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BSJ
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 12/22/08
Loc: Grand Isle, VT
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Going to Puerto Rico
#5456177 - 10/05/12 07:58 AM
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I’ve got a chance to go to Puerto Rico. It’ll be the furthest south I’ve ever been.
The smallest scope I have is a ST 80 that I could put on a medium duty camera tripod. It’s an OK scope, but not much better than binoculars. I also have a short tube f5 130mm reflector which works really well on my Voyager mount. But that mount is too heavy for plane travel. Has anyone put a 130mm on a collapsible, camera style mount and been reasonably satisfied? What tripod was it…?
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core
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 02/23/08
Loc: Mostly in Norman, OK
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Re: Going to Puerto Rico
[Re: BSJ]
#5456290 - 10/05/12 10:02 AM Attachment (13 downloads)
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I've had both a A80SS (Vixen Short tube) and a SLT130 OTA (130mm f/5) OTA out to dark skies on trips, and the 130 was definitely much better on DSO's - do you plan to carry on board the OTA? I'd imagine checking it in would require a rather substantial case for protection.
Anyways as for mounting, the 130 works very well with a Porta/PortaII head mounted on a tripod (Giottos 9371 in my case); the head detaches nicely and shouldn't take up too much space in the luggage. I like the offset mounting (like the AT Voyager) for zenith view and the slo-mo controls.
For a really lightweight mount combo I've had it on a DwarfStar head with CF Tripod (Vanguard Elite 1) and it works surprisingly well - head+tripod is just under 5 lb! It may take a while to dampen vibrations at medium power, but imo alot of it comes from over-extending the center column for the OTA to clear the tripod when viewing overhead. Still, it tracks very well, and extends to standing height use easily.
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gustavo_sanchez
sage
Reged: 12/30/10
Loc: Puerto Rico, US
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Re: Going to Puerto Rico
[Re: core]
#5456387 - 10/05/12 11:26 AM
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You got to hurry! Scorpius is setting early... 
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core
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 02/23/08
Loc: Mostly in Norman, OK
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Re: Going to Puerto Rico
[Re: core]
#5456406 - 10/05/12 11:42 AM Attachment (19 downloads)
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Just a quick pic of SLT130 on a Porta/Tripod combo ... this was just this past summer at ~9,000' altitude (CO), the views were incredible!
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