36 replies to this topic

[sanford12]

Here's mine. Just finished the pad today. Good thing I've watched a lot of how-to shows/videos and some large projects years ago. At 70 it's a little tougher. Lucky that the house and shed don't interfere much because right at the roof line the light pollution begins. There's the chance of clearing sky's tonight so may get my first EQ mode session in.

 

 

[rickmurray1989]

I feel your pain. I am 24 days out from 70.

[JALabrecque]

Wait until you hit 72+ like me.  Just kidding it's not too bad.  Did you pour your pad or are they commercially available slabs?  I would like something similar for my small scope tripod. 

 

John L.

[Digital Don]

Here's my Seestar S30 observing setup. I use a larger tripod with my S50 but otherwise it's the same.

 

And you can't see it in the picture, but my roll-off observatory is in the background. 

 

Don

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[StrangeAnomaly]

I live in a condominium/townhome complex.  However, it's designed around environmental principles and includes a grove and better still an open meadow, with  the only short trees ringing the meadow.  My condo looks out on the meadow.  Luckily, the community was designed  to be energy efficient so the lighting system in the meadow is close to the ground and is designed only to illuminate the walking paths.  About the only thing that is a negative is that I can't modify the meadow to create a solid foundation for my telescope and I can't leave them out overnight.  It's a safe, quiet neighborhood, but people walk through the complex at all hours because there is a public right-a-way on the paths along the meadow.

 

The biggest nemesis is that it's in the Pacific Northwest (which I love), but clouds love to hang out here quite a bit.

[Cfeastside]

 Way to get at it!

[Orion 3]

Love your set up, very clean and easy to walk around. I put in three patio stones and made sure they were level and set up on those. Since then I built a wheeled dolley to store the set up in the garage and just wheel it out and put 4x4 blocks underneath for stability. I might copy your idea and make a bigger landing pad, less moisture from the dew on the grass underneath the scope.

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[matt_astro_tx]

Here's mine. Just finished the pad today. Good thing I've watched a lot of how-to shows/videos and some large projects years ago. At 70 it's a little tougher. Lucky that the house and shed don't interfere much because right at the roof line the light pollution begins. There's the chance of clearing sky's tonight so may get my first EQ mode session in.

Nice job!  Looks great and I'm sure it will bring many nights of enjoyment. 

 

I'm an imager and I have two vantage points I utilize at my house.  The driveway for Northeastern targets, and the back patio for Eastern and Southern targets.

 

Here's the driveway view from my security camera.

 

 

And here's a shot I took of my scope on the back patio.

 

 

Nothing fancy.  One day I hope to have a dome out in the middle of the back field.

[carver2011]

Wait until you hit 72+ like me.  Just kidding it's not too bad.  Did you pour your pad or are they commercially available slabs?  I would like something similar for my small scope tripod. 

 

John L.

72!  You're just a young pup. I'm  82 and still hauling astronomy gear around. I'm so old, when I pass gas..., dust comes out.

      Ed

[AZ85623]

Travertine tile patio installed by the landscapers in the back corner of the yard.

 

 

Edited by AZ85623, 26 March 2025 - 09:23 PM.

[matt_astro_tx]

Travertine tile patio installed by the landscapers in the back corner of the yard.

 

Classy.

[abby_normal]

no picture ... but I'm restricted to zenith-to-western-not-quite-horizon.  not great, but hey, we deal with what we have.

[rcwolpert]

I’m in a gated community with sidewalk lights and pool lights, Bortle 8.  But it does give me a nice cement foundation with  a bench. 
 

[Stevan Klaas]

 

[sanford12]

 

Travertine tile patio installed by the landscapers in the back corner of the yard.

 

 

 

 

Got it at Menards but it wasn't labeled. Probably is Travertine.

[WillR]

I’m a country boy with a fairly large property and lots of trees, so I have about 4 or 5 principal spots and an equal number I use occasionally. So my tripod goes directly on the ground, as does my dob, although I occasionally throw an old rug under it.

 

I am curious, did you make the slab just because you like the way it looks, or was some other reason? Did you think it would be more solid with less dropped frames? (I assume this is for a Seestar or other smart telescope because you posted it to this forum). I generally avoid placing scopes on anything that absorbs heat during the day and then releases it at night, disturbing the air around the scope.

[sanford12]

I’m a country boy with a fairly large property and lots of trees, so I have about 4 or 5 principal spots and an equal number I use occasionally. So my tripod goes directly on the ground, as does my dob, although I occasionally throw an old rug under it.

 

I am curious, did you make the slab just because you like the way it looks, or was some other reason? Did you think it would be more solid with less dropped frames? (I assume this is for a Seestar or other smart telescope because you posted it to this forum). I generally avoid placing scopes on anything that absorbs heat during the day and then releases it at night, disturbing the air around the scope.

Worded like I need to defend my choice. You'll just have to stay curious.

[WillR]

Worded like I need to defend my choice. You'll just have to stay curious.

Sorry, didn’t mean to offend.

[mdowns]

I use both of my smart scopes on our patio. The pavers do hold heat as noted by Will but I let the equinox sit out long before use and frankly,the image quality of the equinox is never of high quality,pavers or on grass. The Seestar is not directly on the pavers but rather placed on a table grill (that's covered all day) along with the wood disk. The metal cover of the grill has too much flex so I use this piece of wood as a platform.

 

 

                           

 

[sanford12]

Got EQ to work after the last update. Having the 4x4 pad makes set up a good deal faster. Aligned the corner of the pad to true north and the pad is stable, no soft ground. I can grab the S50 that was used the night before take it out put it down. Start the app the elevation is still right. Line up with Polaris. Get the deviation make the adjustments and done. Not much more time than alt/az.

[tcifani]

Just my boring light pollution drenched front yard. My backyard is covered by tall trees.

[SteveFour86]

Trees north and west, hedges east and south 20ish feet, a nice hole in the middle. I have bortle 4 skies and lots of moisture due to the Pacific Ocean and Tillamook Bay.  

[snakehelah]

Although it's like bortle 6ish or maybe 7? I do have a pretty good dark backyard, except when facing west.

Of course, there's still some trees and houses, but ultimately you want to get a bigger angle for better views.

However, facing west, there's a street LED that is just very annoying especially when observing with my dob. I can go behind the house to hide from it, but that means being blocked by the house itself. Other than that if neighbors are sleeping there's minimal lights around me thankfully.

[sanford12]

Although it's like bortle 6ish or maybe 7? I do have a pretty good dark backyard, except when facing west.

Of course, there's still some trees and houses, but ultimately you want to get a bigger angle for better views.

However, facing west, there's a street LED that is just very annoying especially when observing with my dob. I can go behind the house to hide from it, but that means being blocked by the house itself. Other than that if neighbors are sleeping there's minimal lights around me thankfully.

Got lucky. 360 view with most anything worth shooting is above the house and shed roof. The west is the same here. Below 40 degrees not a whole bunch to see because of LP.

[Digital Don]

I have a decent size yard with a great southern horizon.  The field behind me is 100 acres and the farmer alternates between corn and beans.  Beyond the field at the tree line is a creek. 

 

Normally, I just put whichever Seestar I'm going to use on the patio but once the weather decides to cooperate, I plan to run both scopes together on the grass.  Should be interesting!  While you can run multiple Seestars using a single phone or tablet by switching between networks in the device, I plan to use a separate tablet for each scope until ZWO makes switching scopes possible within the app.

 

I've observed with the S50 in the yard before, but this is the first time I've had both Seestars set up together.  I did this mainly to check the spacing and orientation of the scopes, and where to route the external power cords.  The 'Hawkins' box is for my Jackery power supply.

 

Don

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Edited by Digital Don, 16 April 2025 - 05:44 PM.