View Single Post
  #40  
Old 27-09-2012, 08:55 AM
ZeroID's Avatar
ZeroID (Brent)
Lost in Space ....

ZeroID is offline
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Auckland, NZ
Posts: 4,949
Hi Graham, looking good, that is certainly an Iron Monster !! Any pier will have some residual vibration factor unless it weighs about a million tons or something. It's how fast it will be damped that is the real question. Surprisingly wood dampens vibrations better than steel hence a lot of astro's replace metal legs on their tripods with nice solid wooden ones or use old surveyors tripods etc.

The motors on the drive for the scope are very unlikely to create enough vibration to affect the scope. My concrete pipe pier tensioned down to the concrete slab will 'ring' if i give it a bump but it damps out within half a second and as it is isolated from the ob floor then I don't have a problem.

If you want to reduce the ring effect even more you could add more steel, more bracing, more mass but you could also try some sheet ply panels firmly attached over a few of the triangular sections of the Iron Monster. 17mm ply maybe bolted on will brace and absorb. might be a bit of a mission to drill all the holes but could help a bit if you think its a concern.

My suggestion: try the system as it is and modify if you have a problem. It looks solid enough so I think you'll be sweet.
Reply With Quote