The pier-baseplate-on-the-tripod project is complete, and...

The pier-baseplate-on-the-tripod project is complete, and tonight’s slogan is “Summer: portable, Winter: pier” (a slogan typically means “a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising”, but you can probably tell I’m using it in the historic “Scottish war cry” sense here). The skies look clear this evening, and I’ll still be using the William Optics ZS61 on the “pier”, which stands just off the back deck. I set this up last fall so that I could do my astro stuff through the winter, and not have to lug a lot of heavy, expensive equipment through snow and ice, and all winter long I’ve been carrying my EQ mount, scope, and counterweights five steps out the back door to set it down and bolt it to the aluminum baseplate. It was easy and I could ready to go in a few minutes. Well, it’s almost time to move the whole operation further from the house. See the shed in the background there? This time of year, and through the autumn, I usually work off the tripod out there, about 120 feet/36m from the house. This gives me a lot more sky east of the meridian–a lot more than the view from the deck, which has a tree obstructing things to about 45° to the northeast, and I can only reach 10-15° past the meridian to the south. So, it’s almost time. I’m ready with my portable tripod (with the pier plate). I’m ready to shout that war cry to summer night sky: “SUMMER PORTABLE!”