I'm an equal-opportunity imager. I have images from my Epsilon f/3.3 astrograph with SXV-H9 and my Televue 4-inch refractor with Canon 20D. I also have a "digital sketch" of what my

Hi James, Thank you for your reply. I agree that there is no reason to fill concrete in the tube. However, due to the friction among the grains, sand has a good damping effect -- should you beat the

Thanks Roland - I am sure that it will look great on one of your AP3600GTO's... Two pieces of art and workmanship :-) James lot of scope for the money for sure. Excellent optical design

It was a really great conference. Professional in every way and lots of fun. As Ahnold said: I'll be back! Rolando

I have seen the Plane Wave CDK20, and it is an awesome instrument. A lot of scope for the money for sure. Excellent optical design and execution and workmanship. Rolando

Here are more photos from all three days at AIC. I made the photos from Day 1 are also larger

Thanks Dean. Sorry, no computers in my observatory, yet. I'm old fashioned that way, and i am still using film too... yeah, a dying breed. May try an exposure tomorrow night, although the weather is

areas, so you end up chasing your tail trying out other people's "fixes" The best fix is to determine the cause of the problem directly. Indeed, as far as I can determine it is an issue with the

I cant wait to hear a pempro run, and hope you will report under 3 without pec on!! Congrats on the new mount. 2 weeks & 6 days to go for mine, but who is counting :) Dean

Hey all, The new 1200GTO arrived on Friday, was setup on it's pier with no trouble on Saturday and tonight I've run a couple 2 star alignment routines and it's fairly close. I'm going out later to

Hey guys, just in case you're local and need one of these? I have for sale a Le Sueur Astro-Pier, 42" for an Astro Physics AP900GTO Mount. This pier is in excellent condition and will provide an

Tom, Awesome idea! I will do exactly that... James

It was great to see both Marj and Roland at AIC this year. What a mount! I got on the notification list which already had quite few noteworthy names on it. It should carry a large astrograph in Oz

is A bowed top plate seems hard to avoid with welding, yet at the same time realatively easy to remove with a power grinder. Since I'm anal about this I follow up with a tile tool and Carbo (standard

Great points Niels! As to filling the steel pipe - only the bottom of the pipe had some concrete go into it from below. However, there isn't much concrete in the pipe. I purposely chose to not have

James, Did you fill anything into the tube? Are you sure it is wise to weld it instead of bolt it? There is a danger that the plate will not be flat afterwards. Best regards, Niels Foldager

I know - first there was aperture fever, now there is mount capacity fever...! And it seems that while it used to be that the former drove the latter, I may be entering a stage in the disease where

Thanks Joe for the suggestion - I will use it! Once mounted, I am not planning on taking off the AP1200GTO until I get the AP3600GTO... :-) Yeah, pier height adjustability of my solution is the one

Hi James, In all that discussion about pier heights, I suppose you have considered that in the end it might be preferable to have the AP1200 saddle at a final height, such that you can flip the

Rick, Thanks for asking - I can see that my description is pretty confusing (it confused me too when I re-read it)... Just one point of clarification, - the pier is a bit tall because the floor of