Hi All,
I needed to sort out mounting arrangements for the Observatory as I was using the original Takahashi Heavy Duty Metal Tripod for the Mewlon 300.
The TOA150 was on the Avalon TPOD 130 and TSA 120 on the Vixen HAL130 tripods.
While the this was ok ...it was not ideal as the HAL130 despite being a very nice portable tripod was always a little too light for my liking.
Also the Tak Tripod legs effectively cut off a significant amount of space and got in the way in the observatory.
With Matt's (Kunama) help we came up with a spec for a pier and Matt was able to source the Metal from Herzog in Canberra.
We ended up going for a 218mm diameter (9.5mm wall thickness) steel tube with 350mm x 350mm 16mm thick bottom plate and 2 x 250mm x 250mm x 12mm thick top plates.
The top plates are held together by 16mm stainless steel bolts with minimal amount of spacing allowing for levelling of the plates and maximising strength.
Matt welded and beveled the pier together then delivered it to me for finishing.
I spent a good day of sanding with the rotary sander and cleaned up all the surfaces prior to painting.
Painting was done with White Night SLS Etch Primer on all surfaces followed by White Night Epoxy Black Matte finishes. Left to dry over 2 nights the finish came up very nice
On the day of install Matt and I carried the "lightweight" Kunama Pier (its about 85kg) into his van and transported it out to the observatory.
The Pier was bolted down into the centre of the space using 16mm true bolts through the slab.
After cleaning up the top plate was installed and levelled precisely and locked off.
A Takahashi EM400 Pier Adaptor ring was bolted down to the top plate using M8 25mm stainless steel cap bolts. The EM400 was mounted on top with a rough south and altitude alignment prior to mounting the Mewlon 300.
We mounted the Mewlon 300 into the original Takahashi EM400 mount plate and Takahashi tube rings.
The Takahashi mount plate provides a more precise mechanical alignment of the OTA to the mount axis......(which means I also now have a spare set of very nice Cassady Dovetail and Saddle plates
)
We returned the same night to do the precise polar alignment with PoleMaster.....which thanks to our prior experience takes only minutes to achieve.
We had some great skies that evening and the overall experience is that the Pier now makes the space much more efficient as there is no protruding tripod legs to take up space or get in the way.
Additionally I end up with an extra 16 degree of views horizon to horizon due to the additional height of the Pier.
Cone Error was reduced due to the use of the Takahashi Mount Plates being better aligned with the EM400 and OTA.
There is absolutely no detectable movement or vibration in this pier and mounting arrangement.
At one stage I left Jupiter being tracked in the centre of field of my EP for an hour with no movement in the field that I could determine.
Many thanks thanks to Matt for helping on this project !!
