Bags and Cases
An annoyance of the otherwise-excellent SkyMax-102 AV is that neither SkyWatcher nor any other company produces any customised case or bag for its main components: telescope, mount and tripod. For hours on end I performed web searches and comparisons of what is available here in Europe, looking for bags/cases that are affordable, protecting and as lightweight as possible. I hope that my efforts will be useful to readers of this webpage.
TELESCOPE BAG. Best protection is afforded by an aluminium case, but these do not come in the shape needed by a Maksutov 102mm telescope tube: you need a case that is about 20cm in its smaller dimension to provide for the necessary internal padding. Inevitably, you end up with an expensive and heavy piece of equipment. Therefore, I opted instead for a flexible padded bag: not easy to find either in the necessary size, and eventually I found a match among bags meant for large photographic zoom lenses. The specs of the PROfoto Trend/JJC DLP-7II looked like a perfect fit for our SkyMax-102. This is an elegant and lightweight foam-protected cylinder, and its internal diameter matches exactly the telescope's external one: 120mm. However, we have to deal with the protrusions from the SkyMax-102 telescope cylinder. The telescope's green attachment base is easy to fit towards a vertical section of this bag, slightly extending beyond the strictly cylindrical shape. However, the telescope's finder mount does not fit, and I had to make two vertical cuts in the internal plastic lining of the bag, in order to remove (carefully) a section of about 9x5cm from the white foam padding. Not too elegant but functional. Finally the PROfoto case is 1cm shorter than needed, and therefore the eyepiece-mount and the focusing knob do not fit: you need to cut an opening for them into the foam inside the cover. leaving only the external black cloth to cover the eyepiece mount. Why did not I buy a very slightly larger telephoto bag? Because I could not find any!
I used the JJC bag for a few weeks: very lightweight and practical to carry around, but it required some work to take the telescope out, and sometimes the large cap would remain inside and I would even touch the large lens with a finger! Eventually I found the Cinmaul Cylinder Military Barrel Bag. This one is carried (and opens) horizontally, not vertically. It exceeds every dimension in just 1cm or 1/2in., perfect for lining its interior with bubble wrap or rubber foam. It comes in either black colour (which I got in order to match my other bags) and brown (shown in the picture, allowing to see better the details)
TRIPOD BAG. In spite of extensive search I failed to find one that fits exactly the required 78x17x17cm. So I bought the Neewer 31"x7"x8"/80x18x20cm Padded Carrying Bag for tripods. Please note that although some recent buyers praised the padding, others (included myself) have found that the unit came with no padding at all. This bag is a few centimetres too large in every dimension, but it fits the bill. Since there is no padding, I covered the bag's “floor” with some of the bubble-wrap that came with the telescope. This bag has a small internal pouch stitched to a more resistant external pouch where I store the Avant counterweight: the balance bar protrudes a little from this pocket. Life is not perfect!
ACCESSORIES CASE. This is needed to carry the small accessories that come with the telescope, as well as others you add, as seen in our Eyepieces and Lenses and Telescope Accessories webpages. l put the items on a table and found that the minimum internal case dimensions were 38x28x8cm. I had to search a lot, because the foam-filled aluminium bags are hard to find in this size: most of them weigh over 2 kg and are expensive. Eventually I found the PeakTech P7265, with internal size 38 x 27 x 8.5 cm, less than 1 kg of weight and customisable foam padding, where diagonals, eyepieces, filters, compass, CMOS camera and other items fitted like a glove.
Three years later, having replaced most eyepieces and the 90ยบ diagonal and added a few pieces, it looked like this:
Larger items such as finders, solar filter, focusing mask, binoculars and slow-motion cables require a larger case, as shown further below.
MOUNT AND FINDERS CASE. As we commented earlier, the tripod attaches easily to the extension tube, but it requires a few steps and careful attention to attach the latter to the Avant mount. Clearly, tube and mount are meant to be stored together, weighing over 3 kg. I first tried using the mount's original solid foam protection, adapting it for the attached tube, and inserting the contraption into a bag: I stored there also, in separate cardboard boxes, the “larger items” I mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Problem is, as soon as I started going out with the telescope, this plethora of small boxes was less than practical in the darkness. Clearly it was much better to have an aluminium case large enough for all these items. I found that the largest case made by good-and-affordable PeakTech, the PeakTech P7310 (see picture below), with internal size 44.5 x 31.5 x 13 cm, was perfect. This one has two layers of customizable foam padding: expect to have a few hours of difficulty—also lots and fun!—adapting the foam to your items. If any of the small foam blocks becomes loose (which is often the case), simply apply a drop of contact cement. Finally, please note that you may—if you prefer—store the mount and tube together but not attached to each other, so that you can use the mount leaving in the case the tube.
The flexibility of this case was also demonstrated when at a later stage I modified the foam padding to add the TS Optics RDA finder, the large Celestron NexYZ smartphone adapter and a red torch, as shown below. A bit crammed perhaps, but functional!
