Engineered in-house by us, this pier extension is made of CNC-machined and hard-anodized 6061-T6 aluminium and is designed to accommodate the Sky-Watcher CQ350 and EQ8-R & EQ8-RH mounts on the CQ350 metal tripod and Geoptik Hercules wooden tripods. This is an essential accessory when using long refractors to avoid collision between the tube and tripod.
The pier extension has at the base 4 though holes that allow connecting the extension to the tripods listed above. Only 2 holes at the time can be used, 2 bolts are included with the pier extension.
The central threaded hole on the lower plate allows screwing the central bolts/knobs of the Hercules and CQ350 tripod.
On the CQ350 tripod, the azimuth pin needs to be removed before connecting the CQ350 pier extension to the tripod.
The stainless steel bolts connected to the top plate works as an azimuth pin: for the CQ350 the pin needs to point south while for the EQ8-R, the alignment is opposite and the pin must point north. These indications are valid for the Southern Hemisphere, for the Northern Hemisphere are opposite.
The two M8 threaded holes on top of the plate allows to secure the mount to the pier extension, the bolts are included with the mount.
The central through hole allows connecting the mount to the pier extension. This bolt is also included.