Collecting  Photons

1) Periodic error

The ideal site does not exist unless you happen to live in the Altacama desert or in Arizona. So, you have to cope with what you have handy. Furthermore it is probably better to have your observatory nearby your house (usage: most clear nights) rather than far away. In my case I am  lucky enough to live in the countryside. The site is the closest spot I could pick near the house, protected from the nastiest dominant wind (from the north, at my site), and with a good unobstructed view. The location of the budding observatory is marked by the piled concrete blocks.

2) CCDcommander and the G42: a marriage that requires some thoughts.

"Run rabbit run, dig that hole and forget the sun..." as the Pink Floyd would sing. The hole for the foundation was about one cubic meter (1.2x0.9x0.9) and at least half of this was excavated in a loose mix of rocks (lots) and dirt (very little). The last 30 cm were excavated in solid rock using only hand tool. It took one month of spare time. Eventually too much was too much and I gave up my target depth (1 meter): this was by far the most unpleasant part of this affaire.

 I made a form with salvaged material to give a shape to the upper part the hole in preparation of the pour. The long edges of the form were carefully levelled since I was going to use the to level the foot of the pier. I drilled four 50 cm deep holes 15 cm from the corner for the rebars. Four holes were drilled at the centre of the foundation for the rebars that will reinforce the pier.

Important: the hole and especially the form were roughly aligned to the local midday so that the long axis run on a east-west direction. This simplified a bit the following procedure to align the pier.