As I've already confessed, I'm putting in my permanent pier bass-ackwards. The observatory has already been built, so now I'm cutting out part of the floor and digging a 4 1/2 foot deep hole. I bought a really neat pair of scissor-action post hole diggers that made it possible to go down three feet in about 30 minutes. But then .. I hit water. That's what happens here in the Pacific Northwest. I'll keep at it and pretty soon, I'll be able to place an 8 foot pipe into the ground with rebar and cement and all the trimmings. (The pipe you see to the left is the actual pipe that will go down into the ground.)

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's backwards to build a pier into an existing observatory but I have little other choice. Here, the heavy black 8-foot sewer pipe is delivered - this will be set deep into the ground and filled with concrete. An adapter plate will then be built to permanently mount the 12" Meade LX90 GPS to the pier.

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 08:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)