Nice work Dave although I do not envy you working in that heat. Mine was so different as I had frozen ground to try and dig through lol. Nice solid looking pier, clear skies
Great effort. I was thinking you'd have a lot more room without triping over tripod legs before you said it. All you need now is a better seat in there!
Cheers Ian, yeh, just need to find the right one, but the poly block work great (they were the ones the mount came in!) Going to move the laptop one bay to right so I am away from the counterweight bar, couldn't do that previously due to the tripod leg.
Thanks, Yeh, I had one night in it doing the polar alignment and then a few target hopping and already noticed the difference. Now that the tripod is out of the way, I'm going to move the workstation area one bay to the left to keep me clear of the counterweight bar. The tripod leg was stopping me doing that previously.
Excellent work Dave! That looked hard work, I know what its like digging holes in confined spaces, being a builder for 35 years!! Nicely done, your mount and RASA looks absolutely solid mate! Look forward to seeing your results with your new pier! Clear skies!
Nice! What's pulling you up North to Elgin? When you moving? I'll be heading over to Aberdeen for a short visit later in the year....so not far away, could have a quick catch up...
@@DavesAstrophotography retirement/ downsizing...bortle 5/ 6 to 3/4...! Ill post on the tear down build up. If everything goes well it will be early july. Yeah..could catch up over some beeers?? !
Superb work Dave! - looked like hard going in that heat too mate, after watching all that grafting I nearly fell out of my chair when you said you want to make another pier too haha! 😀 Oh and I can't for the life of me spot the lizard lol!
I am so glad I found your Channel . Don't know why it never showed up in searches before . Luv the use of the pool liner as flooring ! If you want to disguise the big shiny bolts on the Pier Head you could try fingers from heavy rubber black gloves . Saw it somewhere . Still catching up on all your Vids .Cheers/SRK
Thanks, so pleased how well it worked and came out. Couldn't believe it when I spotted the pipe lying on some scrub land in the bushes next to a friends house. Upcycling to the max!
Yeh it was a bit of a challenge, but using the spade bit on a drill was a winner! Iwas melting, didn't realise until I was editing the video and could see a bead of sweat hanging on my nose while I was sitting talking in the observatory after filling the pipe with concrete! I only hit my head hard once near the start of it all when climbing in under the decking.
Super job, as I know from my dome any increase in available space is most welcome. Are the jacking screws for the pier head acting directly on the concrete, if they are it may be worth adding a metal plate underneath to spread the load across a greater surface area.
The jacking screws are on large washers on the concrete and are only used to set the level, after which everything is locked in place on the main tie rods which are 1m into the concrete, it ain't shifting after that. In theory the jacking bolts can be slackened off.
Awesome Dave. That looked really awkward digging that hole mate....Some dedication there! The pier head adapter is a handy thing isnt it, being able to adjust it for allignment. Love that google light switch by the way......Nice touch. It's all looking nice with a lot more space and hope it serves you well man. Really enjoyed your whole journey brining the dome up to where it is now, I bet you are over the moon how its all gone. Cant wait to see all these other piers popping up everywhere and your further plans. Take it easy mate.
You might consider capping the concrete with a steel disc ( say 12mm thick) using epoxy to fill the interface gaps. The steel disc will mitigate the potential issue of the jacking/leveling screws working into the concrete and loosening up.
Cheers Rob, yeh, if I see issues then I would consider this, but getting hold of things like this easily in Cyprus is pretty hard, I went with the liner as it is tough as hell and once compressed down can't see there being any issues long term.
Hi there, as it is a rented property I wanted to try avoiding concrete, it was fine for remote observing, but found I was in the dome a lot, particularly the summer and any movement screwed things up, so ended up going down this route.
I put some old rods and things that were lying around the shed into the concrete. The top 800mm also has the steel threaded bar from the mount. There is not a lot of tension loading, and 8” diameter concrete inside thick walled PVC pipe will be fine.
Hello. I am just new to astronomy and have just completed an observatory. I am now installing a pier and found your video. Now I had planned on using 4.5 inch pipe in a concrete footing also filling the pipe with concrete but am told that is too small. What dia pipe did you use? And why the square footing and not round? FYI I am not using my telescope for photography at this point. Thanks!
Hi there Glenn, congrats on your obo! The pipe I used was 8". I just went with square, it needed to fit within the space between observatory legs, but be big enough to get a lot of mass under the ground, normally you would build the pier footing before building the observatory, but I did it the other way round as I wanted to try with just a tripod in the obo first, but there was too much vibration, so went back and added the pier after. In the video, in the video it does mention the size of the hole and you can also see all the obo support legs I was working between.
You might also want to check out some of the other guys who have also recently built an observatory have their details on their channels, check out @Astrobloke, @lukomatico, @SimonsAstro and @NebulaPhotos to name a few, but lots of great content on YT for obo building.
Just was checking something in video and spotted a visitor...... Can you see the lizard that makes an appearance during one of the inside the obo talking points? Comment the timestamp and location below for bonus points!
Lovely video. Im about to make a concrete pier of 2 meter high. Did u notice any vibrations with your pier? Also do u have a link to the lier extender?
Hi there, no I don't see any issues with pier vibration. I got the pier extension from Baader Planetarium website, but its also on some other supplier sites. It is the Baader Short Pillar III and then you get different rings for the different mount types.
Nice work Dave, especially digging under the deck, that looked like a lot of hard work with those tiny tools.
Thanks, yeh, it was a bit of a struggle, but worth it in the end :-D
Thanks for the video. Very inspiring. Now I need to figure out a pier solution.
Good luck on your pier adventure!
Beautiful, excellent. Thank you for this video.
Thanks Jonathan!
Nice work Dave although I do not envy you working in that heat. Mine was so different as I had frozen ground to try and dig through lol. Nice solid looking pier, clear skies
Cheers Glenn, you do eventually adapt to the heat. Cyprus is mild compared to Qatar, highest I seen it in the garden was 52.3'C when we lived there.
@@DavesAstrophotography 52.3 🥵🥵 that’s crazy temps.
Great effort. I was thinking you'd have a lot more room without triping over tripod legs before you said it. All you need now is a better seat in there!
Cheers Ian, yeh, just need to find the right one, but the poly block work great (they were the ones the mount came in!) Going to move the laptop one bay to right so I am away from the counterweight bar, couldn't do that previously due to the tripod leg.
That will make a big difference - great work! My NexDome is on a concrete slab with a pier tripod as I wanted to keep it simple.
Thanks, Yeh, I had one night in it doing the polar alignment and then a few target hopping and already noticed the difference. Now that the tripod is out of the way, I'm going to move the workstation area one bay to the left to keep me clear of the counterweight bar. The tripod leg was stopping me doing that previously.
Excellent work Dave! That looked hard work, I know what its like digging holes in confined spaces, being a builder for 35 years!! Nicely done, your mount and RASA looks absolutely solid mate! Look forward to seeing your results with your new pier! Clear skies!
Cheers Simon, I'm so chuffed with the outcome. First target is done with the new setup, 3 nights on Iris Nebula. Video tomorrow. 😊
@@DavesAstrophotography I’ll look out for that😀 I should get another one out later this week!
Great job Dave! Should certainly improve guidance. Im going to have to tear mine down and rebuild it 300 miles away - as Im moving to the Elgin area!
Nice! What's pulling you up North to Elgin? When you moving? I'll be heading over to Aberdeen for a short visit later in the year....so not far away, could have a quick catch up...
@@DavesAstrophotography retirement/ downsizing...bortle 5/ 6 to 3/4...! Ill post on the tear down build up. If everything goes well it will be early july. Yeah..could catch up over some beeers?? !
Congrats, You`ve done a great job :)
Thanks Arnstein, still got another one to do for the Edge 11 rig outside the obo.
Superb work Dave! - looked like hard going in that heat too mate, after watching all that grafting I nearly fell out of my chair when you said you want to make another pier too haha! 😀
Oh and I can't for the life of me spot the lizard lol!
Cheers Luke, yep totally worth the effort, made a big difference.
The 🦎 comes in the door at 1:03 bottom right and runs into the first bay where the edge11 is sitting.
I am so glad I found your Channel . Don't know why it never showed up in searches before . Luv the use of the pool liner as flooring ! If you want to disguise the big shiny bolts on the Pier Head you could try fingers from heavy rubber black gloves . Saw it somewhere . Still catching up on all your Vids .Cheers/SRK
Cheers Scott. If I was to cover them so things don't catch I would probably 3D Print some covers.
Great stuff 🙂 well done !
Thanks, so pleased how well it worked and came out. Couldn't believe it when I spotted the pipe lying on some scrub land in the bushes next to a friends house. Upcycling to the max!
Hard enough digging my pier foundation in 18 degrees, must have been double tough in the heat and with limited headroom! Looks great!
Yeh it was a bit of a challenge, but using the spade bit on a drill was a winner! Iwas melting, didn't realise until I was editing the video and could see a bead of sweat hanging on my nose while I was sitting talking in the observatory after filling the pipe with concrete! I only hit my head hard once near the start of it all when climbing in under the decking.
Super job, as I know from my dome any increase in available space is most welcome. Are the jacking screws for the pier head acting directly on the concrete, if they are it may be worth adding a metal plate underneath to spread the load across a greater surface area.
The jacking screws are on large washers on the concrete and are only used to set the level, after which everything is locked in place on the main tie rods which are 1m into the concrete, it ain't shifting after that. In theory the jacking bolts can be slackened off.
Awesome Dave.
That looked really awkward digging that hole mate....Some dedication there! The pier head adapter is a handy thing isnt it, being able to adjust it for allignment. Love that google light switch by the way......Nice touch.
It's all looking nice with a lot more space and hope it serves you well man. Really enjoyed your whole journey brining the dome up to where it is now, I bet you are over the moon how its all gone.
Cant wait to see all these other piers popping up everywhere and your further plans.
Take it easy mate.
Cheers Ben, it has all come together quite nicely. Will wait and see what I come up with next!
You might consider capping the concrete with a steel disc ( say 12mm thick) using epoxy to fill the interface gaps. The steel disc will mitigate the potential issue of the jacking/leveling screws working into the concrete and loosening up.
Cheers Rob, yeh, if I see issues then I would consider this, but getting hold of things like this easily in Cyprus is pretty hard, I went with the liner as it is tough as hell and once compressed down can't see there being any issues long term.
Supurb work. But, I have to ask, why wasn't a pier part of the original design?
Hi there, as it is a rented property I wanted to try avoiding concrete, it was fine for remote observing, but found I was in the dome a lot, particularly the summer and any movement screwed things up, so ended up going down this route.
What reinforcing was included in the concrete? Concrete only good in compression.
I put some old rods and things that were lying around the shed into the concrete. The top 800mm also has the steel threaded bar from the mount. There is not a lot of tension loading, and 8” diameter concrete inside thick walled PVC pipe will be fine.
Hello. I am just new to astronomy and have just completed an observatory. I am now installing a pier and found your video. Now I had planned on using 4.5 inch pipe in a concrete footing also filling the pipe with concrete but am told that is too small. What dia pipe did you use? And why the square footing and not round?
FYI I am not using my telescope for photography at this point.
Thanks!
Hi there Glenn, congrats on your obo! The pipe I used was 8". I just went with square, it needed to fit within the space between observatory legs, but be big enough to get a lot of mass under the ground, normally you would build the pier footing before building the observatory, but I did it the other way round as I wanted to try with just a tripod in the obo first, but there was too much vibration, so went back and added the pier after. In the video, in the video it does mention the size of the hole and you can also see all the obo support legs I was working between.
You might also want to check out some of the other guys who have also recently built an observatory have their details on their channels, check out @Astrobloke, @lukomatico, @SimonsAstro and @NebulaPhotos to name a few, but lots of great content on YT for obo building.
Thanks for reply! I will check those out for sure.
Приятно смотреть как человек занимается тем что ему нравится.
А не ради денег на северах и вахтах
Don't know if something got lost in translation..... Cheers anyway!
At 1:00 a critter can be seen crawling through the door at lower right!!
Congrats! 10 points! 😄
Just was checking something in video and spotted a visitor...... Can you see the lizard that makes an appearance during one of the inside the obo talking points? Comment the timestamp and location below for bonus points!
Lovely video. Im about to make a concrete pier of 2 meter high. Did u notice any vibrations with your pier?
Also do u have a link to the lier extender?
Hi there, no I don't see any issues with pier vibration. I got the pier extension from Baader Planetarium website, but its also on some other supplier sites. It is the Baader Short Pillar III and then you get different rings for the different mount types.