Adjustable height pier

[Damienandwendy]

I am thinking of using some height adjustable piers for public viewing sessions where we a aiming to present to kids as well as adults with up to 6 telescopes.
It doesn't seem that too many people are using these. The only "astro" dedicated vendor I have found is Pier-Tech in the US but at $2500 for the basic pier that's a bit pricey. http://www.pier-tech.com/pier-tech2_telescope_pier.htm

I am also waiting for some prices from some Australian distibutors to see how much they might be locally - Linak and Motiontech.

Does anyone have any experiences with this sort of pier ?

cheers

[Damienandwendy]

No one uses or has used one ?

I would have thought that there would be a few experimental types here at IIS that would have played with one :)

The only link to anyone on IIS looking at one was Hagar back in 2008.

I see a height adjustable pier as being quite useful depending on if you are observing with a school group or a group of adults. Not having to worry about people tripping over or falling off small steps/ladders is also a plus.

cheers

[DavidTrap]

I would hazard the guess that many of us are after stability for astro-imaging, so an pier that "telescopes" up and down would need to be very well engineered, and rather expensive as a consequence. I believe there is an historic observatory in the US where the floor rises and falls to allow observation through the eyepiece...

DT

[Tinderboxsky]

Hi Damien,

I have had the same idea in the back of my mind for a while - a simple height adjustable pier for visual observations would work well at public viewing sessions etc.

My thoughts have centered around adapting the lifting and clamping mechanism from a medium/large sized drill press to create something like a rotary clothes line lift. Older type drill presses have quite fine tolerances in their engineering and I think it could be made quite stable for visual work. I have a workshop at home, so the adaption should not cost much.

I am on the lookout for a suitable old drill press at the moment - they go quite cheaply if the motor is broken down.

This might trigger some other "left field" solutions for you.

Cheers

Steve.

[h0ughy]

scroll through this you will find it (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=54892&highlight=doghouse)

[scopey]

Damienandwendy
I have made an adjustable pier for a mate of mine out of a Linak lift tower.It will lift 100 Kgs,and it is very accurate. The image does not move even on high power.Hope this helps. scopey

[Damienandwendy]

Thank you Gents,

I am quite keen to investigate at least a couple of height adjustable mounts out of the 6 pier mounted scopes we might be looking at. On the other hand if they are not significantly more expensive then a basic pier it may be just as easy to make them all height adjustable.

Good to see others have had success.

cheers