Pier alternative

[Stinky_Pete]

In a long running struggle to get a permanent scope setup in the back garden past the missus i have come up with a way of limiting the amount of time it takes to set up a tripod and reasonable polar alignment. This seems to work ok for my CG-5, the autoguider seems to be able to cope with the slight miss polar alignment each session. All it takes are 3 house bricks and a masonry drill.

First, setup and level your tripod in the part of your garden you do most of your viewing/imaging from. Get a rough polar alignment as you would normally do. Using tent pegs (or sticks, forks or biros....whatever) mark as close as possible on the ground where the tripod ends for each of the legs (the little nipple bit is best). When you pack your scope away, do not drop the legs....leave them the length you normally use. You can either store the mount still with the legs out, or remove the spreader and collapse the legs (keeping them at the same extension length). Next day, go and find your tent pegs. Dig a 6" ish cube of soil out and place a vertical brick into the hole . The top of the brick should be just level or a little bit below the level of the grass. Put the soil back in around the brick, making sure to pack it in tightly. You should have a discreet 3 brick platform for your mount and when you place the mount on the bricks it will be very roughly still aligned. Now wait till the stars are back out. Marking the position of the ends of the tripods legs with a marker pen or chalk, run through your polar alignment routine again. I use my DSLR to help me find alignment (please read http://www.astronomy-pictures.com/Zeroing%20it%20in.%20Using%20a%20DSLR%20or%20CCD%20to%20Align%20Your%20Scope.pdf). you should be pretty close to spot on now. Finally, next day when you have packed everything away (leaving legs at the setup length) go out and using a large masonry drill, drill 3 shallow holes into the bricks. The ends of the legs should pop into the holes nice and snug.

i normally find that only a few tweaks of alignment are needed each session for phd to cope. you can still mow over them and the missus still has her nice garden.

jobs a good'urn

s

[Mercury]

I did a similar thing on my drive. I set up, polar aligned and marked the tripod foot positions on the concrete.

I then used a 16mm masonry drill to create the dimples in the concrete.

I used to use a better viewing position on the lawn but walking on the wet grass kind of ruined the lawn.

David

[ScubaMike]

Done this with washers on my patio instead of drilling holes.

Easier to move if neccesary (just chisel them up).

[skybadger]

I did something like this with three pipes full of concrete let into the lawn, just below the grass level and sunk down to the clay line.

The concrete lent mass and the ability to hold an embedded mortar anchor. The stand just dropped over the top - actually it stayed there all the time until the lawn needed mowing.

It works, its stable and long term too.

Mike