Permanent or portable

I asked a question about light pollution as a limiting factor which lead to the issue of the pros and cons of a permanent versus portable setup.

Mint Mark made the following comment when Adrena1in said he was building a pier and chris said he was thinking about it too.

I thought it was worthy of its own discussion.

Steve.

Darn it, just posted a reply under the old thread!

Something like pier doesn't make sense for me at the moment as I have an SCT on a fork mount with ye olde setting circles. I'd be better putting those funds towards an HEEQ5 or EQ6. Since we don't have a polaris, a smart mount is going to make quite a difference to setup times.
I'm thinking that I can make a vast improvement on my current situation at home by buying some welders screens to block the light from the local gas station and the neighbours sensor lights. Add to that a secure, weatherproof box near my setup place so I don't have to carry everything so far each time.

That's going to result in far more imaging time than packing everything into the car, driving out to a dark site, setting up and watching the clouds role in.

Steve.

I've thought a little about this too. My thought was to put a pier with an adapter plate in the back yard. For most of the time I'd leave the mount on the pier (aligned) and carry the OTA & accesories in and out of the garage. This should make for shorter startup times. If I want to go to my "darker" site I pack up the tripod, mount and all the extras and go.

When returning the mount to the pier I should be able to use some marks on the mount & plate and landmarks to get close to alignment.

I'd still have to think up some way to weatherproof & secure the mount while on the pier though.

My decision to go for a Pier is so that I have at least a half-permanent arrangement. Part of my issue is that carrying my mount and tripod to the garden each session is meaning I'm not that well aligned, and while that's been okay for lunar shots, when I do want to give DSO imaging a go I know it's going to take hours to get everything set up.

With my little EQ5 I marked the patio so I could put the tripod back in the same place each time. But then I read about how it's not great to have the scope near a house, which my patio is. Then I read it's best to have the scope over grass, to reduce heat turbulence. My tripod will just sink into the earth, so the decision to at least get a Pier would mean that I have a permanent place to mount my scope, and once it's aligned it'll remain aligned.

Security-wise I won't leave the scope on the pier, and I'll usually remove the mount too. But for times I'm home, such as at a weekend, it could remain all set up from Friday night to Sunday night, covered to protect it from the elements when I'm not using it. (And if it means I can slowly, while she's not looking, build an observatory around the pier, then all the better!!)

Friend of mine has two lengths of telegraph pole concreted in which most of the time have bird feeders on them. They also have all the fittings on the top to put his mount onto and a waterproof power socket. Having the two gives him coverage of the sky from either side of his house. Quite a SWMBO friendly option. Trouble for me is that my driveway is the best imaging position and it might be a bit hard to move the car around with a telegraph pole in the middle.

chris.bailey wrote in post #9445650
... most of the time have bird feeders on them.

A lot of time I'll remove the mount and adapter and use mine as a bird bath/food table I expect. See what you mean about having yours in the middle of your drive. I guess you could have one of those sort of security bollards that can drop down level with the ground when you're not using it!?

I was thinking an ornate sundial would be appropriate.

I like the adapter plate idea - That future-proofs it enough that it might be viable.

Steve.

A sundial is a great idea... but maybe there's a way a rotary washing line can be used to help with alignment?

chris.bailey wrote in post #9445650
Quite a SWMBO friendly option.

Translation please?

The top-cap fixing of an EQ6 is pretty straightforward. I had played with the idea of something along the lines of http://www.altairastro​.com/product.php?produ​ctid=16169 but for a wooden pole pier you would need some additional means of levelling it.

Jeff wrote in post #9446461
Translation please?

SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed

Steve.

SteveInNZ wrote in post #9449245
SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed

Steve.

BWAAA Ha Ha Ha Ha! Never heard that before!

SteveInNZ wrote in post #9449245
SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed

Steve.

Brought my new Pier home today, took it into the hall, said, "Here y'are, it's alright, isn't it?", to which the reply was, "Hmmm, it's ugly! Going to look horrible in the middle of the lawn!"

Adrena1in wrote in post #9454339
Brought my new Pier home today, took it into the hall, said, "Here y'are, it's alright, isn't it?", to which the reply was, "Hmmm, it's ugly! Going to look horrible in the middle of the lawn!"

Ooops.

Hey post a picture...It can't be that ugly...to us anyway.