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Originally Posted by LostInSp_ce
 One of the most impressive builds I've ever seen Joshua. Absolutely magnificent all-round from concept to completion! A real treasure. Thanks for sharing. |
Thankyou for writing! its great when a plan comes together
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisM
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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Thank you Chris.
Yes, there are a few non standard challenges. I will be doing an update post in the coming weeks with how things are going.
I have stood under those VLT telescopes, they are awesome as you would know. The pier, is very rigid for sure. with the happy snaps and test shots i have taken before getting automation going, i have seen a marked improvement in seeing compared to my previous site, but i don't have a comparison at this site for ground level vs 9m up. 0.7" is a hugh improvement, well worth the effort for the guy in the US. I downloaded a frequency measurement app to my phone, for memory, the pier resonated at around 1000 Htz, but i can check that again.
At the moment i have a PME and Planewave CDK 12.5 in there.
clear skies,
Joshua