Inspeqtor wrote in post #19195300
Just curious Marty,
How many scopes do you own if you do not mind sharing that info.
Please keep us updated if you actually do start to build another observatory Marty!!
What is your mount attached to the scope you are showing here. I
assume you have it somehow anchored to the cement block, am I correct on that?
Thank you!
Hey Charles,
Oh I have tons of scopes. It's probably better to just mention the ones I'm actively using. I rotate 5 telescopes just for solar work alone. And another 4 scopes or so, just for night time stuff of various larger apertures. Anything from 40mm aperture to 250mm aperture currently. The beauty of building an observatory is to have it all setup and ready to go at all times. I have 4 primary mounts that I use so I can have several things going at once, and three of them can hold more than one scope, so I can accommodate lots of observers when doing outreach or just setting up with the family (takes no time since its already there, setup, ready to go).
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2kj9HLi Jupiter_Saturn_Conjunction_Scopes_01 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2kjdsC2 Jupiter_Saturn_Conjunction_Scopes_05 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
My current observatory has a single primary pier in there, with a permanently setup mount. I want to expand to two piers, two mounts, at all times. Then I will convert this particular observatory into a visual setup and storage. Or, I might just diassemble it and leave the pier for visual use.
It started as a very heavy pier (1300lbs of concrete) as it goes deep into the ground with a huge footer. Overkill.
I built the observatory around that.
The 2nd pier is super simple, it's just cinder blocks with a concrete footer. They are attached via construction adhesive. The top of the block I drilled some holes and matched it up to the mount head on there (the mount head is a Twilight 1 alt-az head), which is bolted to the top of the mount. It's very stable on this and handles loads it couldn't handle before on a tripod.
Here's the 2nd pier, a simple cinder block pier (and it handles that 120mm F8.3 scope fine, on the pier, but on a tripod this wasn't useable):
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2iXtrfX CinderBlockPier_24 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
It's a visual pier, it just sits out there ready to go. I throw a scope on and we can use it right away for visual:
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2kewTy9 9V9A6723 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
Here's my build logs (they're super simple, inexpensive, one-person, I did all the work myself):
Cinder Block Pier:
https://www.cloudynights.com …roject-cinder-block-pier/Concrete Pier Build (first one):
https://www.cloudynights.com …ervatory-station-project/Observatory Build:
https://www.cloudynights.com …shed-observatory-project/Very best,
