DIY Pier for your scope.

[White Rabbit]

Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhovY5K74HE

I might give this a go because paying over a grand for a pier is a bit much. This would cost a couple of hundred max.

[davewaldo]

Assuming it is "Rock solid", this could make a nice temporary pier for my back yard. I'm not so keen to use a couple of cubic metres of concrete in my lawn just yet. :-)

[White Rabbit]

Yeah me neither and I've been looking at buying a portabel pier,by my god they are expensive. This looks like it would fit the bill I just need to think of some way to level it properly.

[Starkler]

Not a bad idea for a semi permanent pier, just as long as a pot of the right height can be found.

[White Rabbit]

I just went to bunnings to have a look at the pots they have there. I can be done, but the you would need bolts of about 30cm above the pot to equal the hight of the EQ5 tripod. They have every thing at bunnings except for the steal plate circles, and I think for 30cm you would need 3 or 4 to add a bit more support.
I'm tryng to source the plates ATM.

I've also figured out that if you have an EQ5 you can remove the legs from the tripod and use the mounting bracket on the tripod for you pier, pretty sweet.

This will make things so much easier for me at home I dont need to keep dragging the whole thing out and trying to get to face just the right degrees east of south and leveling it. With this it's just mount the head alinge the mount with the peir attach the scope, done.
It might even be possible use the Park function with a peir even though I will be removing the head everytime but if you align on the mount it the same way every time I dont see why it wouldnt work.

I'm in.

[leon]

Getting It dead level is not that important when it come to placing your pot, the top bolts will take care of that, however a circle top plate is more difficult to level, unless it only has three bolts.

Leon