Latitude adjusted pier...

[Vic&Al]

Hi all,

After being inspired by an article in A.N. Magazine I have been toying with the idea of a pier that is set to my latitude. This would alleviate any potential of clashes with the scope & pier.

I have drawn up some plans and it would consist of a base which points south and is set @ 70 degrees with an adjustable articulated 'knuckle' which points north and is set to my latitude. Atop of which would sit my mount.

I would need to remove the bottom latitude section of the EQ6 and adapt the top of the pier to receive the mount.

Also as the RA axis would now be central to the pier the polar scope would be now inside it, I plan to extended and have a correcting prism attached to enable polar alignment through the side of the pier.

I will post some plans when I get back home and take the measurements on the EQ6 (using the old pencil and scale ruler at the min & don't have the EQ6 to hand). I know this all sounds a bit ambitious but on paper at least it is not quite as complex as it seems.

Any comments, views or similar setups?

[Tinker1947]

Dunno if any of these would be ok to sit at the top of the pier, going to the wife into a fix pier in the garden, she really needs one....

lathe face plate - SupaPrice.co.uk

[Horwig]

A very interesting idea, I was playing with the same idea before I bought an old Beacon Hill fork, is this ASA mount the sort of thing you have in mind?

Huw

[Vic&Al]

Huw; that is the sort of thing I had in mind, although the EQ6 would sit up on top. That ASA is one expensive piece of kit!!

Tinker; that looks just the thing for attaching to the base for adjustments in azimuth. The top of the pier on the other hand would need a fork type fitting to receive the EQ6 mount

Adjustment for the Azimuth & Latitude constructed from simple threaded bar and nuts/washers, I think the whole setup could be done for a couple hundred quid tops.

Sorry for the crude quality of the images but you get the general idea....

[Horwig]

That looks good, should work fine. My idea was to make it out of 100mm square rhs steel, 6mm section, weld both halves together at the correct angle, and put fine adjustment at the base.

In theory, if you make your own kit you don't need to give it such a range of latitude adjustment as a commercial mount.

All the best with it

Huw

[Vic&Al]

Cheers I did give some thought to the adjustment side of things and as they are necessary its actually easier to make the pier with a larger range of movement than a small adjustment. Also if I move house I can reset the latitude to suit.

My design is based on 200mm box section that my existing pier is made from, quite a bit of fabrication involved but nothing too technical.