Permanent site for EQ6... sort of.

[bojan]

Last Sunday I found something interesting in Bunnigs... adjustable plastic pads for flower pots. It occurred to me immediately that this could be used to mark the place for tripod legs tips. Only central part was useful for my purpose.
There were couple of colors available but I wanted white, for better visibility in the dark
Now I just have to drop the legs of my pre-aligned mount into those holes in plastic, and the mount is sufficiently accurately polar-aligned for short exposures (couple of minutes without tracking) with my 600mm lens..

[AlexN]

Nice... I use paving tiles with the leg end points parked in black marker...

It is a great way to speed up setup.. from there, a quick drift align and your set for the night...

Best way I've found so far is to cover the mount up, but leave it out there... :)

[bmitchell82]

Great idea fellas.! :) now ill i need is a EQ6 mount :) ill end up dropping my 10" dob onto it when time permits!. the other thing you could do is use pavers drill a hole into the paver with a masonry bit that is the right width to accept the leg end and away you go :D yehar....

Personally i wouldn't leave a 1500- 2000 telescope mount where it could be taken... thieves arn't smart they take it because they can!

[AlexN]

i dont worry about it being stolen. Its insured, it can't be seen from any of my neighbours yards.. Oh, and i have two 2 year old rotties who like to eat things that enter my back yard.

[Starman73]

Hi All,

I have a great little system. Firstly I set my scope up, got it roughly aligned, marked the ends of the legs. I then got lengths of water pipe and hammered it into the ground just to the surface of the ground. I now have points in the grass where I can put the legs of the tripod in the exact same place every time. I then set the mount on top, if I need to make minor adjustments there and I am on my way.

The water pipe makes perfect little holes that fit the tripod legs nicely.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[bojan]

That sounds perfect! :thumbsup:Thrown away that plastic already ;)...

[Starman73]

Hi Bojan,

Glad you liked my suggestion. It seems to work well. I am very proud of my little idea. I was thinking of the bricks in the ground then marking them etc, but this is the perfect solution that is one that can't be seen too, well not to well. Belt them in just far enough and the kids, or the visitors kids whatever the case may be won't even trip of fall over them.

For all intents and purposes they are not even there, just don't let the grass get too thick over the pipe and it might be an idea if it's difficult for you to find where you have put them (in the dark with the longer grass its not easy to find them) to either set up while its still light or mark their positions so it easy to find in the dark.

Hope this makes it easier for you, it has me.

Good luck
Paul

[bert]

I've done the pipe thing works great. I use it with a pier though not a tripod. The pier has 20mm threaded rod on each leg and it fits inside 3 21mm inside diameter pipe. Almost instant polar align!

[Starman73]

Hi Brett,

Good to see I am not the only person with water pipe laying around looking for something to do with it!!!

I am guessing you take your pier out each night to set it up. What is it? What mount do you use? Do you have any pics of your set up?

Regards
Paul

[White Rabbit]

I do the same, it makes is so much quicker to set up, infact there is no set up now. :).