Building a Telescope Pier

Build a Pier

I hope to show you that even a novice at DIY can build a secure pier for their scope.

I decided to build my own simply because this would be my second I had hand built, and the first one Polar aligned.

My original pier for my LX200 once built was surprisingly solid and I was very pleased with it.

The materials are as follows, this shows just how cheap these can be built for.

All materials from B & Q.

1 x six foot post – £08.00

1 x Pack carriage bolts – £06.00

1 x External Board (For faceplate) – £05.00

1 x Pack wood Woodscrews – £01.25

2 x Bags Postmix – £06.25

Total cost of build = £25.50

I cut an angle in cardboard, this angle being 51° North, this would allow the ETX to be st in Polar Mode.

I used the cardboard to draw the angle on the top of the post.

Once this was done I commenced cutting the wood and not having a angular saw,

having to do this by hand was the difficult. bit.

I used a six foot post, three and half foot being above the ground, funnily enough about the same hight as my son.

The post was placed in the ground facing NORTH.

Having secured the pier/post in the ground with one and a half bags of post mix,

I started on the faceplate this would be what the scope would be ultimately attached to.

REMEMBER WHEN CEMENTING THE POST INTO PLACE

THE FACEPLATE EDGE HAS TO FACE TOWARD NORTH.

Above shows the space left around the scope,

plenty of room for the bolts I would use to attach the two faceplates together.

The finished article complete with the ETX in polar alignment.

Note the faceplate faces North.

View along the scope pointing at Venus.