Standards have changed over the years. Russell Porter used to say that the relationship of a telescope to it's mount, mass-wise, should be the same as that of the hands of a clock to it's works (old-time, mechanical). As a teenager, I would haul around an 8-inch f/7 on this same heavy-duty Astrola mount, with 1.5" steel shafts, in the back of my mom's station wagon. And I never thought twice about the weight. The scope broke-down into segments; I think the heaviest, the equatorial head itself sans counterweight, is something like 40 lbs. No big deal, really. Even today, with me on the wrong side of 50, I still don't mind dealing with a 50-lb. component once in a while. If I were out observing every other night, I'd definitely go for something lighter, like a SCT on a fork. Joe, that 12.5" Meade would definitely fit in a long-bed Jeep. I think Alpine Stringham still hauls around a "classic" Newtonian on one of those battleship mounts, once in a while. But as I mentioned, if I had one myself, it would be permanently mounted in a back yard observatory. On 7/20/10, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> wrote:
How much does it weigh? I don't think I could stick it in the back of my Jeep .... Joe