What I need to know now is, what height is you pier.... from floor to top not including bolts..... also which scope you have as I will upgrade at a later stage and will need to allow for this.....
All info will give me a better idea.
Also remembering that this is for observing and eventually astrophotography.
Well.. first do you have reflector or refractor in mind?
Obviously, refractors will tend to use higher pier, because this is more comfortable for observing.
For reflectors, you do not want to hit the ground with the bottom of the tube, and you want to have a comfortable position of the eyepiece when looking at objects close to zenith at the same time. This will determine the pier hight in your particular case..
In my case, it is 43cm for my dobson. It was similar height (slightly lower) for concrete pier when I was using german equatorial mount for the same optics
B
Ditto for me.
I have an in-ground pier, which is about right for the EM200 GEM, and the 10" f5 newt. For imaging it is perfect, and at a pinch I use it for the refractor as well, (imaging only). For visual with the refractor, I need to be sitting on the ground. Mine is about 600mm to the top of the pier, not including the mount.
For limited visual, and imaging with the refractor I have built an "extension".
Gary
I have an LX200GPS 10" I have been guessing at around 36"-48" from what I can tell. So I was thinking half way and going around the 42".... Any thoughts?
Well... make some drawings, starting with known things like the tube length, your hight etc...
You will quickly came to required numbers for your pier hight :-)
If you already have the scope, and it is on a tripod, simply duplicate that height, plus or minus as you desire. In some respects making it too short is better than too tall, it is easy to extend it, but heart breaking to cut it down.
mine is about 95cm high (pier only) from the ground, which is good for the refractor but too high for the Newt near zenith (have to stand on a small box). It shall be about 75cm when the wooden floor goes in the observatory I am making which should make it good for the newt but a bit low for the refractor, I will have to sit on the floor for that, on a cushion..
I would set it up, adjust your tripod and get your favorite stool/chair out, when you are happy with the height of the eyepiece with the least strain on you, go and measure up!!
cheers Gary
I have an 8" LX200GPS, housed in a roll of roof observatory.
I used a tripod in the obs first and measured the height from that. The main reason I picked that height is I wanted as much clearance over the walls, but I had to be able to close the roof. So when it's parked with the tube horizontal the roof still closes over the top of the setup.
