Wow, Glenn, It's obvious that there is more to astronomy than astronomy! That is shaping up to be a world class observatory. I am looking forward to seeing your next video on the actual build of the observatory. Your new location appears to be a great spot for observations.
Hi Pat and thank you. I hope the image in my head can be realised in the flesh. I am more builder than Astronomer these days lol. Our new garden is amazing, I know my wife will be working hard to bring out all its beauty like you do in your wonderful space mate,
One of the best pier construction videos Ive seen. Great Idea with the cable tube. I'm def gonna do it like this for my future dome observatory. Thanks for sharing Glenn!. Dave, London UK.
Hi Dave and thank you for taking the time to watch and comment. They are working really well and if you have any questions please just let me know. Good lick and clear skies
Hi Logan, hope you are well mate. I need to sit and catch up on your dual setup videos. I hope that is all working well. Always fancied 2 piers so very happy to be able to build it. Lots still to do but coming along nicely.
Thank you. My first Obsy build at my last house was a small budget one based on a Keter shed. Thereare a few videos on my channel on that build if you haven't seen them, may help. Good luck and clear skies
Hi Steve. At one point I had a compass and 2 iphones lol. Its as near as and I am confident the mounts have enough adjustment to align even if a little off. Thanks for commenting, clear skies
Thank you mate. I really do feel like things are progressing if not as fast as I would like. Thanks for dropping by. Just watching you comet video. Clear skies
Awesome video, looking forward to seeing the rest of the build take shape. I plan on building two piers this year (EQ6 and EQ8 as well) so this video was particularly useful🙂
Hi Pete and thank you for commenting. That's excellent that you have the same plans for the same mounts that I had. Definitely the best thing you can do for your mount. I really miss my permanent set up. Look forward to sharing the rest of my project. clear skies
Congratz on your new piers! I love watching how you build everything. I feel like I’m about 6 months to a year behind you and it’s great because I can see how you build everything before I get to it! Your setup looks great, and I can’t wait to see your final product.
Very nice, consider using your smart phone to find north. It’s not magnetically influenced, it find direction through tower triangulation. Looking forward to the next video.
Hi Woody. I actually used 2 iphones and a magnetic compass. Even the iphone compass would sometimes appear to change its North posiition. It all seems good though and has worked out as I checked them last night with a laser and Polaris. Hope to follow with more videos soon.
Looking good mate that obsy's gonna be huge, looking forward to the next instalment. Seeing how you guys build these piers makes me wish I'd done the same with mine as it's just a steel tube bolted to threaded bar sunk in concrete. It's still solid but could have done with being a bigger diameter really especially when I get round to swapping mounts.
Thank you Tich. I was lucky to have made a good solid pier before and just done the same but scale it up. At the end of the day mate if it works and once aligned holds your rig stable that's all you need. Problem with mine is if I change my mind and want to move it I'll need some dynamite lol
Thank you Simon and of course all your help is making this a reality which I cannot thank you enough. You are welcome anytime and I am sure we will have some great nights imaging in the future
Congrats on the new piers .. amazing "Go for it !" attitude on your part. i look forward to seeing the entire slab complete and the telescopes active. great job. 😀🔭☄
Thank you for the kind comments. I do love a project to keep me busy, although this is a large one for me. Its all going well though and am excited to complete my dream build. More videos to follow, glad you are enjoying them
Great job, Glenn, though I recommend 3 thicker rods on the top instead of 4. That way the actual mechanical stability and adjustment are easily achieved.
Thanks Jean. The pier adapter is pre drilled for 4 and this is the same build design as my previous pier which worked perfectly. This should be even better as the foundation block and pier diameter are a lot larger.
Glenn, I`ve ordered the same pier adapter from AltairAstro for my EQ6 R PRO. I couldn`t find the exact diameter for the pier adapter on their webside. Could you help me here?
Awesome Glenn - Using the heat ducts as the mold is great idea. You are going to have the most professional looking home built observatory out there. One question, I know you leveled the tops but ids there still a way to do small adjustments in case you have a small amount of settling over time or an an earthquake 🙂? Cheers
Hi Kurt and thank you. Should be ok for earthquakes but never say never. The 4 bolts beneath the top plate allow for adjustments for any levelling that may be needed. Thanks for dropping in, clear skies
You mentioned using a compass.. compass will give you magnetic north, what you need is true north so that you can match earth inclination. They are close but slightly different angle.
You need to watch the full build videos. That was just the hardcore base, on top was placed type one and then compacted, then plastic for damp proofing followed by reinforced grid and then 4-5 inch of concrete.
Brilliant effort mate, especially since you're in a new place. I'm amazed you get permission from the gaffer to crack on so soon, I've had 101 other things to do so my project is a slow burner 😆 Great video, can't wait to watch it develop Glenn 👍 Clear skies 🪐🔭✨️
Hi Mark and thank you mate. I am very blessed to have a lovely wife that supports me in following my hobby. Still lots to do but feel like good progress being made. Clear skies
Just a question! What height should a concrete pillar be usind a HEq5 or EQ6-R in a roll off shed with a shed height of about 210cm after the roof has been rolled off
If you ever do this again get yourself a hockey stick pvc conduit. It's what they use for meter boxes. A nice really slow bend and makes threading cable easier. I did a similar build years ago but with 300mm conduit with 900mm cube under the ground. My back didn't thank me.
Thank you. I cannot imagine ever doing it again lol. Thats a good tip with the Hockey stick pipe, not heard of that. Thanks for watching and commenting, clear skies
@@Astrobloke if you Google electrical hockey stick you'll see what I mean. It's a single moulded pipe so nothing to cause cable to hang on. Mine is an open garden pier but I leave the complete setup there all year under BBQ covers. I ran 240v/12v/cat6 through mine from a workshop at the end of the garden.
Great work Glenn, are your cables be running under or above the floor in the observatory ? As I can see where the holes are I suppose above floorlevel ?
yes I decided above as they will be run from one building to the other and they are to be joined so will not be exposed to the outside at all. Will most probably run a conduit for them
Great content bloke! Im in process of building my pier too, however i only one rebar 14mm, wacked rebar around 2 feet, would it be sufficient? my footing will be 500x500 and 600mm deep. I'm using 200mm pipe. I hope this would take eq8 in future. Please let me know if you think i need more rebars or one would work too. Many thanks
Hi Tadas. Thank you for you nice comment. Any rebar is better than none. The size you have gone for is more than adequate. My first pier was only 150mm and held the EQ8 no problem. I would say that ideally you need 3 rebar to give the concrete more reinforcement. Hope thats helpful, regards Glenn
@@Astrobloke thanks for such prompt response man. I will grab couple more rebars from work, just to be safe i guess. Keep the lovely content coming! Clear skies!
Thank you so much, sorry it has taken a while to reply, I kept forgetting to take my tape measure down with me. The obsy internally is 2.8m x 3.3m or 9’2” x 10’10”. The piers are 1.5m apart 4’11” and offset from the centre line about 1’ either side. Hope that helps
Hi Jeremy. I ordered from www.ducting-online.co.uk 01628529122. I called them and ordered over the phone. Online I was ordering 1 x 3m length and was going to cut it in half. I called them as I inquired about getting a pipe with no dents. They said the best way was to buy 2 x 1.5M lengths as these come boxed and so better protected so that is what I did. Good luck and any questions please ask, happy to help.
Great video Glenn. Question I have is how thick of metal plates are you using? I changed my build to follow more along what you are doing as yours is much easier.
Hi and thanks for watching and commenting. The metal plates are 3mm thick. They don’t even need to be that thick to be honest as all the weight is taken on the 4 threaded bars set into the concrete. I could have just used the new acrylic discs which are 5mm as these are just to cap off the pier top. I was just going to use the metal plates but because of the larger tubes there would have been a gap hence the larger acrylic ones. All for finished look rather than structure. Hope this helps
Great video Glenn your new observatory looks massive mate any chance of seeing the floor plan with the dimensions, also how did you work out the height of the piers, really looking forward to seeing the rest of the build
Hi Tony and thank you. The office is 14’ x 11’ and the obsy will be approx 8’ x 11’ with a gap of 1’-2’ between the buildings so only the obsy roof rolls off. I will join them both together so I can walk between the 2. The dimensions are not exact as I will adapt them to fit the space I have. Will update with more videos soon. Clear skies
Hi William. I have since checked them at night with a laser and they are looking very good. The mounts are easily within the adjustment parameters of the mounts so will have no issues Polar aligning. That is the only downside to building a pier like this in that once set it cannot be changed (well not easily)
Im avidly following this while building my own pier - how are you securing the EQ6 to the pier top? Ive bought the same parts but cant see how you've threaded the mount through? Keep up the good work 👍
Hi and thank you for watching and commenting and hope the video helps. I used a short length of M12 threaded bar and using 2 nuts and a large washer was able to secure the mount to the Altair mount adapter.
WOW Glenn, looks like it is coming along nicely!! you and Simon are gonna have the best Observatories in the UK!! What do the nieghbours say? have they asked what you are doing or have you gave them the info? Clear skies!
Hi Jason, having Simon help me I stand a good chance of a quality build for sure. The neighbours all know whats going up but I still get questions. Its not a normal build and must look weird to a non Astronomer. Thanks again for that lovely data you shared and hope you are well and had a successful trip to Alpha Scorpii. Clear skies
Is a concrete pier like this more stable that the metal tube piers that many astronomy shops sell? Also, you mentioned having issues with your compass to find North. Did you make adjustment for your location taking into account True north vs Magnetic north. I believe it would be true north that you want to reference and not magnetic north, correct?
Hi David. I would not say they are more stable but as a more affordable option well worth considering and going to the effort of making. The steel piers sold are very expensive yet they come with design features to make them resistant to any vibrations. For me I felt the cost was too high and you would still need a large concrete base to mount the pier on. As I mentioned its difficult finding north albeit magnetic or true. Both my piers are Polar aligned so all is good but it was a challenge. Thank you for watching and commenting on the video. Clear skies
To get a very good idea of where North is, use Google Earth to draw a line due north from your obsy, and see what local landmarks/features/buildings etc fall along (or close to) that line. Presto! you nave a geographically based North line :)
Thats a great tip and should I ever do this again I will try that out. I have this evening checked the pier alignments with a laser and Polaris and all looks good so it seems I managed to get them where I needed. Looking forward to testing them out once they have had some good cure time.
I’ve been planning my pier for a bit, and I’m marking north before I lay rebar, and orienting the edges of the pier forms N-S. About 6 months till I break ground. Maybe sooner if I get permission from the Mrs 😜
Hi and thanks for your comments. I didn’t think it really needed that. It doesn’t show it clearly in the timelapse but it was poured in slowly and carefully and poked with a stick vigorously to remove any large air pockets that may have formed.
