I am not the most serious amateur astronomer around. I know this because I bought a Mazda Miata fully aware that my beloved 10" Discovery telescope would not fit inside - even with the top down. At the time I figured that perhaps I would buy a trailer to tow behind the car with the scope and all my gear. After a while I realized that the trailer idea wasn't going to work. There just wasn't room to store a trailer in the communal garage of my building. Plus, the last thing I wanted to do after a late night of observing was to have to mess with the trailer when I got home. I needed to buy or build a telescope that would fit the car.
I've read that the trunk of the 2001 Mazda Miata holds roughly 5 cubic feet. At its greatest height, the trunk is less than 12" tall. So it seemed that I would be lucky if I could get an 8" scope (with a 10" diameter tube) in there. However my friend Mike turned me on to a web site that gave me new hope. It is the Miatascope web site, and it changed my perspective on everything.
First the Miatascope demonstrated that a 10" truss tube Dob could fit in the trunk of a Miata. Second, the detailed plans for an all-wood telescope convinced me that I could build a copy of it. Granted it wouldn't be as easy to setup as my two-piece 10" Discovery Dob, but at least I wouldn't have to loose aperture just because of the car I bought.
With the Miatascope site came a little bit of mind poison though. It links to the Flavio Scope web site. Flavio was able to improve the design of the Miatascope and make an 11" version while he was at it. Easy to see where this is heading. If Flavio could do an 11", I wanted to try to build a 12.5". I never dreamed that eventually I would be able to build a 15".
Back to the Miatascope home page.
Last updated 8/6/05