Piers - what a difference gussets make!

[g__day (Matthew)]

Well I thought I'd show a few shots of my home made pier now that I've added gussets and checked the floor is perfectly level.

The mount is rock solid now and even when bumped real, real hard vibrations die of very quickly. Leaning on the pier hard barely moves stars in the C9.25. Doing a manual focus produces a slight movement of teh main OTA - but about 1/8 of what it used to be.

I also added the shot of the Meade moto focuser with a BinTel 2" Quartz SCT diagonal. This effectly means I don't have to touch the tube now when viewing. I checked with BinTel and they new JMI motor focuser adapter does allow you to connect the Meade motofocuser via USB to a laptop.

Must say for anyone whose ever desired to buy or build a pier - its very worthwhile and they do make viewing a lot more fun and set-up is now remove the lens covers and enter the date and time from the PCs Windows screen, selecting last alignment.

* * *

Next step motorise the dome and slew it to the mounts movements - then remote control the lot from inside the house!

[matt]

Awesome!!!!!!!!

But next time.... rotate those shots b4 posting, eh?!?!

[g__day (Matthew)]

Bugger - just thought the same!

I just rotated them but found you can't edit or re-attach a new jpg to or over the old!

Note the 1m * 2m plastic floor mat - used for protecting the wiring from my PC to the mount; well it has delivered a very large and unintended collateral benefit - it traps dew on its underside like you wouldn't believe! The plastic is raised from the floor by mini plastic mountains - about 3-4 mm high every 3cm. So its elevated just off the floor. Cold / moist air sinks and the coldest, moistest air is just above ground level I guess - right next to the plastic surface of the mat. So the underneath of the mat gives the dew a terrific place to condense and become trapped. You don't get gew on the top of the mat that could give you a risk of sliding and falling - but it sure condenses underneath - and the rest of the lab - PC, mount, OTA, controllers, chairs, walls etc are staying pretty much bone dry.

I guess it works by giving the dew a great trap to form and be captured so it protects the OTA terrifically - especially given its mostly covered from radiating to the sky anyway, bar the viewing port.

Anyone else seen an effect like this? I'm delighted by it!

[asimov (John)]

Good stuff. You could go the whole hog & fill the pier with sand, it has a great vibration deadening effect.

[matt]

That's an interesting observation/effect with the dew.

Wonder if others have experimented with similar success with "sacrificial" surfaces for dew collection/attraction around their set-ups, beyond dewcaps etc???

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by g__day

Bugger - just thought the same!

I just rotated them but found you can't edit or re-attach a new jpg to or over the old!
>snip

I believe that in the "Manage Attachments" dialog, you can delete/remove the "old" files and add the "new" ones. That would save a few cricked necks!

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov (John)]

As Dennis said.

[g__day (Matthew)]

Ahah! Under advanced options! Done!

PS

Experimented last night - tapping the pier no longer visiblly vibrates the image, pushing the pier no longer moves the stars, thumping the pier very hard only barely manages to shake the image for a very short time - I'm very impressed!