Downsizing again: The Sky-Watcher 102mm Mak

I'm not one who tends to buy a lot of telescopes. I started in 1991 with a 4.5 inch Tasco 11TR reflector on a German equatorial mount and a tripod. I used that regularly for 13 years, so if you think you'll outgrow a small telescope quickly, think again.

Then I decided to go for a Dobsonian because the 4.5 inch's tripod had literally fallen apart from use. I built a Dobsonian mount for the tube and it worked great. But I wanted more aperture, so I went as big as I could comfortably go, physically and financially, and got a 10 inch GSO Dob. I used that regularly for 20 years. 

Nine months ago, as a result of declining health, I could no longer manage the 10 inch. I separated the base into two parts that could be easily reassembled with four knobs, and I devised a simple rope harness to go around my shoulders to help carry the tube, but that wasn't enough. Very reluctantly I realized it was time to start downsizing. 

I chose the Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 150P 150mm (6 inch) f/5 tabletop scope with a go-to/tracking base. I figured the tracking might help soften the blow of the loss of 4 inches of aperture. It helped a little, and I've gotten used to it, but the views in the 10 inch are just so much better. You do what you have to do.

As my health continues to decline, I can sometimes no longer even set up the 6 inch comfortably, so I decided I would need to downsize again, this time to a true "grab and go" telescope. My requirements were:

• 15 lbs. max total weight
• Carryable out the door in one piece (it's okay to come back for the observing stool)
• Good on the Moon, bright planets, and double stars because I would be using this from my light polluted home, reserving the 6 inch for any dark sky forays
• No cool down required

I settled on a Sky-Watcher Skymax 102mm (4 inch) Maksutov-Cassegrain. This scope, made by Synta, is an F/12.7, with a 1300mm focal length. The optical tube assembly (OTA) weighs less than five pounds.

This means my Svbony SV135 6-element 7-21mm zoom is all I need, giving me 62-186x in a single eyepiece, with exit pupils (aperture in mm / magnification or eyepiece focal length in mm / telescope focal ratio) of 1.6 to 0.5, good for seeing detail in bright objects.

Now I have the smallest telescope I've ever had (not counting the little Svbony dedicated solar scope), but...and this is the key...I can use it! 

I mounted it on the Svbony SV225 alt-az mount that I used on my trip to Arizona in 2024. I had bought this as an alternative to the go-to/tracking mount that came with the 150P. I can mount the 102 on the Virtuoso mount if I want tracking. In fact, Sky-Watcher sells a Virtuoso package with a 127mm Mak.

I don't really like tripods, but decided a tripod was the way to go with this setup for several reasons:

• With a tripod, I can lift the telescope and bring it in and out of the house without bending over or crouching down. Those of you with bad backs, bad knees, or similar issues will relate. This makes a big difference.
• The tripod is adjustable to match the height of the very lightweight GCI PackSeat observing stool I've been using with the tabletop scope. I can easily pick up that stool with one hand under the seat. It weighs about a pound. My homemade adjustable observing chair weighs around 15 lbs.
• I can mount other small telescopes on it as long as they have a standard Vixen style dovetail. That includes my 150P.

I chose the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tripod. It's pretty sturdy for being inexpensive and I like that it has a tray for my eyeglasses, since this is my "quick look" scope and I don't want to have to put my contact lenses in for very short sessions. To fold up the legs to get through the door and around objects more easily, I can easily take off the tray with a simple twist, then put it on again outside.

I took the Svbony SV182 6x30 right angle correct image (RACI) finderscope off my 4.5 inch and put it on the Mak in place of the red dot finder that came with it (image at left). I can't do the contortions necessary to use straight through finders anymore. I wasn't using the 4.5 inch much anyway. It uses .965 eyepieces, and although I have some decent ones from Orion, they just aren't as nice as my 1.25" eyepieces.

A 6x30 finderscope is not ideal for a light polluted sky, but good enough for quickly finding the Moon or bright planets and stars. There just aren't that many stars bright enough to be visible in a 30mm finder in bad light pollution.

The 102 is designed to be mounted on top of a mount, not side-mounted, as I would have to do with the SV225 mount. I wasn't sure it would work, but it does. I just rotate the diagonal off to the left side a little and I can use both the main eyepiece and the finder well at any altitude setting. I had to partially take apart the mount to free up the setting circles so I could adjust them as needed, but now I can find anything using them and the finderscope.

The whole setup weighs about 15 lbs. I can move it easily in and out of the house for quick looks at Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon, or maybe some double stars or brighter deep sky objects. That's all I can see from my light polluted neighborhood anyway. It is truly "grab and go."

Avoiding cool down thermals

My fourth requirement was that no cool down be required, because I wanted to be able to pop outside with it to take advantage of a break in the clouds or just a quick look. But it's a Mak, which needs cool down, right? How can that work?

A few years ago, Cassegrain users started wrapping their telescope tubes in an insulating material, usually Reflectix, which is basically bubble wrap with a reflective layer on both sides. This prevents the scope from cooling unevenly and developing internal heat plumes as a result, which ruin seeing.

The wrap will slow this cooling down and keep the remaining heat distributed more evenly thoroughout the interior of the tube as it slowly cools. This allows observing immediately without waiting for the scope to cool down. It won't fix bad seeing (rats!), but it will make sure the scope is not to blame.

I got a 16" x 5' roll of Reflectix and found that 16" is a great length for the wrap on this scope. This includes about five inches of overlap in front for an integrated dew and glare shield, with adhesive-backed black craft felt such as this lining the inside to avoid reflections. Attached to itself with adhesive-backed Velcro, the "jacket" can be removed easily. Some say it looks ugly, but I say it makes it look like I'm observing with the Hubble Space Telescope!

I've had it out a lot already, and although it appears to be very slightly out of collimation, it's not enough for me to start fiddling with it. On nights of decent seeing (about the best we get here), I can see the five brightest moons of Saturn and detail on the planet. Stars in high power are nice and sharp with crisp Airy disks. 

For example, Alpha Piscium (4.1 and 5.2 mag at 1.8" separation) splits cleanly in 7/10 seeing, although component B is right on the first diffraction ring. That's about the practical resolution limit of the scope. I'm happy. 

Above: Simulated view of Alpha Piscium in the 102mm scope at about 170x.

Note: I noticed in writing this that a lot of what I have bought lately is either branded Svbony (products manufactured in Mainland China) or Sky-Watcher (a distribution company for Synta products of Taiwan). While I'm not beholden to either of them (I buy my own stuff with my own money and don't have any brand loyalty), they seem to be among those offering some of the better quality inexpensive astronomy products lately, with the caveat that most inexpensive gear requires some tweaking or modifying to work to its fullest potential.

(Human evolution silhouettes by M. Garde after José-Manuel Benitos, Wikimedia, CC By-SA 3.0, modified with telescopes by Astronomerica)

Equipment Tip: Add a cell phone holder to your observing chair

More and more I find I like to observe with my binoculars, using my Bino Body Mount. The problem with binocular observing is it takes two hands. I like to use Sky Safari on my phone as my charting app, and I got tired of my phone sliding off of my ever-expanding belly onto the dewy grass in the dark. It's uncomfortable to constantly be reaching over for the phone on a fold up table, so I needed something else.

A cheap gooseneck cell phone holder came free with something else I bought, so I use that, but there are plenty of similar ones such as this one you can buy. I recommend a clip rather than a clamp just for ease of use in the dark, although a clamp might work better for certain chairs. I clip it onto the arm of my zero gravity chair and I have my chart right there at hand, easily using the app with one hand while the Bino Body Mount is perched on my shoulders.

I did find that, at least on my chair, I had to clip the holder behind the locking knob (some chairs have a lever) or the arm would slide past the knob when I leaned the chair back and knock the holder off the chair. Behind the knob there is no obstruction, so I can adjust the chair in any position and the holder will stay on.

Yeah, they wobble like crazy, but when you're using your phone you're holding it steady in your hand. The holder is just to keep it handy within easy reach so you know where it is.

Observing with bad vision

I've worn glasses for about forty years, and my vision has been getting progressively worse, as it usually will. It has stabilized in recent years, but now without my glasses, everything is a blur. I started out with hyperopia (farsightedness) which was joined later in life by astigmatism (irregular curvature of the cornea or lens) so, close or far, it's now all blurry. About 15 or 20 years ago I decided to try contact lenses, and now my typical observing session requires I put them in before going out. I don't wear them regularly, only while observing.

(Image by JSB Co. via Unsplash.)

Vision correction

There are nearly as many degrees and kinds of bad vision as there are observers. Most bad vision can be corrected at least to the point where observing is possible, and the telescope focuser takes care of any basic refractive errors in your vision. That's my case. While I have +6.5 and +7.0 corrective lenses that also help correct for astigmatism, the correction is not perfect. Nevertheless, for me progressive lenses correct enough for me to get through life. I don't recommend trying to use progressive lenses at the eyepiece.

Contacts don't do quite as well for me but they work better at the eyepiece. Although I have toric lenses, the astigmatism is still pretty strong, and I've gotten used to the idea that my views of astronomical objects are not going to be ideal—one of the reasons I don't spend a fortune on eyepieces! I have what's called monovision contacts. My left side focuses at about three feet to infinity and my right side focuses around reading distance. It takes some getting used to after wearing glasses, but within half an hour or even less I'm fully functional. 

(Star images rendered from AladinLite.)

Glasses on

Some people just observe with their glasses on. This requires you to have eyepieces with long eye relief, such that you can have your glasses in between your face and the eyepiece lens and still see the whole field of view, or at least most of it. 

Eye relief is the distance in millimeters from the closest your eye can get to the lens to the furthest point you can pull it back and still see the entire apparent field of view (you can see out to the circular edge of the eyepiece field). For eyepieces with very short eye relief, usually in the smaller focal lengths, this may be the same distance, and your eye has to be almost touching the lens. This can force you to strain and your eyelashes will deposit oil on the lens. 

When using glasses, this point may be closer to the eyepiece than you can actually place your eye, and in that case you will never be able to see the full field of view. Eye relief that is too long may require you to move your head around to catch the sweet spot and can be equally frustrating as the view blacks out when you move your head slightly out of position. Eye relief is also dependent upon the shape of your eye socket and your glasses.

I have yet to find an eyepiece with enough eye relief that works with my prescription, and I have progressive lenses anyway, so I don't wear my glasses when looking through the telescope. I can, however, use various binoculars with long eye relief.

Observing without glasses. Notice how close the eye can get to the lens, making longer eye relief unnecessary to be able to see the full apparent field of view of the eyepiece, which in this case is 82 degrees, nice and wide. Contact lenses require no additional eye relief.

Observing with glasses on. Compare to previous image, noting the much greater distance from the top surface of the eyepiece to the observer's eye. Long eye relief when wearing glasses is critical to being able to see most or all of the eyepiece field of view. This Astro-Tech UWA 10mm eyepiece has only 10mm of eye relief. Not long enough for eyeglass wearers, who need a minimum of about 17-20 mm.

(Images by Astronomerica.)

According to Don Pensack's 2025 Eyepiece Buyer's Guide, eyepieces currently available range in eye relief from a mere 1 to 3 mm for the Harry Siebert Optics Planesphere series to a whopping 46 mm for the Masuyama 60mm 2-inch eyepiece. The caveat on any eye relief figure is that the numbers often only count the measurement from the glass surface not including additional inset or eyecup. So if anything, the effective eye relief may be shorter than the advertised eye relief. This thread from Cloudy Nights discusses some of the better eyepieces for eyeglass wearers. Scroll to post 14 to bypass some rather less useful posts.

Glasses on and off

Another way to cope is to use your glasses when reading a chart or looking up at the sky and then taking them off each time you put your eye up to the eyepiece. This may work especially if you have a relatively mild prescription and maybe only use glasses for reading. For us hardcore Magoos (link provided for younger folks who have no idea), this is fraught with danger. 

(Superman image by DC Comics)

Let me relate my experience in that regard. Before I switched to contacts, I thought I would just swap my glasses on and off when observing. While annoying, this did work to some extent. Until one night, when I placed my glasses atop the roof of my car. They slid off with the heavy dew, and here I was with no way to search for them. Oh, I had a red light, but everything was blurry. I was afraid to move, but I took one step in the direction I thought would be away from the glasses and, you guessed it, heard and felt a sickening crunch underfoot. I managed to drive home that night using an older pair of glasses I had kept as a backup, but that was it for me, and I got contacts shortly thereafter. 

If it works for you, go for it, but be careful. Sometimes I still do use this technique (with my backup glasses!) when I'm just out for a quick look in the backyard or I'm taking a quick look in my solar scope. I recommend velcroing a soft case to your scope or table so you can slip the glasses in there, rather than trusting to a pocket that could contain who knows what that could scratch your lenses or just laying them on a table. I've tried keeping them on eyeglass retainers around my neck but the constant bumping and scraping as I leaned over the telescope was annoying and made me worry about scratches.

No glasses

You might be lucky enough to still be able to read or look at the sky without your glasses and still see reasonably well. In that case, just put your glasses away and use your uncorrected eyes. I did this until the stars just started looking like fuzzy blobs and I was straining to read charts with a magnifier in the dim red light of my flashlight. A man's got to know his limitations, and I had reached mine.

Contact lenses

For me, contacts are really the best solution. With my monovision lenses I can read reasonably well up close, I can drive, I can see the stars reasonably well when I look up, I can see pretty well with any eyepiece, and I've gotten used to using one eye for each. Another benefit is at public star parties, where I can focus an object in the telescope and know that people with reasonably good vision will get a decent look. But a tweak of the focuser will work for most people with uncorrected vision issues, other than astigmatism. I usually encourage people to take off their glasses to observe and just refocus, as long as they don't have bad astigmatism.

There are a few downsides, though. Especially if you don't wear them often, contacts can be itchy, scratchy, and blur out sometimes, especially as your eyes get tired. I sometimes struggle to get them to stay in at first, although other times they just slide right onto my eyeballs and stick. I've had them get stuck under my eyelid when I rubbed my tired eye, and I've even put two in at once, thinking the first one didn't stick and had dropped on the floor. 

Or maybe you just don't like touching your eyeball? Ewwww! (Image by Moist.acuvuehk via Wikimedia, public domain)

I always take a second pair of contacts with me in case I get a tear in one, it just feels crappy, or I somehow lose one out of my eye. Also bring eyedrops to rewet them if they get too annoying. The lens solution bottle won't help unless you want half the bottle all over your neck and down your shirt. Trust me on that one.

Televue DIOPTRX

Televue makes a device they call DIOPTRX that can help with mild astigatism. It looks like a filter with a fold-down eyecup attached that you can thread onto a variety of Televue eyepieces. I've read some accounts that all say it works well. If your astigmatism is relatively mild, but bad enough that correction would make it worth the cost, and you have Televue eyepieces, you might want to check it out.

Can I take pictures through my telescope with my phone?

The short answer: Yes, but prepare to be underwhelmed. My question to you then would be: Why? If the answer to that is you just want something to text or post to show what you were looking at, go for it, but you're really not going to impress anyone. I have people at public events always wanting to take a picture of the Moon through the scope, and I usually oblige them by taking the picture for them, but it slows the line down and won't impress anyone but total non-astronomy folks (maybe). Still, I get it. People want something besides a memory to take home. Frankly, I'm happy with the memories.

Confession: Against all logic, I sometimes try to take pictures through my telescopes with a cell phone at the eyepiece, knowing it is probably a waste of time. The only decent pictures I've ever gotten were of the Moon, which are still far below almost any image I can find on the internet and the detail I can see visually, and some pretty cool images of Spica and Arcturus with an apodizing mask on my 10-inch. Otherwise, the images suck. Granted, I am using a Pixel 6a, which isn't exactly cutting edge now, so if you have a newer phone, or the latest and greatest (for now) iPhone, then you might have better luck. 

Anyway, here is a gallery of images I took through my 10-inch and 6-inch Dobsonians with the Pixel 6a, as a baseline for what you might expect to get, depending on your phone's camera. I will say it is difficult to get the phone's camera lens lined up with the eyepiece while still being able to snap an image before the object drifts out of view. Although I have no experience with eyepiece phone adapters, the general consensus appears to be that they are fiddly and mostly a waste of time and money. If you do get one, the Celestron NexYZ is often recommended. The images I've seen from them, however, are no better than my handheld images. Phones seem to be much better at getting non-optically magnified images like the Milky Way, or a lunar eclipse over some scenery using their night vision mode, or whatever they call it. Bright comets can be kind of nice.

Left: The Moon rising over the hills. This was so cool that I wanted to take a picture to put in my log for that unique sight, just to remember it better. To me, this is the best kind of use case for taking an image through the eyepiece. 10-inch dob.

Left: The gibbous Moon, zoomed in and cropped to show the level of detail, which is nowhere near what I could see visually. 6-inch tabletop dob.

Left: Spica with the apodizing mask. Pretty psychedelic, but rather pointless. Well, there actually are a lot of points. 10-inch dob. Apodizing masks are used on larger telescopes to negate some of the effects of poor seeing for splitting double stars and seeing more planetary detail. I didn't notice any improvement on my scope, as expected, although the kaleidoscope effect is interesting.

Left: Arcturus with the apodizing mask. Far out, man! 10-inch dob.

Left: Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) through a 6x30 finder. The shot through the eyepiece was too awful even to post here as a bad example.

Left: The same comet using the phone's "night vision" capability, without magnification. Especially with distinctive scenery, this can bring back the memory of the night much better than an eyepiece shot can.

So there you have it. Casual photos? Maybe. Anything more, get a SeeStar or go down the imaging rabbit hole and be prepared to spend some money and a lot of time learning processing. If you want to do planets and the Moon, a basic planetary camera might work for you, but you have to seriously ask yourself why you are wanting to do imaging. It's not for everyone but some people just love it, and it's more forgiving of light pollution.

Astro imaging is indeed a different hobby entirely from visual observing. I remember photographing Comet Hyakutake on a homemade barn door mount with a poorly functioning stepper motor and a film SLR camera. I don't even know where the picture is now, but it was so much less inspiring than the actual view of seeing the comet from that dark sky, stretching overhead like a flashlight beam. 

After that, I decided not to waste good observing opportunities trying to capture something mediocre to take home with me, unless I spend less than a couple minutes doing so out of the apparently primal urge for a tangible keepsake of everything to post on social media.

For me, give me visual every time. I'll find the pretty pictures on the internet—and I do, for placing in my log or notes to go along with my visual descriptions, or just to see what an object can look like to an imaging chip with a lot of computer manipulation.

An inexpensive hand controller for your SynScan mount

I have a Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 150P 6-inch collapsible tabletop telescope, which has become my go-to scope (pun most certainly intended) since I am no longer able to heft my 10-inch Dobsonian around on a regular basis. 

This scope uses the SynScan app to control the mount, which appears to me to be a cheaper version of the AZ-GTi mount. My particular scope's go-to works poorly, so I use the mount strictly for tracking when viewing the Moon and brighter planets from my Bortle 8-ish home. I built a more reliable alt-az tabletop mount that I use for everything else.

The SynScan app (shown at left), in my opinion, is rather poorly rendered and clunky. Beyond that, though, my main dislike is the fact that with any app controlling your mount, you have to look down at your cell phone and use the touchscreen to move the scope around. This makes it difficult to see the effects in the eyepiece and I have found it very frustrating.

To solve that problem, I did some google-fu and found that several people have used game controllers to replace at least some of the commands on the app. All I was looking for was one that would let me control the altitude and azimuth movements with actual buttons that I can feel at night without taking my eye from the eyepiece. 

I didn't want a full size game controller, and found a little mini one that someone mentioned on this Cloudy Nights thread that will indeed work for movement control with my scope. For $5 shipped from Aliexpress (you won't get that low price now), I picked up an 8BitDo Zero 2 keychain-sized mini controller. Its Bluetooth paired easily with both of my cell phones (Google Pixels). 

Now I can control the scope without taking my eye from the eyepiece. What a difference this makes for frustration-free viewing! Because the tracking on my scope is rather poor, I frequently need to recenter the object in the field of view, and this makes it much easier than using the touchscreen on the phone. Panning around on the Moon is much more pleasant. Also, my mount has a tendency every once in a while to go slewing off into the ether somewhere on its own, and this way I can quickly stop it and bring it back under control without fumbling with my cell phone. 

I use it one handed, and it works even if I have thin gloves on or hold it inside my pocket. It does have a steady blue light when connected to the phone's bluetooth, so you might need to keep it in your pocket or tape over the light if you use it around other folks in a darker environment. In my light polluted yard, it makes no difference.

While I can't comment on how well this works with other mounts and apps, for $20 (now the lowest price on Amazon), it might be worth a try. Or if you already have a game controller, try that one. It has made a big difference in the usability of my tracking mount.

How much does amateur astronomy cost?

tl;dr: It costs whatever you have to spare that you want to invest in it.

I was recently reading a thread on the Cloudy Nights amateur astronomy forum in which the poster was complaining how some people are always claiming how expensive amateur astronomy is, when it "really isn't." These threads pop up periodically, and usually follow the same course. (Above: Andrew Magill from Boulder, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Astroboy by Astronomerica)

First, let me comment that many of the most frequent posters on Cloudy Nights seem to mostly be retired engineers, white collar skilled workers, or successful retired "boomers" (full disclosure: I am a retired "boomer") who have fairly large disposable incomes. Often someone will state that compared to expensive motorcycles, high end photography, golf memberships and green fees, high end gaming, skiing equipment and lift fees, and the like, amateur astronomy is cheap. Well, if you look at it that way, it is. Until you buy land out in the boonies and build your own observatory to house your 6" refractor imaging rig. But most of us will never have the money, opportunity, or life situation to do that.

But how about those people, and not just kids, who don't have thousands or even hundreds of dollars to spend on a hobby? I remember when I lived in a 24' travel trailer, had a minimum wage job, and thought that buying a 4.5" Tasco 11TR department store reflector for almost $200 was a huge splurge—and it was for me. By the way, I did start out with $20 Tasco binoculars before I could afford the telescope.

I grew up being frugal and I still am as a matter of principle. Even if I can afford something more expensive, I like to see how much enjoyment I can get out of a less expensive option. That extra 300% in price often only buys a 10% improvement in what really counts: enjoyment. Maybe 1000% will buy a 50% improvement, but that often takes the expense well out of a person's budget range. (Above: At Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area in Central Florida, 1993, with myTasco 11TR department store reflector. Some of the happiest nights of observing in my whole life.)

Hence, with Astronomerica I attempt to demonstrate that it doesn't take a lot of money—whatever that means to you—to enjoy amateur astronomy. We constantly read about "hobby killer" cheap telescopes. That's probably what my 4.5" Tasco was considered by many at the time, yet it helped me develop a hobby that I have enjoyed for the rest of my life, because if you don't approach it from an elitist perspective, it's not a bad scope. 

No one wants to buy crap, but even now there are some decent telescopes for $250 or even less. I just picked up a Svbony SV510 solar telescope (above) for less than $10 new that actually shows sunspots pretty well, even if it's on a very rickety tripod. If that's what you have to start with, then go for it. Just understand the limitations. "Perfect is the enemy of good" (Voltaire).

Many times I read posts where people say for $500 a particular piece of gear is too good of a deal not to buy, even if it's just to try it out. After all, it's "only" $500! Don't we all wish we had that kind of mad money? Others consistently recommend finding a higher quality piece of gear used. But most people don't want to wait weeks, months, or even years for that particular equipment to come up on the used market, just to see it sold to a retired "boomer" engineer before they can even get home from school or work to check the classifieds.

I know from experience that there are ways to get a lot of enjoyment out of amateur astronomy for very little cost.  But as you get more into the hobby it can cost you more. Want to get away from your Bortle 9 city lights out to the country? Better have a car and gas money, or a friend who has both and is also into astronomy (good luck with that). Want to buy that perfect beginner 8-inch Dobsonian? Better have $600, plus a phone with a charting app or money for a star charting book, plus a suitable observing chair, plus good cold weather gear, etc. 

It does get expensive by many people's standards. But do we really need that 8-inch dob as our perfect starter scope that will "serve us well for a lifetime?" No. You can get good binoculars for a third of that price, and "recommended" cheap binoculars for perhaps half of that. Cheaper if you get them on sale, or the price of club dues if you're lucky enough to have a local astronomy club that has some to borrow. (Above: Apertura 8-inch Dobsonian, the "perfect" starter scope for those with $600 to spare.)

While I love forums like Cloudy Nights, Stargazer's Lounge, and Reddit (r/telescopes), there is a strong tendency for the frequent posters to make it sound like if you don't get this or that recommended equipment, then you're making a huge mistake. "Better to buy once and cry once," is the mantra. Easy to say if you have the money on hand to do so. If not, they then suggest you wait and save your money until you can. Depending on your situation, that might take many months, if not years. There really is no reason not to start with whatever modest equipment you have, even if it's a cheap lawn chair, your own eyes, and a bottle of bug spray. (Left: Nikolay Andreyev, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, modified for amateur astronomy FOMO)

I recommend you read those forums but don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to have a pile of high quality equipment to enjoy amateur astronomy. Consider the situations of those making the recommendations, and consider your own situation. One user may have 20 telescopes, 50 eyepieces, and a fountain of experience (who is also the one that tells you "Better to buy once and cry once!"). You don't need to be that person. You aren't that person. You can enjoy the night sky the way you can, given your own means and situation. Don't feel like you're missing out. You're seeing the same things everyone else is. Someone will always have a better view. Don't let that keep you from looking up.

Enjoy the journey, wherever you start and wherever you wind up.

Taking an astronomy trip by air

Whether you're taking a trip purely for astronomy observing, or you'd like to do some observing on the side, having something to magnify your view can really add to the experience. Here I'm not talking about scopes that pack into the car for a drive but ones that you can carry with you on an airplane. That's a big difference. Your standard "grab 'n go" scope may not make a good airline travel scope once you try to put it in your luggage.

When to go

The Southern Cross from Florida in September?
Not gonna happen!
(Naskies at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons)

The most obvious consideration for when to go is to plan it around new moon. Consult an app or website to see when it gets dark and when the Moon rises or sets. If you are likely only to observe during the early part of the night, go within the week before new moon, when the Moon rises in the early morning hours. 

Research your destination and find out what months have the best chances for good observing weather.

Consider what objects you would really like to see. For example, going to the Florida Keys to see the Southern Cross, Omega Centauri, and NGC 5128 won't work in September. Use a charting app such as Sky Safari or Stellarium to see what will be up throughout the night.

Choosing a destination 

First and foremost, you'll want dark skies that have frequent clear nights and good seeing. Harder than finding that, though, is finding a place where there are no local lights to ruin an otherwise great sky. Non-astronomy people will often rave about the great sky, with no attention paid to all-night lighting that would be a deal-killer for astronomers. Even a single LED on a nearby outbuilding can be incredibly annoying.

Unless those traveling with you are as excited about astronomy as you are, and even if they are, it's good to have alternate activities available so everyone is happy and you have some variety. If they aren't into nature and the outdoors, you'll probably be limited to a fairly mediocre sky with lots of lights. Most destinations also have a chance of cloudy nights.

I recommend a place that has a kitchen, so you can prepare your own meals. You won't spend as much money, you'll be able to be set up and ready at dusk, and you'll be able to plan the meals and snacks around your observing and sleeping schedule.

Excepting stays in really posh digs, the largest part of the budget will likely be the air travel. You might find dark skies closer than you think unless you're bent upon seeing the opposite hemisphere. After all, the constellations are the same until you change latitude significantly.

Access to a telescope at your destination

The most convenient travel solution is to have a telescope waiting for you at your destination. You could ship your equipment, but that could be expensive and any delay could ruin your chances to observe. I have read about some people doing this for very distant trips, and maybe that's a decent solution in that case.

Above: The non-profit Reach for the Stars in Tucson, AZ, rents telescopes. Check for telescope stores or astronomy clubs at your destination that might be able to set you up with a telescope.

Some astronomy-suitable vacation rentals (dark sky, minimal light pollution) come with telescopes, but while I was doing research I found that most don't. I think trying to maintain them is more of a hassle than it's worth, except for a very few number of places dedicated to astronomy observing. Most places cater to a wider variety of interests because, let's face it, the market for astronomy vacation rentals is pretty miniscule.

Above: The Marathon Motel Sky Park in Marathon, TX, provides nightly observing programs with their 20" and 24" Dobsonians, as well as powered telescope pads if you bring your own.

Still, if I had a rental property where I knew astronomers would be staying, I would probably have an 8 or 10-inch Dob available because there's not much you could do to break one of those. However, then you have to have a chair and eyepieces and a finder and all that kind of stuff that can be broken, lost  stolen, or ruined fairly easily. So I understand the lack of available equipment.

As a renter, you don't know what kind of shape the equipment is in, or what comes with it. So it's good to bring, at the very least, binoculars, and if you can manage it, a small telescope and a small collection of eyepieces.

On my recent trip to Arizona Sky Village, I had arranged several options for on-site telescopes in advance, including observing with somebody who lived in the area and renting a telescope from a place near the airport. In the end we just used what I had brought with me. I couldn't have even rented an 8 or 10-inch Dob because it would not have fit in the rental car with three of us and all of our luggage!

What makes a good air travel scope

I'm not a refractor guy, not because I don't like them, but because refractors have never really fit into my style of observing. Many people use wide field refractors, for example 80mm refractors, as travel scopes. It seems like a good idea because they're small and relatively lightweight, and many people go that route. Little Maksutovs are also a popular choice, and although they have a limited field of view, they can double as a terrestrial scope with an erecting prism.

For me, it makes more sense to bring a good pair of binoculars than a wide field refractor or "Mak" of small aperture. Binoculars can be used for birding and nature watching in addition to astronomy and don't require much else. And what can be better than lying back while you're observing? See my Bino Body Mount post for a great lightweight mount for binoculars, pictured at left, that you can easily break down and pack in a suitcase.

Therefore, If I'm going to bring a telescope, I want something with as large an aperture as possible because I already have the low power/wide field experience covered with the binoculars. But it's problematic when you have to pack a telescope for a plane trip. 

Do-it-yourselfers have built some pretty incredible travel telescopes with larger apertures. But most of us don't have the skills, the time, or the money for that. Commercial versions are pricey. So we look for mass-produced telescopes that are lightweight and small but pack as much aperture as possible. 

Can a 6-inch be a travel scope? 

I can definitively say yes. I took my collapsible Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTI 150P (6-inch) optical tube assembly (OTA) off its bulky go-to mount and built a travel mount for it. The entire setup weighs about 25 lbs. I took it with me from Virginia to Arizona and back by air and rental car, and was really glad to have that much aperture to appreciate the dark Arizona skies. 

If you want to go with a refractor or Maksutov, fine. You'll need that, a tripod, and some eye pieces, at a minimum. If you want to sit, you'll need some sort of chair you put outside and move around. 

I don't recommend a high-end scope or even a medium-end scope for air travel, because you may never see your luggage again, it may get broken, and even if you carry on the OTA, you still have to pack it well and there's a chance you may end up having to gate check it. 

I packed my OTA in a 22-inch hard shell carry-on suitcase, packing all my warm jackets around it, and it did fine. The mount, tripod table, and associated gear all fit in a 26-inch checked roller suitcase. My wife and I carried on the eyepieces, finderscope, and two pairs of binoculars (15x70 and 10x56) in a case and a small bag that fit under the seats. You can't put lithium batteries in your checked bags, so I carried them in my "personal item" bag that fits under the seat.

For eyepieces, I brought a Celestron Xcel-LX 25mm (30x), an Astro-Tech UWA 10mm (75x), a Svbony 7-21mm zoom, and a Svbony 2x barlow, giving me a range of powers from 30x to 214x, plenty for a 6-inch.

My Sky-Watcher 150P came with a go-to mount, which I wasn't about to take apart, and it was too big to fit in any kind of suitcase I want to be lugging on a plane. I decided to put together a new mount for it, and chose the Svbony SV225 alt-az mount. It's relatively inexpensive, weighs a bit more than 5 lbs., it's sturdy, and can be compacted into a pretty small form factor. I fit it in a plastic shoebox with foam padding. I also built a tripod table which could be broken down flat, upon which I bolted the mount.

The biggest challenge was finding a chair that I could bring with me that was the right height for the telescope. I do not like observing standing up, especially for many hours at a time. The chair I usually use is a big heavy Denver style adjustable chair, which is too big and heavy for airline travel. 

I looked online and finally found a folding tripod chair where each leg folds in half, making it even more compact. It's called a GCI PackSeat. It weighs just over 1 lb. I stuck tennis balls on the bottoms of each leg to keep it from sinking into soft ground, and that worked great. It was just the right height, about 18", for my telescope once I added a stool cushion, fastening it to the chair seat with sheet stays.

Your rental may not have any outdoor chair suitable for use with the telescope, so if you're planning a trip and planning on sitting at your scope, make sure you know what height chair you need, and what they have at your destination, or bring something the right height to sit on.

Don't forget to inquire about reclining chairs if you plan on doing binocular observing. Some people use tripods or monopods, but for me they are tough on the neck for more than a few quick looks well below the zenith. The place I recently rented had Adirondack chairs that worked well.

Sizing it up 

The three main rules for traveling by air are keep it light, keep it compact, and make it easy to assemble and disassemble. If you already have some luggage, it may be fine for your scope and mount/table/tripod. Otherwise buy luggage that will fit what you're designing or buying. I found that a 22-inch hard shell carry-on roller suitcase was the perfect size for the 6-inch collapsible 17-inch long OTA with suitable padding, namely my ski pants, a hoodie, a light down jacket, some gloves, and a hat. 

Try to use stuff you're going to bring anyway for padding rather than packing a lot of foam and dedicated padding. Just make sure it's packed well enough that it's not likely to receive damage under normal handling. 

Someone on Cloudy Nights mentioned they packed their OneSky 5-inch tube in their checked baggage in a duffel bag filled with clothes, and it made it fine. It depends on your own risk aversion how you want to handle that. I feel much more comfortable carrying the OTA on.

Watch your baggage weights and sizes and make sure you stay within the airline's limits. My 26-inch roller suitcase (above) that held the scope mount, table, bino mounts, observing stool, tools, windscreen, and other gear was pretty close to the max limit of 50 lbs. 

Disassembly and assembly

You want to make sure you have all the tools and bolts and other things that you'll need to assemble and take apart your gear. I found it was a good idea to go through the whole disassembly and reassembly process once I had collected all my tools and equipment, using just those things that I would be packing. That way I would immediately recognize if I was missing some key tool or item. 

Bring a few extra critical bolts, screws, washers, and other items in case you drop them and lose them. A single bolt could shut you down if you lose it. If you need a wrench, bring a compact 3/8 inch socket wrench and bring sockets in the right sizes that you'll need. Get a cheap stubby screwdriver if you need one.

Plan for the weather at your destination

Research the environment you're going to be in. For my trip to Arizona Sky Village in late October/early November, I realized based on my research that it was likely to be quite cold at night, possibly going into the mid-30s. Therefore, I made sure I brought plenty of warm layers, wool gloves, headband, hand warmers, and anything else I would normally wear for winter observing. It rained on the last night, and the nearby mountains (left) were covered with snow in the morning. 

I recently got a heated vest that's powered by a pocket power bank. It took up very little space but kept me very warm along with a hoodie and a light down jacket. Use several layers instead of bringing one huge bulky coat. You can add layers as it gets colder.

Even if it's nice and warm during the day, it may get quite cold at night, depending on where you're observing. So do your weather research in advance. 

The Arizona high desert can have some pretty strong winds, so when I went there, I brought a privacy screen I found at a Lidl grocery store (similar to this one) and used that. It worked very well, but I had to replace the cheap steel wire shepherd's hook stakes with aluminum gutter spikes. They were lighter and a bit stronger than the shepherd's hook stakes, which bend if you just look at them wrong. I used a local rock to pound in the stakes. I set the screen up at my local observing site first (above), so I knew how to do it and could evaluate the components.

A wind screen can also double as a light screen in case you encounter some unexpected all-night lighting, or a steady stream of car headlights.

If you will be observing in cold weather, your Mukluk or Sorrel boots are great, but they take up a lot of space in your luggage. Instead, bring chemical hand warmers, for example Hot Hands, and slip one under your toes in each shoe. Unless you're observing in sub-freezing weather, they will keep your toes warm all night. If the warmers are still hot and soft when you're done observing, put them into a Ziploc sandwich bag to cut the air off, and you'll be able to reuse them the next night. I used one pair of hand warmers three consecutive nights doing that, wearing them for probably a total of 12 hours.

Observing

Bring whatever charts you're going to need, whether on an app or if you use paper charts. Don't forget a red light for when you're moving around or reading at night. Pack some spare batteries and a small charger if you think you'll need one, as well as wall chargers and charging cables. Even a non-electric setup probably has some requirements for juice. 

If you're going to be going in and out of a brightly lit house, room, or cabin, you can get a pair of red goggles that are used for laser work to protect your night vision when you go in for a snack or go to the bathroom. The darker the sky, the more important it is to protect your night vision.

What finder scope are you going to use? I packed my RACI finder with my eyepieces in a carry-on bag. I wrapped each one in bubble wrap.

Make a list of those objects that you really want to see. Maybe they're ones that you can't see from your light polluted home or typical observing site, or ones that are perhaps further south than you can ever view from home. Make sure they're reasonably high above the horizon at some point during the night from your destination location.

Above: Sky Safari Pro allows you to make your own observing lists. I made one for my recent trip to Arizona. Easy to load it in the app and cruise around to view your "must see" objects.

Dealing with an "oops"

It's a good idea to bring a small bottle of alcohol or lens cleaner and some q-tips and lens tissues. You might end up dropping an eyepiece in the dirt, as I did, and it's great to be able to just clean it right off and go right back to observing. See Televue's instructions on cleaning optics.

I brought a roll of white duct tape. I flagged the guy lines for the windscreen with them, which allowed us to see them easily at night so we didn't trip over them. I also made a repair to a plastic box that got broken on the outbound flight.