Pier Without Fine Leveling Adjustment / Photograph

Hi,
I am wondering if I mount to a pier without fine leveling adjustments will it work for astrophotography? In other words, I have no way of leveling the pier after it is set in the concrete (but do have electronic levelers). On a tripod currently, I am able to track for a few minutes without declination guiding with PHD. I would like to do the same on a pier (but better) and wondering if this limitation will hamper this goal of getting polar alignment sufficient such that declination guiding can be turned off. I have an older fork mount (declinationn guiding challenges). If would be great to find out before I put the pier in the ground/concrete.

Thanks for looking,

Alan

You don't need to perfectly level the pier in order to get perfect polar alignment. It is "easier" to achieve polar alignment via drift alignment, but you can do it even if the pier is off by many degrees. If it is off N-S then there is no problem whatsoever since drift alignment is not affected at all. If it is tilted E or W, a drift alignment takes a bit more time since you will need to go back and forth a few times, but it will converge on the pole eventually.

All you need for perfect polar alignment is to be able to point the polar axis to true north, and that is possible regardless of tilt of the pier.

Rolando

You can use levels to check that the pier is level when you set it in the concrete, then hold it there with boards on the point while it cures.
But as was said before, it need not be prefect to get your polar alignment.