Concrete vs steel pier

[MarkS]

What kinds of pier do you folks use? 
Do steel piers have any advantage over casting a concrete one in-situ?
I would have thought concrete would have fewer vibration problems.
I'd like to build a dual-pier observatory and using concrete might help keep costs down also.

Mark

[PhilB]

Mine's steei. Most amateur observatories seem to use these. I think there are two reasons for this. One, minimum of fabrication. Just dig a large hole, fill with concrete and bolt the pier on top. Two, it's easy to remove should you want to move house (and you don't have to try to convince your buyer that the large pillar you're leaving behind is somehow decorative!)

[Mac]

Mines a Steel Pier, (Home Made) and I can fill it with concrete if i so wish,


Mac.

[RobertM]

Mine is steel with a 1/2" steel plate welded to the bottom.   There are a couple of thingsI would have done differently.

1) Mine is too long (5') and I do get some flex on slews when loaded up.
2) Added webbing to stop any flex.
3) Used more concrete than half a cubic meter.

Vibration damping can be done by filling the tube with dry sand.

Hope that helps
Robert

[Ian]

I made one out of wood (fence posts bolted together). House buyer didn't even mention it when they looked round. Seemed to work well too

[Tony G]

Mark,

I was looking through UK Astro buy and sell and came across this yesterday,  PIER  and didn't know whether it maybe of interest to you, and its local (Orpington). I did not recognise the email, and did not know whether it was one of our members or not.

Tony G

[MarkS]

Thanks Tony.

Whoever it is, seems to be selling off a whole load of other equipment as well to fund a new purchase.

However, I don't think I want to buy a heavy concrete filled pier just before a possible house move ...

Mark

[Mac]

How about this for a template,

http://www.fascias.com/contents/en-uk/d483_Polypipe_200mm_Sewer_Pipes.html

£50 for a 200mm (8") sewer pipe.

3M in length though, so you could sell a further two on fleabay and get your money back.

Just pour in the concrete.

Mac.

[MarkS]

Nice idea Mac!

[Tony G]

Mark,

If you take the option of a concrete pier, let me know as I may be able to get hold of some kind of pipe which you can use as a shutter (construction jargon  )
Just PM ne and let me know.

Tony G

[Carole]

The pier for sale is similar in design to mine and I have problems with the plate at the top which causes an obstruction when the mount has slewed nearly all the way in one direction, I've already had a discussion with Mark about this and it's a design he wants to avoid. 

Image taken without cameras just to demonstrate the problem. 



Also I cannot look through the polar scope properly as the plate is right where my chin ought to go, and only way is with head on one side having to half stand stand and half crouch (uncomfortable for more than a few seconds) and then cannot reach the latitude or altitude knobs with both hands. 



I can get around both of these by drift alignment and calculating when to stop imaging, but it shouldn't have to be be like this. 

So not recommended for my CG5 GT Mount at least. 

Carole

[MarkS]

Image taken without cameras just to demonstrate the problem. 

How do you take an image without a camera?   

[Mac]

pen and paper

[Carole]

How do you take an image without a camera?

Duh, I obviously meant photo taken without cameras attached to scopes :  
You know what I mean.................!

[julian]

Here's my pier concrete and aluminium owls nest.
EQ6 pro and Sky-Watcher 190mm  Mak-Newt
The pier had  an LX200 mount on it. Then changed  to a EQ6 Pro so had to add the owls nest on top.