Telescope Mount Pier Extension

As usual, whenever my health allows, I tend to be working on a few projects at the same time.  At the moment, I'm working on making a couple of aperture masks for one of my telescopes, I'm doing some landscaping around the house, I'm making some small springtime repairs around the house as I come across them, I'm repairing the grill in our outdoor kitchen, and I'm designing and making a telescope mount pier extension.  This particular blog entry is about the pier extension project thus far.  

Quite often, especially if I use one of my longer refractor telescopes but it is not limited to this one telescope, I find myself wishing I had a taller tripod for my telescope mount.  Sometimes, even when sitting on a very low stool, I need to get my butt off the stool and sit on the ground because the eyepiece is closer to the ground than my eye in a sitting position.  If I use my longest refractor telescope, the telescope will even hit the tripod legs when pointing at or near zenith (pointing directly upward).  As a result, I've been interested in finding a pier extension to place on my tripod that would raise my telescope mount a bit higher away from the ground and away from the tripod legs.  

Unfortunately, nobody makes an extension for my particular mount.  There is one made by Orion which can work with a few adaptations to the extension as well as to my tripod but I didn't want to alter my tripod because I would still like to have the option of using it in its original configuration when I don't need the extension.  As a result, I ruled out purchasing this Orion extension fairly quickly and I started designing my own pier extension.  

I came up with a few different designs through this process.  Each step of the way, I worked through potential problems with each design.  After a few adaptations and some more thinking about the drawbacks of each design, I settled upon one design.  I sketched it out and compiled a list of materials.  On the positive side, making this pier extension myself would cost less than purchasing a manufactured one for a different mount and adapting it to fit on my mount.  On the downside, making one myself would cost me in time and effort which is something I always need to consider because of my health issues.

I decided to make the extension 12" tall.  Most of the available manufactured extensions are either eight inches tall or 16 inches tall.  I decided to go right down the middle at 12 inches.  Having decided on the height, I was now able to order the pipe to be used for the extension.  

I also needed to order a bunch of stainless steel hardware...  threaded rod, coupling nuts, locking nuts, bolts, washers...  and some hardwood.  I ordered all the stainless hardware on Amazon and I ordered a couple of short pieces of Poplar hardwood from Lowes.  Once all the materials arrived, I was able to start making each part.  

Since we are still in the rainy part of the year here in Vermont...  infamously and appropriately known as "mud season" due to all the quicksand-like silty soil when wet...  I chose to set up a small shop in our outdoor kitchen because it is under a roof.  This has allowed me to slowly make some headway with a few projects even through some wet weather.  It is adding some wear and tear to our kitchen but I needed to refinish those butcherblock countertops anyway.  The sun really dried them out in just one year!  So, after I'm finished using the kitchen as a temporary shop, I'll do my planned refinishing of the countertops.  

I'm just at the point in manufacture that allowed me to paint the parts.  Right now, these parts are curing before I do any further work on them.  I don't want to mar any of the newly painted surfaces as it cures so I'm going to wait a few more days before proceeding further.

My tripod is white so I chose white for the color of this new homemade pier extension.  I had a few cans of white spray paint in the house already so this color worked out well for me anyway.  The only thing that would cause a delay would be more rainy weather and/or cold weather.  I needed to spray these parts outdoors in an open area to avoid over-spray ruining other things in our backyard.  Yesterday and today were decent days for outdoor spray painting.  The temperature was around 60 degrees both days and that is around the minimum that I prefer for painting.  This allowed me to apply a few coats of paint to each part.

Next, after a short period allowing the new paint to harden, I'll continue with assembly.  I have a few more holes to drill and I need to glue and screw together some of the hardwood parts.  I also need to add a small azimuth post to the new top plate.  These are all easy things to do but will require a bit of time....  and energy, something that is always short and unpredictable due to my health.

This fairly small project is coming along nicely though.  So far, there are been no major problems and I do not anticipate any at this point.  I'm looking forward to fully assembling this pier extension and giving it a go!

The separate parts curing inside the house.