I just put up a 2.3m Sirius in the backyard with full automation cloud / rain / wind detection, power, data, and home security system integration with a Rottweiler for redundancy
. My life has changed..... well it did for the brief moment of cloudless nights. Now I am cursed by clear days and clouded nights.
Very happy with mine so far but it is still a work in progress as it has only been up for around 4 weeks or so. It sits on a raised steel frame deck plus thick merbau decking which I corked on the interior of the observatory. The pier sits on a concrete column that comes up just below deck height. The column goes down to the ground where it is around 1 cubic meter inside the ground.
I run a CDK 12.5 in mine, probably similar tube size to a C14, I wouldn't go much bigger.