heyjojos wrote:Hi
I wrote to Celestron on this and they told me I have to build a pier to for the mount to sit on... otherwise the counterweight would run into the tripod legs. I believe this should work... Is that true? If so, how do i build a pier?
They also mentioned that all their German equatorial mounts needs the pier to work in Singapore??? I don't believe it as I have seen guys operating the scope without the pier.
Appreciate your advise. Thanks!
Yes, you can operate the scope without a pier. It is possible, but it is not optimal. The issue here is that in order for the mount to work in Singapore, you have to lower the latitude setting all the way down, as well as to extend the tripod legs on one side more than the other in order for it to be properly polar aligned. Because of the low latitide adjustment, the counterweight tends to run in the tripod legs. To prevent that, you can point the mount between two tripod legs. However, this is slightly precarious because of the lowered stability. That said, I have used a CG-5 for a number of years doing this without any issue, and it can only go down to a minimum of 10 degrees latitude with some minor modifications. Still, you have to be cautious not to bump into your telescope while doing so.
Having a pier (or half-pier) would eliminate this problem, although the issue of going to 1 deg north will still exist. Having a wedge might help, although finding one is undoubtedly difficult.
Hope that helps.
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