Telescope Piers and Adapters

[ferozious]

G'day one and all,
Been a member of these forums for about 12mths now, always lurking, reading and digesting helpful information from what I reckon is one of the best sites around. Congats and thanks to Iceman!:thumbsup:
Unfortunately, I never thought I had anything worthwhile to contribute to this community, hence this being my first post. Hopefully, it'll be far from my last.
A bit about myself. A married 45yo amatuer (more likely novice) astronomer living on the Gold Coast. Also enjoy computers, internet, games, sailing, cooking, eating, drinking, etc...
My equipment includes an 8" f5 newt, 8" mak, a couple of EQ5 mounts, one with goto, crummy aluminium tripod, more recent sturdy steel tripod, some generic EP's and an old Quickcam.
Always wanted to get more into astrophotography, but find it such a hassle dragging all the gear out into the backyard, painstakingly setting it up, then putting it all away again in the dark. There's got to be a better way, I thought. So, I started looking around for a pier. About as rare as hen's teeth out here in OZ, and what I could find OS cost an arm and a leg, plus shipping! Anyway, did a bit more research and digging around the 'net, then thought "Bugger it, I'll make 'em myself".
So, after a bit of R & D (trial and error), and with a bit of help from Ron at Sirius Optics at Underwood, Qld, I've started producing some piers and adapters for sale. Initially in 2 flavours, one suitable for EQ5 mounts, the other for LX 200's and the like. Have included some sample pics below. They are also available to view and purchase from Sirius.
Really interested in what you guys have to offer in the way of opinions or advice.
Thanks,
Steve Bain

[Dennis]

Hi Steve

Welcome! This is a great place to be, learn and share stuff as well as have fun with a fine bunch of like minded amigos.

The piers look well designed, engineered and manufactured. I'll drop in and see Ron to have a look.

Cheers

Dennis

[Striker]

Great looking Pier Steve.

I just hope that roof slides off otherwise it was not a wize position for the pier....lol

[h0ughy]

mmm got my interest, how much for a Eq6 version?? or two? What turn around time are we looking at. Does it come with steak knives. Seriously I am after one!!!!!

[h0ughy]

oh sorry. Hello steve and welcome.

[h0ughy]

if the price was right would I be able to get one by November?

[ferozious]

G'day again,
Just thought you may be interested in the specs for the pier pictured.
For an idea of scale, this pier is 900mm in height, another 50mm with adapter plate. I am 6'2" tall (188cm).
All piers will be supplied with adapter plate (not extra like some)
Piers are mig welded 6061 aluminium
All nuts and bolts are stainless steel
150mm dia, 6mm wall round tube
top plate and adapter plate 215mm dia x 10mm thick plate
base plate 251mm dia x 10mm thick
top gussetts 6mm x 32mm x 128mm
base gussetts 6mm x 50mm x 200mm
total weight 9.4kg
Current lead time is around 2 - 3 weeks
Price for this pier will be under $500 from Sirius Optics

Houghy:
Will be looking at making an adapter plate for the EQ6 ASAP.
Pics will be posted for that one soon.

Am working on a couple of designs suitable for the LX200's which sould be finished within a week or so, pics to follow. Also hope to have this one independantly tested and reviewed, stay tuned.
For any other info that I've overlooked, please post in here or message or email me.
Cheers all,
Steve Bain

[iceman]

The piers look great, Steve! Great to see you with the first post, finally! :)

[h0ughy]

mate I will PM my email and contact addresses. I am more than interested I want one, but maybe a little taller, not sure yet, will measure up and stuff. Most photography will be either side of zenith so need gear to get to that and be comfortable for me.

[h0ughy]

I am a happy camper, pier in the pipeline! steve I still have to measure the height.

[AstroJunk]

I have a fantastic pier made by Lex in Star Optics on the gold coast for an HEQ5 (Lex machined his out for his EQ6) if you need something transportable. $450, and is an immense improvement over the tripod!

It's great to see some piers coming onto the market - they make a massive difference - not that I use my eq anymore!!!

[iceman]

Sell me your HEQ5 then AJ! :)

[AstroJunk]

I may have to - to fund a GSO 16" grab'n'go travel scope idea i'm brewing!

[ferozious]

G'day again guys,
Although the first pier I made was made to measure for an EQ5, Ron from Sirius Optics tells me he has had a HEQ5 on it with absolutely no modifications needed. Will also take a LX55 with very minor modification. Am almost finished a pier and adapter plate for the LX200 mounts and the EQ6 will be next. Anyone with any ideas as to what other mounts are popular, please let me know. Ta,
Steve Bain

[h0ughy]

Steve,

the pier height should be 1100mm for me. Tell me if you want a deposit or full payment soon. Centre bolt for mount is 12mm 1.75 pitch as you suggested, bought a bolt this afternoon to test it.

Looking forward for this I can tell you.

[g__day]

Steve,

Welcome aboard. As someone who just made his own pier (I got a friend to do the MIG welding and have yet to add the stablising fins) I think that is a rather reasonable price. Suggest you design it to suit Celestron mounts too (a CG5 is just a variation on an eq5 design I'd guess).

Nice workmanship.

[JohnH]

Getting tired of the setup/teardown and cannot afford an observatory ... a pier sounds like a good compromise.Being based in Sydney I guess shipping cost is going to kill this off as an option for me?

[ferozious]

G'day all,
Just did some checking on the Australia post website, nowhere near as pricey as I imagine. Looks like the average pier would cost under $20 by regular post from the Gold Coast to Sydney and suburbs. Hope that helps.
Steve

[h0ughy]

sounds great to me!

[ferozious]

Here's a few pics of my latest work.
Steve Bain
Southern Cross Piers

[g__day]

Steve,

They look pretty darn good. How high to the fins have to be to minimise vibration, and with a permanent pier do you recommend customers to fill the shaft of their pier with oil, sand or cement to even further dampen vibration and improve stability?

[ferozious]

G'day there,
On the 150 dia pier, the top gussetts measure 32x128x6mm, bottom 50x200x6mm. The 190 dia pier has all gussetts 50x200x6mm. These figure may change as the product is still evolving, but hopefully should be sufficient to help minimise vibration and give the pier structural integrity and good weight bearing characteristics.
As for filling the piers, I would recommend either washed river sand, cement or fine granulated rubber as the best materials to use as a vibration dampening medium.
Steve Bain
Southern Cross Piers

[Dennis]

Hi Steve

They look great. I must get down to Ron's shop and have a look at these marvels of engineering design and construction.

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

LOL they look like a stage for a missile :D

[EzyStyles]

very nice piers you have there. great engineering work. im for one hate carrying my equipment then packing it up at the end of the night. will the pier fit an EQ6 mount? The pier looks abit too low next to you or maybe you are just tall :P

[ferozious]

Am currently working on an adapter plate suitable for an EQ6 mount, won't be too far off.
Cheers,
Steve Bain

[ferozious]

OK guys, got measurements for EQ6, will have a prototype within a week. :thumbsup:
Steve Bain

[AstroJunk]

I popped in to Sirius Optics today - Steve, these piers look really nice in the flesh - well done!

[matt]

Thought you said carrying your scope and mount in and outdoors was good for the muscles...

and we were all lazy for wanting to leave our mounts set up permanently outside?:P:lol:

[g__day]

I just added four brackets to my pier and its now as stable as a rock. I super sized it - and went for four fins 1.1 metres by 15cm by 1cm width. The pier looks alot like the tail end of a 2,000lb bomb, and my friend who did the welding said eveyone who saw him drive down the street with it upright in his ute gave him a what the ... heck look :)

[h0ughy]

not long to go now........I hope Eh Steve!

[ferozious]

G'day once again Guys,
Just a couple more pics showing details of pier with EQ6 adapter plate for Houghy.
Astrojunk, thanks for your kind words. As I hope you can see in these pics, I reckon they are looking even better now that they are finished in hammertone powder coating instead of just being spray-painted.
Cheers,
Steve Bain

[g__day]

Steve two design questions,

1) why not use much thicker bolts and
2) six rather than three bolts

To improve stability and resist vibration better?

[ferozious]

The three stainless steel bolts on the adapter plate are each 12mm thick and have a tensile strength rating of at least 70kg/sqmm. The bolts are 65mm long, and once the securing nuts and washers are fixed there will only be a maximum of 10mm of exposed thread per bolt, even less if level is acheived with minimal adjustment. The bolts are also threaded through the top plate of the pier to minimise any potential movement. The top and adapter plates are 10mm thick aluminium sheet cut to a diameter of 215mm, with the bolt holes drilled at approx 90mm radius in each. Assuming a load of around 30kg (scope and mount) being placed at the center point of the plate, I am sure any potential flexure of the plate would more than likely be of little or no consequence. In fact, when you think about it, the only forces in play should be the movement of the scope around the RA/DEC axes of the mount, with perhaps a minor amount of torque force from the mount motors being transferred to the pier during acceleration/decceleration of motors, but not neccessarily during normal tracking.
Hope I haven't rambled on too much.
Cheers,
Steve Bain

[h0ughy]

ok 20kg counter weights, eq6 mount and an 18kg 12" meade OTA and 1.5 kg for the lumicon giant easyguider. hope that doesn't flex!;)

[g__day]

Steve,

It wasn't carrying capacity that I felt could be honed, it was each bolt say carrying a 10kg load on a 12 mm outside thread stainless steel. I pondered would you have noticeably less vibration (considering both sideways sheer or flex and sideways sway) from a bolt say in the 12mm to 18mm diameter range - or is this totally not a problem anyway?

Of course if you go for six over-sized bolts rather than three bolts you will totally kill any exposure for sway - if there even is any in the first place, for a extra cost under $10 maybe?

I tend to over-engineer things.

[ferozious]

well, s'pose it wouldn't hurt to give it a try sometime, at least. Gonna have to have a look around now for some measuring instruments to do some tests on the piers.

[steve000]

Hi All,

I know this thread is pretty old now but whats the going price on one of those piers now?

Sirrus was a bit over priced.

[jones]

I just wanna pop in and say that I made my own pier (with the help of a steel factory of course :)) and it was about $300. Here's some pictures including a plan:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/siovene/sets/72157625165411361/

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Awesome!
Me want!
Peter

[GrampianStars]

Say ferozious
Steve Bain
I need a pier adapter plate for Vixen Tripod Head finished in matching powder coating?

Cheers

[blink138]

A g11 pier would be more than handy!
Pat

[PRejto]

I'll just add my question to this old thread since it's pretty close to the original topic.

Like others I have been thinking about how nice it would be to have the mount up semi-permanently. I can't decide how to do it, and how to do it given that I will sooner or later spring for a really good mount (like the AP900 or the new SB MX).

So what can I build that will 1. fit my HEQ5 Pro 2. stand 1.6 meters above ground (has to be that high due to a pool fence and a long refractor only to be used with the upgraded mount) 3. Be able to be upgradeable for new mount.

At first I was considering perhaps a 10-12" concrete pier with a mounting plate from http://www.pierplates.com/products1.html,
but now I'm wondering if I might be better off building up a rectangular concrete block high enough to get me to 1.6 meters with one the metal piers available attached. When I get a new mount I could just change out the pier I suppose. Any thoughts about this much appreciated.

Peter

[jones]

A 10" concrete pier will be more than enough. I have a 10" steel pier filled with sand, and it's rock solid.
It's not complicated to devise a mechanism that'll allow you to switch pier/mount adapters easily so go DYI, I suggest. You don't need to change the whole pier when you change the mount.