Tripod on Grass

[KenMiller]

When I image at home I set my tripod on my asphalt driveway. This works well.

I have access to a dark site but it's grass. I put down three 6" square blocks of 1" thick wood and then set the tripod on that.

The tripod is a Takahashi metal tripod and the mount is an EM-400 - so with the scope, there's a fair amount of weight. The ground is firm. I've left the trpod and mount set up for a couple days to permit "settling" but I suspect this arrangement is less than adequate.

I've seen pictures of star party setups and this is what they seem to do for those.

Is there something different I should be doing on the grass?

[edwincjones]

I lay a tarp on the ground below the tripod, so if I drop something it is easier to find. Looking for a small screw/bolt/nut in the grass at night is almost impossible.

edj

[darrenthibodeau]

Actually the feet on the Tak tripod has foot pegs on it. When you set up the mount, push the feet down with your foot to firmly seat the tip into the soil after putting the counter weights on the mount. This should help the tripod settle. You will actually get far less vibration at the mount on the grass then on concrete or asphalt. I have found I need to tiptoe around my EM400 when imaging because concrete bounces a little when you walk on it. You can confirm this by centering a star in your eyepiece on fairly high power, say 300x and having somebody walk around the tripod.

Darren

[pizwiz]

Grass is ideal for setting up your scope.
Concrete and asphalt surfaces such as driveways will radiate heat for several hours after sunset and ruin your seeing for half the night. (The same thing goes for roofs, avoid observing over the roof or chimney of your house)
Just plant the legs of your Tripod firmly and you should be ready to go.

Adolph

[KenMiller]

I'll remove the wood blocks and give that a try. I never would have guessed to actually push the legs of the tripod into the gound. I would have thought that the much higher pounds per square inch would work against me (i.e. - that the legs would never stop settling).

Ironically, last evening the clouds rolled in just about the time I was all set up. While I was waiting for them to clear (they never did), I "installed" three 18" square concrete pads in the grass to put the tripod on.

I'll give those a try too and see what works best.

[Maz929]

Ken I have a 400 but mine is with the wooden tripod with metal tips on the bottom. You may not have that on yours but if you do I find that once I have mounted the scope and all my accessories standing on the medal tips pushes the tips into the ground by 2 to 3 inches. I'm an imager, I have found that the grass does a great job of dampening vibration and is better than other surfaces. The following night my polar alignment is still dead on, no settling. Do you ever go to Chiefland?
John

[KenMiller]

Hi John, I made plans to go to Chiefland this past spring but the fires up there changed those plans. It's been too hot since. I plan on going this fall.

As to the tripod...

I'm using a different rig now. I put those pads down because I wanted to leave the tripod in-place. I didn't think it was a good idea to leave the tripod pushed into the ground and I figured that when the ground got wet it'd shift.

The pads actually worked great once they settled.