square_peg
Postmaster
Reged: 03/26/04
Posts: 36712
Loc: Maple Valley, WA
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Nice looking hoops! Man, I thought it was tough getting materials up here on Lopez Island, but Ireland sounds even tougher. 
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Tom (Pegster)
DSH-8 (GSO Dob)
15x70 Oberwerks
ED80/SVP
WO 66P
Sears Discoverer EQ 60/900
8x42 Regals
History is Philosophy teaching by examples.
Thucydides
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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In Ireland, we've even got a saying for using whatever is handy: "aah, it'll be grand."
It's a very common phrase, 'cause the correct thing can be so bloody hard to come by. 
-- Jeff.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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Here's a quick picture of the pier steel cage under construction.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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And, back out at the hole, a bit of scaffolding in preparation for standing The Pipe up.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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rboe
Reged: 03/16/02
Posts: 63466
Loc: Phx, AZ
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Ah, to make some popcorn and watch you erect the pipe. Should be entertaining. 
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Ron
NS11GPS
Pronto
16" dob
127mm F9 Surplus Shed/Crawmach kit scope
Coronado SolarMax 40 on a Celestron 102 Wide Field
Best of ATM
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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Ahhh.... 20 ounces of Ireland's finest. - when a lager just won't do
- when a long, hard day's work is done
- when you're in need of a bit of replenishment
Guinness is for strength.
Oh, and that thing in the background? That's just an 1800 lb pipe sitting on some blocks in a hole in the ground.
-- Jeff 
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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Today I hung the steel cage inside the pipe (suspended from the wooden collar that also holds the pipe upright). I then wired in a square cage around the pipe in the hole, and tied it into the round cage coming out the bottom. The square cage is also hung (the hangers are a bit hard to make out, but the red arrows point to them).
The perspective (and lighting) isn't very good in the picture, the all the steel is suspended off the pit bottom by about 3".
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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rboe
Reged: 03/16/02
Posts: 63466
Loc: Phx, AZ
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Since that pipe is steel reinforced - what's all the extra steel for inside it?
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Ron
NS11GPS
Pronto
16" dob
127mm F9 Surplus Shed/Crawmach kit scope
Coronado SolarMax 40 on a Celestron 102 Wide Field
Best of ATM
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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In Ireland, only the 24" and up have steel in them. (This one's an 18".)
That being said, I haven't a clue if the steel is needed. But as an amateur, my motto is: when in doubt, overbuild. (Beats having to do it over again.)
-- Jeff.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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davidpitre
Post Laureate
Reged: 05/10/05
Posts: 3183
Loc: Central Texas
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Quote:
That being said, I haven't a clue if the steel is needed. But as an amateur, my motto is: when in doubt, overbuild. (Beats having to do it over again.)
I'll second that. Especially considering the size and weight of the scope you're putting on it.
Good job. It looks bomber!
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David
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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Today was the big pour. The cement truck arrived at 11am with 1.5m³ of concrete for the base. In this picture, the driver has just started the pour. The gentleman in the blue sweatshirt is a mate; I'm in the blue plaid. (My girls are the ones in pink. Gotta love the Wellies on the youngest!)
-- Jeff.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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The hole's about 1/2 full here, and we're tamping away....
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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A closer view.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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We gave the base about 1 hour to start firming up, while we set up the mixer and scaffolding. The remaining 1/2m³ was mixed on site (1:4 cement:batch, with PVA admix), and bucketed to the top of the pipe over a course of roughly 3 hours. The inside of the pipe was sprayed with a 1:2 PVA:water mix as we went to encourage good bonding.
Lastly, the 3 20mm J-bolts were wiggled down in a 3/4" plywood jig. The plywood was insufficiently thick to keep the bolts straight, and so we had to do quite a bit of messing around. The final result still wasn't perfect, but should be sufficient.
-- Jeff.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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I threw together a quick drawing for the steel pier that goes on top of the concrete one. I'm doing the top bit in steel for two reasons: more room around the scope for my Kendrick Ultimate III observing chair (a great chair!), and more flexibility to switch out piers for altaz fork, polar fork, or GE mounts.
I'm going to get quotes for both stainless and for powder-coated steel. Stainless would be really nice (especially here in humid Ireland), but it may be significantly more money. We'll see....
You'll note that some of the dimensions allow quite a bit of range. I find things tend to be cheaper if the machine shop can use stuff at hand, rather than having to machine down larger bits. So where the final dimension isn't really important, it's good to give plenty of flexibility.
BTW: I've posted a jpg of one of the drawings. I have the original (w/ top, side and bottom views as well) in a PDF -- if anyone wants the full Monty, give a shout.
-- Jeff.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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tcraig
sage
Reged: 02/19/05
Posts: 439
Loc: Northern Indiana
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Wow quite a project. I would give you a quote for the pier but I am afraid that the shipping cost from Indiana to Ireland
would probably be prohibitive.
Cheers
Tcraig
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KC9RRV
LXD75-SN10
LPI
300D
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nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 9841
Loc: London UK
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Hi Jeff-nice sketch - are you seriously mounting your SCT alt-azimuth? It's so easy to do equatorial and incline the top plate to your latitude like http://www.astroman.fsnet.co.uk/pier.htm
Of course the pier needs offsetting to the south so the scope axes intercept near the dome radius.
Nytecam
51N 0.1W
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs+spectrographs
SX M9+Lodestar-C CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR
My Meade astrograph-colour deepsky
My supernova discovery
My dome build/spectroscopes/DSO images/Lodestar colour images & videos
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Jeff Young
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/04/05
Posts: 4491
Loc: Ireland
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Quote:
are you seriously mounting your SCT alt-azimuth?
Fraid so. It took me long enough to come to terms with the right and left arrows having opposite consequences in the finder vs. the eyepiece. I find the motion in equatorial very counter-intuitive. If I ever get into imaging, I suppose I'll have to cross that bridge, but for now, I find it easier not to fight my brain.
It's a funny thing how brains work. People ask me all the time if I have trouble switching between driving on the right vs. on the left. And I tell them I don't. However, I did have trouble shifting. Turns out while most people learn that 1st and 2nd are to the left, and 3rd and 4th are to the right, my brain internalized it as 1st and 2nd are closer to my leg, and 3rd and 4th are farther away. Get in a right hand drive car, however, and that doesn't work anymore 
-- Jeff.
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Nikon 18x70s / UA Millennium Colorado:
Solarscope SF70 / TV Pronto / AP400QMD Coronado SolarMax40 DS / Bogen 055+3130
APM MC1610 / Tak FC-125 / AP1200GTO Tak Mewlon 250 / AP600EGTO
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MMICKELS
Aluminum Knight
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 36050
Loc: Land of Shake and Bake
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Tcraig, we sure do have a lot of machinists and ME's on CN.
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Mark
I'm going outside to stand, so if anyone asks I am outstanding.
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tcraig
sage
Reged: 02/19/05
Posts: 439
Loc: Northern Indiana
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MMICKELS
Well actually I am a machinist that is also a MET (mechanical engineering tech) I am some what of a problem for sports fans around here because I got a MET deg. from Purdue but, I am an avid IU basketball fan. I would say football also but there hasn't been much to be a fan about.
I suppose this hobby attracts a lot of people like me because we enjoy doing things with our hands and fixing things that don't work, or improving ones that do.
I built a pier similiar to the one Jeff is building about a month ago for myself. It took about 30 min after work one night.(although mine was aluminum) So I would gladly build one for him at no cost, just provide the material cost,
but I am afraid that shipping would be outrageous.
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KC9RRV
LXD75-SN10
LPI
300D
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