I know it's off topic but I'm so excited I just wanted to share it with my IIS imaging friends
The careful design process that went into this pier has paid off. I
have already had it out under the stars tonight and it not only
looks good but it is solid.
It was relatively easy to assemble with each individual piece quite
managable. Once assembled though it is more awkward and heavy to
move around particularly with the tall cenre column, so setting up
close to my chosen spot will be important.
With the pier in the tall centre column configuration and viewing a
star at 250X magnification, I did repeated damping time tests with
the scope at different orientations:
A solid fist knuckle rap on the centre column damps in around 2 to
2.5sec
A solid knuckle rap on the OTA damps in around 2sec or less
A rap on the diagonal damps in about 1 sec
This is about as good as I could have hoped for in a portable
pedistal design like this particularly at this height (1.2m)and should
prove quite satisfactory for imaging, even in a breeze. I would
expect these damping time figures to be even better when using the
short centre column.
The pier top plate rotates smoothly within the centre column even
with the NJP mount and scope on top. This makes initial course polar
alignment through the RA polar scope a breeze! - a great design
feature.
The leg end levelers are beautifully made, have plenty of travel for
uneven ground, turn smoothly and they lock in place via a lock nut
underneath.
I'm very happy
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/gallery/new_njp_support_pier
The pier will be at IIS Astro Camp in January so you can all have a look at it in real life
Now all I need is the ASA N12 and PL11002
