Thanks Brian.
The pier is a 4" solid aluminum cylinder, and braced with a 2x3" aluminum bar, both bolted through an end section of railroad track. The rail is 6 feet long, sunk 4 feet into the ground and surrounded by concrete. The shed is on a gravel bed and has a floating floor isolated from the pier structure. I would probably never do it this way again, as the rail steel is flame hardened and can't really be cut, drilled or modified with most tools short of an acetylene torch. Also, if you look at a cross section of rail, there are unusual geometric curves that only mate with custom surfaces. But in the end, it turned out super solid and vibration free and will support any weight scope that fits in the allowed space :).
John
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Losmandy G11G2 on pier; SkyShed design roll-off observatory; ZWO ASI2600MM-P; ZWO ASI071MC; Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED; Celestron C925 Edge HD with 0.7XFR, William Optics Zenithstar 61 APO; PHD2, Sequence Generator Pro and PixInsight user
