gem question

I'm about to place a permanent mount pier in my back yard for my fork mounted sct. but since I may switch to a GEM mount in the future I need to leave enough space between the position I will mount the pier and the fence of the back yard. I am working in tight spaces. My question is how long is the counterweight shafts on most popular mid size Equatorial mounts. ie. vsp,vgp, cg5 lxd55 and75 ect. thanks.

Robert Poeske said:

I'm about to place a permanent mount pier in my back yard for my fork mounted sct. but since I may switch to a GEM mount in the future I need to leave enough space between the position I will mount the pier and the fence of the back yard. I am working in tight spaces. My question is how long is the counterweight shafts on most popular mid size Equatorial mounts. ie. vsp,vgp, cg5 lxd55 and75 ect. thanks.

If you leave enough room so a normal sized person can fit between the mount and the fence while observing with your scope you should be fine.

My lxd55 counterweight bar is about fifteen inches long--and since the weight can sit at the end, it may hang a few inches past that. My G-11 is about 12 or 13 inches long. And when assembled, remember these things point to the ground, so they are less than that away from the pier. For instance, assembled, the G-11 bar itself is about 11 inches away from the pier, and with weight, the edge of a six inch weight, at the end of the bar (at 34degrees north) is about 13 or so inches away from the pier. All measurements are quick and dirty, and accurate only to an inch or two--(I mean I measured with a ruler, but I was not working real hard at it.)

But why are you are engineering something that tight?

You will need more room around the scope than just what you need for the counterweight bar.

Alex