I doubt it Andrew as the skies are very light polluted where I live....but I dont care...I will do the best I can with what I have.....but offcourse your all welcome...$10 entry + $5 parking fee...and bring your own drinks....oh and pick some dinner up for me on the way through......lol
Do you have any plans (drawings, sketches) of what you are building? I am on the scab for anything at the moment construction wise, to consider for my backyard.
Its going to look very nice wheneverything is set up and ready to go. Will you be getting Andrew to go over and have a look once you are done and when everything (the toys I mean arrive?
Tony, I'll be very interested to see how you find the C11. Assume its the GST.
I ordered one of those, but had a LONG wait, and in the end, after being told 5 weeks later that the scope had not even left the US yet, I cancelled it, and went with the LX200.
I have heard great things about the optics of the C11. The criticism always seems to be with the standard mount. Sounds like you've got in place the necessary plans to address that issue.
Regarding price, I emailed about 8 different suppliers around Australia, and the best price, by almost $400, was with Astronomyonline. They charged $4,400. The others were around the $4,800 mark. That was in December 04, not sure what the prices are like now.
The good thing about Andrews where I puchased my C11 SCT is that he doesn't charge you anymore to buy it as OTA..he just simply takes the $1500 off the mount cost and sells it as is..the OTA cost me $3000....plus $25 shipping....It would have cost me more to get it from the states......
You could if you want buy the 11" SCT with a EQ6 mount for the same price as standard goto package...Lee is happy to do this....
The OTA also comes with everything standard above the tripod...IE....40mm eyepiece...1.25 diagonal...Finderscope...Mount plate for EQ6 or CG-5...and another OTA adapter....
I think its a bargain....
P.s....My pier has just started to be made.....the proposed cost of th Stainless steel pier to be made is around $1500....lol....free for me because I am Striker.....lol
Cant wait to see it...will be about 2 weeks though..
Nope I wouldn't paint it.....and I dont think I will polish it either....it may reflect stray light...I will see once it's set up....
My father inlaw is a boiler maker and they only deal with Stainless steel work now...so I am happy....he brought the base plate over yesterday.....400 x 400 x 15mm thick disk...the base plate alone ways about 35kg's....We are still unsure exactly how the pier will be...so we are going to make our final decission once I get the EQ6 and do some measurments.....
Thought you guys would like to see our C14 just after installation.
Lots of additions since, but no photos.
We built the whole building from scratch. a very difficult thing to do.
The pier goes 3 metres into the ground and was filled with concrete, it still moved, so we have now put a casing around it, and filled that too. That fixed it.
Mike
This is what I have planned in my head for the pier...it may change and possibly will....
Approx total height between 1 - 1.1 meter's high starting at a diameter of 300 to 350mm and finishing around 200 - 250 mm diameter at top of pier....rough sketch
A good general rule of thumb for a pier is for it to be about the same diameter as the objective.
This how ever is going to depend on the height of the pier and clearance if an GEM .
This is my new pier for my Newtonian fork mount made from 350mm steel piping concrete filled.
The foundation base is 1200x1000x900deep. Struck sand stone at 900.
This base bells out about 200mm more .
The pier is about 1000 high.
This mount will be able to handle up to a 18-20" newt if need be.
My old 6" refractor mount was 200mm steel pipe 1600mm high and did have a small amount of vibration but far better than a tripod but the height meant I needed a larger diameter.
I learnt from this and hence every thing is well and truly over done for the new mount.
I can't emphasise not scrimping on the pier and base and Tony looks to have that sorted out.
Sorry Mark but I have to disagree with you there. With my pier I used a 145mm pipe for my 10" standing at 1700 high. I will admit that I get some vibration when I touch the pier but it disipates in about 13 seconds. I do plan on filling the pier with kiln dried sand in the future to dampen this minor problem. At present I get no vibration when I am imaging. The theory that the pier has to be the same diameter as the scope is a bit of a myth. While I understand that bigger is better, the reality is that it does not have to be as large as we think. I consulted friends who are engineers and surveyors involved in civil construction ( I also am involved in the building industry and know from experience) and they were all of the same opinion, that it was unnecessary to go to such extremes. This would prove a costly excercise.
My point is that you can go for the bigger diameter if you have the money, but if you don't want to spend a lot of money on this item, you can still have a fine pier on a smaller diameter.
What about for visual RR ?
I have to do one for an 8", with the hopes of maybe fitting a 12" one day.
Rather than 'bigger is better , wouldn't ' better to be safe than sorry' apply?
I've no idea.
BD , They dont really have to be painted blurk..er..black.
Sorry to disagree with you but a look at most piers both amateur and professional tends to show other wise and I have seen some that are regreeting there undersizing.
A lot of the observatories amateur and professional I have visited here and abroad have quite substantial piers and footings.
Some being quite massive.
Look on the web.
As I said it does depend on the type of scope and height
A light short tube 10"SCT is not as demanding as a long 2+m Newtonians or refractors when it comes to the torque induced on the mount and pier.
You then have to take into consideration future upgrades and extras placed on the OTA .
So what i am saying is a 16"SCT doesn't need a 16"pier if only 1400mm high but if it were on a multi story builing then yes it would and that is not uncommon.
13 secs is worse than my tripod and you may be happy with that
You can hit my pier and mount with a sledge hammer with the vibrations being dissipated with in the mass virtually instantaneously and that satisfies my needs both now and the future.
arrive?
