Portable Pier

[PhilM]

Hi all. I'm seriously looking at buying a portable pier - our new place is too small to keep the EQ6 in the house (I'm not joking). The upside is I have some pretty good skies. I'm looking for any thoughts...

1. Which pier? The portable piers from Epsilon look pretty good and the adjustable foot heights are essential as I do not have even ground and rent so can't lay a nice concrete base BUT this works out at about £400. Altair astro do a cheaper one but I wonder if it is as good quality... Any experience of these or other portable piers??

2. I'm slightly worried about security. It will be out front on our parking area covered with a telegizmo cover so will be very visible. The upside is we live in a building on a farm so there is no passing traffic - just the odd workman etc. While slightly worried about this it seems a gamble versus nothing while we live here but I'd be interested to hear if anyone has actually heard of anyone getting a mount nicked before...?

Any ideas / thoughts appreciated

Phil.

[saturn]

Hi Phil

Me and my mate make various astro parts.

The attached pic shows a pier with an EQ5 mount on it. It has adjustable legs the tube is 4 1 inches wide and can be made to any height. It is heavy and awkard to be carried off. I can send you more pics if you like.

I am in Oxford by the way.

Cheers Matt

(click to enlarge)

[iancandler]

The skywatcher pedestal/pier isnt that bad Phil, it comes with wheels fitted to the underside of the legs so is easy to wheel out of a garage etc, and the feet at the end are adjustable.

With a little blob of hot melt glue over the allen bolt heads and a cable lock, locking it onto a solid fixture it can be pretty secure as well. Though you could just leave the pedestal outside and bring the mount head indoors.

The other thing that can be done is it can be locked in place on concrete using rawl bolts or studs.

Mine spent from last autumn to this summer outside under a tele gizmo 365 cover without ill effect at all, in fact I left my CG5 motorised head on all that time as well without issue.

[PhilM]

Cheers guys, that's helpful and reassuring. In other houses I've been burgled several times and had a couple of bikes nicked etc so I'm pretty cautious. It doesn't seem the most obvious thing to nick when there is nice farm machinery and diggers etc lying around here and the weight of it is a good point as well. Good point also about taking just the head off - maybe leave it on for the week or so when the moon is out of the way.

2 more mounts to consider there as well, so cheers.

Ian, I remembered your review of the telegizmo cover from a while back and reread it recently - will definitely get one of them.

Given that I usually image with a focal length of 1200mm I need something pretty sturdy - any ideas if the Epsilon is likely to be worth the extra? Or what do I need to look for to determine how sturdy one of these things will be?

Cheers,

Phil.

[iancandler]

My own pedestal is currently fitted with a CG5GT, dual mount bar, a celestron C6, Zs66, along with finders, 2 x qhy 5 camera's, 1kg dslr.. I dont have any issues with it at all.. it stays rock solid.

[Nostromo]

Hi Phil the Atair Astro 8" steel pier is way too heavy to be used as a portable pier.

It has a round baseplate, with 4 holes for J bolts which are anchored in concrete. It does not have legs.

Best regards, Nick

[Pauln]

Hi,

the Epsilon stuff is brilliant, I know Rob and he does a superb job. He will also be able to make any changes you need, everything is made to order.