Mount extension for HEQ5

[pmrid]

I had that dreaded collision of scope and mount last night when still only about 15 degrees off zenith. So I reckon it’s time to put my little HEQ5 on a little mount extension pillar. I already have one on my EQ6 but I am hoping to save a few bucks by either printing one or having one made. I wondered if anyone has any suggestions.

[Saturnine]

Have no enlightened suggestions other than an extension is a great idea and works well by giving added clearance, as you would know from the EQ6 ext. I was in the fortunate position to machine my own from aluminium, several years ago and it is now almost permanently attached to the tripod. The standard commercial extension for the HEQ5 is a lot longer and is more akin to a pier than an extension .

[LewisM]

The HEQ5 extension is about 5kg, so surely helps dampen the tripod even more! As Jeff says, it is quite long - been thinking to get one myself and shorten it a little.


They sure have gone up in price now - $199 from a few vendors here.

[pmrid]

Yeah. Not cheap! But I’ve weakened and ordered one. Even at $200 odd, it works out cheaper than having one custom made. At 40cm long, it does allow you to sit the tripod lower and being closer to the ground, probably means more stability.

We’ll see.

[bojan]

Wooden log would do the job... probably cheaper to machine.

[Sunfish]

Great work. What size tube is that?

[Saturnine]

Hi Ray



Not wanting to hi-jack the thread so I'll keep it brief. The extension is 250mm long and 100mm OD X 5mm wall thickness, plenty strong enough for 12kg of gear.

[sunslayr]

Bit late now but Dakota Starry Nights (https://youtu.be/YsprCjuN2UE)on YouTube shows you a way of DIYing a pier extension using pvc pipe. It's clamped together with tension from a threaded rod, it's not as sleek as metal but I'm sure it's strong enough for anything you would put on a HEQ5.

Why is the HEQ5 extension so long? It's twice as tall as the NEQ6 one.

[pmrid]

Yeah. I saw that! I was overcome with a desire to shove that guy’s pointy stick up his jaxy. How rational is that!!

[bojan]

Long ago I used high pressure PVC pipe for pier, see attached.
Load was +50kg in total. No issues at all.

[Sunfish]

I agree.
Immensely irritating.
You are perfectly rational.

[PaulSthcoast]

Great tutorial video,
thanks Sunslayr.

The pointy stick though....

For some reason my mind turned to a Steve Martin movie.

Link here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nU4RD2f2BnY

Paul.

[Sunfish]

The information is good.
The delivery is the problem.
A few images and a sketch would save us from the absurd video and the pointy pointy stick. Who knew that was a real poet.
Actually that is YouTube fakery also. Rule1 . Never read the comments.

[Sunfish]

Go Bojan.

I was thinking steel but I also have some HP pipe.

[pmrid]

As much as PVC appeals to the DIY spirit, I haven’t seen a design that incorporates a decent azimuth adjustment pole for accurate PA. Anyone?

[Saturnine]

I would assume that ,though the tube of the extension may be high impact plastic the base and the top cap would be metal, either aluminium or steel. May be possible to get away with using Delrin but for threaded parts and the azimuth pole metal would be preferable , to me at least.

[Sunfish]

I think in the designs used the extended threaded tensioner part goes right through the plastic into the mount so the plastic is only in compression.

That was my plan for a 200 water pipe pier with 20mm plastic caps. Full height Threaded rods all round like drum and a metal pier cap as you say.

I imagine a small alloy block bolted onto the cap would be sufficient for an adjustment post or a big tube nut such as I use on my pier.

[pmrid]

As I said earlier, I bought a Saxon extension - 400mm and 5 kgs. The lowest the HEQ5 tripod will go is about 850mm so with this pier on top, it is a whopping 1250 mm BEFORE you put the mount head in place - adding about 400mm more. And then you add a scope - in my case about a metre long and up to 300 wide with the usual attachments, so the clearance height for the overall setup is creeping up to 2.5 meters. That’s great for my setup because I have a neighbour’s house just 5 meters away so I can shoot over his roof nearly an hour earlier than at present.

[AstroApprentice]

Hi Peter, that’s a nice and very tall setup. No chance of a collision now!
I found the 400 mm extension too much with my long AltAz mount, so cut it in half and drilled three new holes - an easy fix for me and still avoids any potential collision.

[pmrid]

I have noticed that the extension sold for the EQ6 (which I have) has the same outer and inner dimensions as that for the HEQ5 (which I also have) but is much shorter at only 200mm. This led me to experiment with using the shorter (EQ6) one on my HEQ5 mount by using the HEQ5 base and the EQ6 top. Worked a treat. So I don’t have to massacre the long one to get the height down. And I can put my EQ6 mount on my HEQ5 tripod if I need to. So head up, they are effectively interchangeable.