Manufactured Permanent Piers

[gregbradley]

What options are there for buying a ready made steel tube pier?

I'm aware of Pegasus Piers which are really nice. Any others?

Greg.

[codemonkey]

These (http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/495215-professional-telescope-pier-eq568-and-all-meade/) look nice if you're happy with a rats nest and small fins. I'd probably buy one if I had the money, but alas there's too many things I need to buy and too few dollars in the bank.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for that Lee. Yes they do look nice. I suppose those unusual aluminium top plates are for the Meade scopes.

Greg.

[bugeater]

They look really nice. But I do wonder if they have enough clearance (for an EQ6). When I attempted to design a pier myself I estimated that you can't have anything over 290 mm in diameter otherwise there is a chance the mount/OTA could impact the pier in some orientations.

[billdan]

At one stage I was going to buy a Bollard, and drill holes in the top to support an EQ6 mount.

You can buy one for $150.00, 1200mm high, 140mm wide, 3.5mm powder coated steel walls, weight 18.4Kg.

http://www.safetyxpress.com.au/products/bollards/bollard-surface-mount-140mm/

No idea if anyone else has tried these though.

Regards
Bill

[Paul Haese]

Software Bisque makes their own piers of various heights.

[loc46south]

Greg - easiest option is to get a local engineer to build one to your specs - if you ask the right questions you my be able to get your hand on some Boiler tube scrap or condemned acetylene bottles - either are very solid options for a pier at little cost.

Cheers
Geof Wingham

[E_ri_k]

Hey Greg, this is what I was talking about. Had this made up for the PMX. I found a local guy with a metal workshop. Cost me $600 for both pieces. I think thats a pretty good deal. 1m in height, 15mm top and bottom plates, 220mm tube, + the cage.

Erik

[gregbradley]

Thanks Paul. Yes I suppose an SB one could be modified. Shipping is the big deal and the USD is now expensive.





That's a possibility. Thanks Geoff.



Good deal Erik. You kicked a goal there!

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

My last pier I had made up cost about $800, so go to a metal fabricators with some drawings and see what transpires. I don't know how much it will cost in Sydney but my pier was 8" in diameter. 1" wall thickness and standing 600 high with a ledge to hold the computer. Top and bottom plate are 1/2" thick. One gusset under the computer ledge.

[tlgerdes]

Are you sure it was 1" thick or did you mean 1cm thick walls?

[Paul Haese]

Sorry 12mm thick wall.

[Pierman]

Hey guys, Pegasus Piers is well and truly around and proudly made in Australia supporting Australian jobs.

The "rats nest" piers you mention Lee were the original older design piers.

If you actually check out the Pegasus Piers Facebook page you will see the current MK II design which has been around for a while are professional observatory grade piers built to a very high standard.

They have been field tested and there are a quite a few very happy customers out there now all over Australia.

With the MK II piers you do not lose structural integrity of the solid pier by having a levelling plate secured by 6 pieces of rod as shown by your American import.

The whole setup is far more stable and secure on a fixed top plate and this is why professional observatories utilize this setup. With a professional observatory pier you level the pier once only, unlike the rats nest setup which is not the best for integrity.

Pegasus piers are individually constructed to accept all types of mounts.

The finish is finished to a very high standard with a galvanised treatment under the high end powder coated finish.

As you will see when you visit the Facebook page, the pier does not have "small fins" but rather cad designed 3/4 length gusset which are fully welded, not stich welded. Take note of this when comparing this to the imported products. Dollar for dollar the Pegasus Pier is far superior.

I encourage anyone wanting to know about piers to chat with me and I will be happy to help you get what you need.

Cheers

Phil
Pegasus Piers

akubrahatman@gmail.com

[Pierman]

Marty, I understand the issues you raised and they have never existed in the Pegasus Pier design.

The older MK 1 piers with a top levelling plate never had any issues with clearance as we designed this limitation out of the design, and the new generation MK II piers are no issue at all.

There are a number of EQ 6 and EQ5 piers now in existence along with Meade, Celestron and others.

I have just finished a MK II pier for another Paramount which is quite a large mount and demands extremely fine tolerances so we are on our game.

At the end of the day you can pay $1000 for an import pier that is of a lesser quality or pay similar for an Australian made product where you can pick up the phone, talk an astronomer that speaks the lingo and can even talk to face to face where I will sit and help you design your pier.

You can source a piece of old acetylene bottle or rusty piece of line pipe and then muck about for days piecing it together but when you actually add the unfactored cost of your time cleaning this up and fabricating bits, the cost is a bit more than $800.

I trust this helps and always happy to help.

Cheers
Phil
Pegasus

akubrahatman@gmail.com