a pier question.

[starship trooper]

hi there,

I am looking to build a pier and have seen this one How to...build a back-garden telescope pier | Sky at Night Magazine

and was wondering if building a pier like this is good and sturdy because i would be looking to do imaging with it and it will be carrying a heq5 and a sw200pds?

Will it suffer with vibrations ?

I will be building a observatory around it at a latter date but at the moment i am looking to speed up my setting up and also would it be ok to leave the mount out there and cover it like in the how to with a bin?

If anybody has any pics of similar pier i would like to see them thanks.

All help appreciated cheers dazz

[Bizibilder]

I'm sure that a pier like that would work fine - however I would suggest making the concrete block in the ground at least 2' cube (2'6" cube would be better!).

Personally I believe in the "bolted down" type pier for two reasons, firstly you can build, modify or replace your pier at anytime and secondly you can simply remove it should you want to or if you should move house (OK the below ground concrete will still be there but a meter high solid concrete "bird table" is not necessarily a good selling point!).

My own pier was made by a "steel fabricator" - I did most of the cutting and drilling - he welded it together. As it was made from his "scrap" material it cost little - I think it was around £40 for the metal and £25 for the welding.

I have appended a pic of mine - before painting! (Its 1m tall and 5.5" diameter)

Edit - Another point in favour of steel over concrete is that you can drill/tap steel for any attachments or modifications - trickier to do with concrete.

[starship trooper]

I.had looked at the steel ones and didnt realize they could.be made that cheaply what is it like for vibrations ?

Also I dont have full views all around my attended site is that ok for viewing and maybe do drift alignment because I dont see the horizons either way?

Cheers

[Bizibilder]

Its as solid as a rock! I've never had vibration problems (it is filled with "playsand" to stop high frequency ringing) the weakest link in my set up is the dovetail/mount clamping bolts (as far as I can tell).

Don't worry about seeing all around - you can align your scope Ok - Can you see polaris? That helps with basic polar alignment but is not essential.

[starship trooper]

oh yes i can see polaris thats not a problem i think i shall go looking for some scrap tubing i work in between a scrap metal merchants and a steel fabricators so hopefully should find something.

Cheers dazz

[starship trooper]

What is the minimum od it tube should I be looking to use.

[Bizibilder]

Use as large a diameter as you can - wall thickness is less critical (within reason). I would say a minimum is around 4" or 100mm. However you can make thin tube stiffer by adding bracing welded along the length (see pic of mine above - mine is 5.5" or 140mm OD tube with 5mm wall thickness).

[starship trooper]

Cheers bizibilder