Bringing a telescope to Spain

Hi, I´m looking for some advice on how to go about getting a telescope to Spain. I bought one here last year but have barely used it and I am thinking about bringing it to Spain and leaving it there. I have an apartment out there.

I´ve looked at shipping or taking it myself by car but both are very expensive. Maybe, I´d be better off selling it here and trying to buy a new one out there.

Anybody already done something similar? Any advice is welcome.

Thanks.

Out of curiosity Martin, what scope is it that you have this conundrum with?

Seanie.

Hi, I suppost it depends on how big it is, do you have a solid case for it? you could get it on a plane, exceedingly well wrapped if by cargo and take the hit on the expense.

Just avoid a suitcase under ANY circumstances, I learned a lesson with that one before If you want to sell, how important is it to you?

Keith..

Hi, it is a Celestron Omni XLT 120 with a CG4 tripod. Large enough and weights about 21kg.
If I sold it here I would replace it with an identical one over there. So far, that seems to be the cheapest way to do this.
Martin.

Have a look in the golden pages (or preferably web) and search for "Groupage" - possibly under Transport. Some companies sell spare capacity in containers that ply certain routes around Europe. Some specialise in this and not all cover the same routes. I had my dobsonian shipped from England this way after no regular courier would take it. I don't recall the details now - someone arranged that for me.

As an example I just searched the Web (in google - search string: +groupage +ireland +spain - click the "search ireland" button or append "site:.ie" without the quotes to your search string.

I found
www.celticfwd.ie/roadfreight/
www.intlog.ie/services_road_freight.htm

Its harder than searching for pizza - but they're there.

While I can't actually vouch for these two companies they are examples of what is out there.

My understanding is that as the load becomes larger groupage becomes more competive (if you wanted to ship an engine that would be the way to go). At telescope / mount scale the saving might not be huge but it should be cheaper than other options (except sell and re-purchase your scope which might make sense in the end).

For your enquiries - ask about insurance - when I used groupage insurance was costed in.

I wish I could elaborate more but that's the sum of my knowledge on this method.

Best of luck.

Mark