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Simply amazing Joshsua! I caught up with this thread only today and have just spent an hour going through it and looking at the pics and videos. Wonderful stuff! Having built a slightly non-standard obs myself, I have an idea of some of the challenges you faced, but huge credit to your design and construction abilities! Your pier looks _very_ stiff so I doubt that it would have any low frequency component to its resonance. Your lattice construction reminded me of the stiff frames I saw under the 8 m mirrors at the VLT in Chile (pic attached).
In support of the general consensus on having a pier tall enough to get above the ground effect, I discussed that with an amateur in the US who built a pier about 4 or 5 m tall for just that reason. He carried out some site tests prior to settling on his design, whereby he made actual measurements at 'normal' height and again at ~4 or 5 m above the ground. From memory, he got an improvement of ~0.7 arcsec at the increased height.
I may have missed it, but have you said what telescope and mount you will be installing?
All the best,
Chris
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