like the easiest for a small child to point/guide with a red-dot type finder. It's a bit bulkier than the c5 and it's not an astroscan, but after rotating the window slightly and a good laser collimation it does a nice "snap" into focus and shows a pretty rich field. I haven't traveled with it yet, but it will likely go with me next time.

What do you use? What did you abandon, and why? Where do you go? How do you travel?

Tim,

I finally finished my 12" f5 briefcase scope. Big box (6"x22"34") gets checked (51 lb) and optics (typical Orion aluminum case) stays on board with me. It carries Primary, secondary and a couple eyepieces. Big box also converts to an observing table. Can't beat aperture, especially if traveling to a dark site.

Bill

Attached Image:

I use a TMB 115 CNC with a GM8 mount.

The dew cap, extension and secondary focuser are removed from the tube so it'll fit in a Stellarvue C8 case. This is just small enough for carry on with the airlines I use.

My mount goes into the case Losmandy sells and it gets checked as luggage. If I was buying it now, I'd get a slightly larger case as I need to remove the servo motors to fit it in.

I keep a spare tripod, counterwieghts, and a 17ah battery at the location I fly to most often.

When I'm driving, I use a larger case for the OTA so I don't need to take things apart, and I bring my G11 tripod, and a 100 amp hour deep cycle battery.

If I'm flying, some eyepieces and a barlow go in with the scope in the carry on case. If I'm driving I take 2 eyepiece cases.

I hope to replace the mount with a Mach1GTO as soon as my name comes up on the list.

Other than star parties, my vacations are usually to Naples Florida or Stone Harbor NJ.

My Travel scope(s):

By air, its a Pronto. I also have a focal reducer for my C-5 but somehow I find the Pronto just does a better all around job..

For a loaded car, I have several options but the last car trip we made it was the Pronto plus a 4 inch F6 Achromat on an Alt-AZ mount. The Pronto is better as a birding scope but the 4 incher is better for the night sky.

And for the motorhome I normally take the Pronto as well as either a 10 inch or 12.5 inch DOB...

I like Newtonians but when space is tight, a refractor provides both the widefield views and reasonable high power stuff and is much better during the day.

Jon

For air travel, it's a Lumicon 80mm f/4 Superfinder and a light camera tripod, along with 25mm, 10mm, and 2x Barlow EP's. It's small (it all fits in a camera bag), light, decent aperture and optics, and if it all gets lost or stolen it's only $300 or so.

Tim Iafolla

TeleVue 85 w/bogan 410 head and triopod. It is a
rally nice scope and packs well for car trips.

although the "Wiliam Earl Telescope" looks very nice!

that is "tripod" and "really" ! :S