Before fitting the wedge, the pier was filled with kiln dried sand which is supposed to dampen vibrations quickly.

The wedge was designed by myself and built from 10mm thick mild steel plate with stainless steel adjusting screws and fixing bolts. After welding it was blast cleaned and black powder coated. I purposely designed it to only adjust within a degree or two of my 53 degrees latitude. This kept the design simple and allowed rigidity to be more easily built in. The pier and wedge form such a rigid unit that any vibrations are confined to the fork and telescope.

The telescope has a Meade 2045 4” SCT sat on top as a guide scope which is easily removed to fit on a camera tripod for portable use. The 4" SCT has been kindly loaned to me by my good friend Ted Dubowski, who knew I would put it to good use.

A Peterson Corp. "Eyeopener" replaces the standard Meade fitting which limits the eyepiece opening to 1.5". The "Eyeopener" allows a full 2" diameter light cone to reach the eyepiece, which is essential for getting the best out of long focus wide-angle 2" eyepieces, and allows an un-vignetted field for 35mm photography.

My Televue 31mm Nagler is an incredible eyepiece, which I use more than any other and couple it to a Televue 2x Big Barlow for higher power. My 9mm Nagler is often a bit too powerful (about 300x) for my skies on all but the best nights. I have a Russell Optics 65mm Super Plossl, which has about the same real field as the big Nagler with half the magnification. The telescope is controlled via a laptop computer running Sky Map Pro 8.

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