Mounting telescopes permanently on motorhome for easier astrophotography setup - Forums

Topic starter

6 days ago

Greetings all,

I’m an avid “traveler” that drives around 1 hour to access the best sky in my country for all my sessions (bortle 4). The way that I managed to do that is to store all of my astrophotography equipment permanently in my car’s trunk with foam/original packaging protecting it. That has made it easier for me to travel during weekends without the need to pack up my stuff, it is always there for me ready to go.

Now im considering upgrading to a motor home, this will help me photograph during weekdays as well, as i can sleep comfortably and once im done i can head to work right away. However I’m thinking of ways to have my telescopes somehow installed safely on the motorhome (telescope mounted on tracker and pier with cameras etx )and “roll them” off and on the caravan with everything installed, polar align then start shooting. That would significantly reduce my setup time and make the whole trip easier.

Now how can that be done? Has anyone done this successfully? Is it safe for the equipment? I know that there are some solutions for a mobile observatory trailers that have piers that isolate from trailers, however they are quite expensive - what i thought to be practical would be to have a motor home that would make sitting the desert (during hot days and cold days) all night way more enjoyable and doable during weekdays

Main concerns for me are:

If the setups are kept in a standing position and secured somehow from rolling over, vibrations from roads/ potholes would be dangerous on the gears/optics

If the setups are kept on a sleeping position on some sort of foam to support it from potholes and vibrations etc (kind of what im doing now, however everything will be installed) how can it be put in that position/retrieved safely? Given the weight and all

The equipment i have is quite heavy. First setup account probably 90~ kgs total. 150 Esprit skywatcher on a EQ8 with 2 counterweights and the original (heavy) EQ8 pier

Second one is redcat 91 on an eq6 with 2 counterweights. Around 60 kgs

Appreciate the help if anyone out there has solved this, also i’d love to hear opinions of people with more knowledge on mount internals/ optics on how this can be done safely.

Thanks

Dunk

6 days ago

Not a serious response, but worth a giggle:

https://youtu.be/5A3D06D97jo?si=COSKSFPCfZuBnrST

andrea tasselli

Frequent contributor

6 days ago

Don't fuss about the mounts as they aren't at risk from standard driving loads. In fact probably they can take a lot more. As an example I crashed my car once (ehm, ehm…) with two complete setups in the trunk and while the car was totalled both optics and mounts were just as good as new (lost a counterweight though, as it spun through the rear window never to be seen again). If I may object to something is to put a 90cm refractor on a EQ6, way way over the top. You really need to travel lighter.

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Rabeea Alkuwari

Topic starter

6 days ago

Dunk · Jan 5, 2026 at 07:29 AM
Not a serious response, but worth a giggle:
https://youtu.be/5A3D06D97jo?si=COSKSFPCfZuBnrST

I have seen this, awesome video! to me it doesnt seem like a setup like this would be ideal. The telescopes are still attached to the car, any gust of wind would move the telescope in a major way The way to have something like this work is to have a pier disconnection method, just like how mobile observatory solutions have made. However, still an awesome video

Rabeea Alkuwari

Topic starter

6 days ago

andrea tasselli · Jan 5, 2026 at 07:36 AM
Don't fuss about the mounts as they aren't at risk from standard driving loads. In fact probably they can take a lot more. As an example I crashed my car once (ehm, ehm…) with two complete setups in the trunk and while the car was totalled both optics and mounts were just as good as new (lost a counterweight though, as it spun through the rear window never to be seen again). If I may object to something is to put a 90cm refractor on a EQ6, way way over the top. You really need to travel lighter.

The eq6 was a mount that I already had prior to the redcat. I actually bought it originally for the 150 refractor and then I had upgraded to an eq8 for that setup.

Im quite happy with the overkill of the eq6. Tracking is amazing and very stable throughout the night.

ScottF

5 days ago

So if I understand the question, you want the entire setup on the pier and ready to go and only need to move it out of the motor home, polar align and a way you go. I would think it would be very bad for the gears being locked in place and bouncing around on roads. You might mitigate that with a lot of foam, but I wouldn’t do it. I’d have it in three parts, scope and setup with padding, the mount alone, and counterweights. That way no gears banging around.

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Rick Krejci

5 days ago

The only thing I can think of is something like a scopebugge/wheeley bar setup tied down while traveling (and the wheels will absorb the vibrations) and then a wheelchair lift to raise and lower it. I assume the door would need to be enlarged. Probably talking about a company that mods vans/motorhomes for wheelchair access would be best.

I have my whole mount (Mach 2, TOA-130 side by side with Ultracat 108) on a medium wheeley bar with the hard wheels and wheel it all out from my garage to the driveway. I then have a hand jack and put it up on 3 6×6 blocks for stability. Takes me under 10 minutes to roll out, set up and polar align with the polar scope. Then I go inside.

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Richard Mak

5 days ago

Watch this on “The Astro Imaging Channel”, an imaging trailer set-up:

https://www.youtube.com/live/d_Vi4eAZwj8

William Sweeney

4 days ago

📷 ChatGPT Image Aug 21, 2025, 10_55_59 AM.pngI looked into mobile observatories recently, And got AI to help me out….. Seriously I think there are many considerations when thinking of mounting sensitive equipment to a moving vehicle, I would suggest serious damping of the rig to prevent damage. At the very least extendable legs to jack the vehicle up to make it a stable platform.

Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

4 days ago

I would not directly transmit driving vibration, g-forces and other loads to a locked down and parked setup. It’s just a bad idea. Honestly, I’m sure you could design and have fabricated a solution or buy one but I really don’t think it’s worth it. We had the same problem at a museum I worked at. There was a mobile observatory built out of an old tracking station from White Sands. The idea was to haul it around to do astronomy outreach. The short story is, it just wasn't practical. Even if you jacked up the whole thing you couldn’t be inside when in operation. I’m afraid that sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.

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Rabeea Alkuwari

Topic starter

4 days ago

Tony Gondola · Jan 6, 2026, 05:34 PM
I would not directly transmit driving vibration, g-forces and other loads to a locked down and parked setup. It’s just a bad idea. Honestly, I’m sure you could design and have fabricated a solution or buy one but I really don’t think it’s worth it. We had the same problem at a museum I worked at. There was a mobile observatory built out of an old tracking station from White Sands. The idea was to haul it around to do astronomy outreach. The short story is, it just wasn't practical. Even if you jacked up the whole thing you couldn’t be inside when in operation. I’m afraid that sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.

If what u’re trying to do is to shoot inside of the trailer with a roll off roof (if my understanding is correct) then the pier has to isolate from the trailer and descend down. I’ve seen some solutions like this however it is quite expensive. Planewave is working on a solution like (bought with their CDK14 and Alt Az mount), it would cost ~100k USD as per my correspondence with them.

What I’m inquiring on is sort of different where the telescope setup is permanently stored inside a trailer and rolled off safely to shoot

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Rabeea Alkuwari

Topic starter

4 days ago

Richard Mak · Jan 5, 2026, 09:32 PM
Watch this on “The Astro Imaging Channel”, an imaging trailer set-up:
https://www.youtube.com/live/d_Vi4eAZwj8

awesome talk that has given me lots to think about. Thanks for sharing!