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Plan A was to use a wood post. This was problematic because wood would warp with time. So it was suggested I use four posts, glued together and alternated their grain. Since wood warps along the grain this would set up a push me pull you setup and keep the post mostly straight. The other problem with this idea is that the wood would decay with time faster then the other plans we looked at.
Plan B was a concrete pillar. I was a bit concerned about this as I have never worked with concrete and had no idea what I would be in for. I was assured by many people that this was the better way to do it, and it would be fairly easy. My Sunday School teacher even offered to help with it. So we decided this would be the plan. I was saving the money up to do it this way, figured it would cost around $100 all said and done. I though we might be able to raise that by December. We ended up scrapping this plan completely too, and going with Plan M.
Why Plan M? Well because M is for miracle! While working out what would be needed for Plan B, I came across a man named Joe. I met Joe on the local astro-club’s Yahoo Group. Joe single handedly turned this from an idea that I might do in December to something I could do the very next day, for a fifth the price! See Joe had a spare steel pier that he made for a similar telescope to mine that he just gave to me. Here is the pier:
Steel_pier.jpg (12.51K) Number of downloads: 270
peir1.jpg (118.27K) Number of downloads: 230
As you can see in the pictures it is a complete unit. All I needed to supply was some nuts and washers to anchor it with and it was ready to go. It even had the holes predrilled that I needed for my mount.
Step 1: Decide a location for the pier. The lower right hand corner of our yard gives us the best range of sky to view. One day we plan to build a building around it, and we used the fence to mark about where the walls will one day be.
location.jpg (51.13K) Number of downloads: 197
Step 2: Dig a hole. For most people this is probably a fairly simple step, but in my case it was the most dreaded step and I was worried about being able to do it. When they built our house, they had to fill in the land to get it out of the flood plane. The fill they used was all the debris left over from when they tore down Opry Land amusement park. My yard is filled with concrete, rebar, PVC pipes, old wires, and God only knows what else. In addition to all that, the dirt is very hard packed clay. I dug as deep as I could go, the hole ended up being just big enough to pour in two 80 pound bags of concrete.
hole1.jpg (56.93K) Number of downloads: 200
Step 3: Add spikes. I added 2 ten inch spikes in to the side walls to give additional support for the concrete block. I almost could not get them in the ground as I kept hitting rocks, and junk.
hole2.jpg (102.2K) Number of downloads: 195
Step 4: Pour in the concrete. I used 2 eighty pound bags of “Quickcrete” and basically just followed the directions on the bags. I tapped down the concrete as I poured it in to prevent air bubbles.
Step 5: Place the post. The post and its bolts are placed directly in to the concrete. The wing nuts are to give the bolts a less round shape. This will help them hold better as the concrete dries. Since the top plate of the post is used for leveling, I only had to get the post close to level. With some mounts you have to be very careful to align the post on the North Celestial Pole, but with my LXD55 there is only one center bolt to hold it, and the mount can rotate a full 360 degrees, making the position of the post a nonfactor.
peir3.jpg (97.1K) Number of downloads: 209
peir2.jpg (62.57K) Number of downloads: 244
That is all there is to Plan M. The post is out there now, setting. I will not put the LXD55 mount on it for a while yet.
Do you guys have to dig below 4 feet because of frost?
. He sure did a great thing here, too.
