What do you sit on at a remote dark site when looking through a large (say, 22" and up) telescope pointed high? My adjustable chair goes to ~40" (1 m), and it is enough to observe near the zenith with my low-profile f/4.5 16". Since for me this height means that one foot can remain on the ground, stability is acceptable. However I imagine that a ladder contraption on which one can sit to observe with a large scope near the zenith and which is acceptably stable on not exactly even, grassy, or snow-covered ground may easily become the least transportable part of the whole setup! After all, what we are talking about here, for serious visual observing, is a mounting for a 200-lb detector (a 100-kg "camera"), albeit for short subexposures Large telescopes I've seen required standing when the target was high, even in an observatory - and the question I have is about a transportable solution.
Last edited by Ivan Maly; June 19th, 2014 at 02:23 PM.
Sitting at a large telescope in the field
Large telescopes I've seen required standing when the target was high, even in an observatory - and the question I have is about a transportable solution.
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