Building a Pillar for My Equatorial Mount

My astrophotography journey has taught me a number of things. One of the hardest lesson has been the fact that polar aligning an equatorial mount every time you go out is no easy task! I spend on average about an hour aligning the mount every outing, and most of the time the

Equatorial Mount Pillar

Equatorial mount pillar close up
alignment job leaves a bit to be desired. I can count on one hand the number of times I have done a really good job aligning the mount in my hurry to get an imaging session started. I knew that the solution to this problem was a pillar.

The whole point of a pillar is to do a really good job polar aligning the mount and then forgetting about it. Of course pillars have many other advantages like providing a much more stable platform as opposed to a tripod, but the alignment benefit was my main reason for building one.

I am a stickler for simplicity, so as you can tell my pillar design is very simple. I purchased an eight foot pressure treated 4x4, and a fifty pound bag of cement from Home Depot as the core elements for the pillar. The 4x4 was cut into two pieces one of which was cut to five feet. The five foot section was the one I used for the actual pillar. I then dug a 2 foot deep hole and placed the 4x4 into the hole. I partially filled the hole with dirt and packed it so I could level the pillar. I used a few different levels to make sure that the pillar was level in both the horizontal and vertical axes. This part is probably the most important so I made very sure that everything was well leveled. Having an unleveled mount surface is not the end of the world, but it does make polar alignment more time consuming so just make sure everything is level!

I then used a 5x5 inch piece of plywood which I treated with spar urethane as the surface for the mounting of the actual equatorial mount. This is the trickiest part as you will have to figure out what the best way to attach the mount to the pillar will be. I ended up drilling a hole on the top of each tripod leg attachment point on the mount. In the picture to the right, you should be able to see the bolts which go through the mount and through the plywood board to fasten the two pieces together.

Finished Pillar and Scope

The finished pillar with the scope attached


With this accomplished, I then had to figure out how to attach the mount to the actual pillar. What I ended up doing was drilling two holes in the center area of the plywood board and screwing two wood screws into the pillar itself. You can't see this in the picture above as the equatorial mount is on top of and covering the two screws.  
 

I had to use spacers between the plywood and the pillar because I had to create a gap for the nuts that fasten the mount to the plywood board. Depending on the size of your mount this might not be necessary. Unfortunately, it was for me though.

One thing you might be wondering by now is what is that thing that is attached to the mount and pillar on the right side of the pictures. Well, let me explain. After purchasing my Orion EQ mount and RA motor, I soon discovered that with the RA motor attached I was severely limited with what I could image when pointing the scope towards the East. This was because the motor when attached directly to the mount was in the way of the range of motion of the scope. I decided to move the motor down and away from the mount and scope to give me more room. I can now image a much larger area when the scope is pointed towards the East. 

Pillar When Not In Use

Pillar protected from the elements

In the picture to the right you can see that I also created a small board to help organize my equipment when out imaging. One thing which I have noticed is that in the dark you tend to misplace everything! So the more organization space I have the better.

Keeping the equatorial mount out of the weather is a big deal. As I don't have an enclosure project in the future lined up for the pillar I had to compromise. When not in use, the only things that stay outside are the mount and RA motor. I sealed the motor with silicone and packed all moving parts of the mount with grease. I also cover the entire mount with a water proof cover when not in use. Only time will tell if these measures are sufficient to keep the mount working properly. I surely hope so!

Well, these are the details surrounding my equatorial mount pillar project. I spent about two hours one evening initially drift aligning the mount with K3CCDTools3's recticle feature. I regularly go out and test the alignment of the mount to be sure it is still aligned correctly.

I hope what I have provided here will give someone out there some ideas, and if you have any questions or comments send me an email. Have fun, and clear skies.