| The Questar Tri-Stand Short Pier is a very stable and rigid portable pier that holds your 3.5" Questar telescope eyepiece at an approximately 41" working height for comfortable seated viewing.
The Tri-Stand legs, pier, and most of the equatorial head are precisely machined from aircraft-grade 6061-T6 aluminum which has been anodized black. The hardware is made of stainless steel. An accessory tray, made of a lightweight but durable machined synthetic, mounts on the pier and is free to rotate to bring the eyepieces and filters it is designed to hold to the most convenient position.
The Tri-Stand has three folding tubular legs that open to a 28" point to point leg span. For more compact transport and storage, the legs rotate 180° and pivot up parallel to the pier as shown in the feature image below. The large machine-knurled hand control knob and large tripod leg lock handles are easy to operate even when wearing gloves in winter.
The head of the Tri-Stand slips onto the upper end of the machined cylindrical pier, and is secured in place with hand-tighten knobs so it can be easily removed when desired. The head has a tilt plate that uses a captive 1/4"-20 thread bolt and hand knob to hold your 3.5" Questar. There is a rectangular cutaway in the tilt plate platform to allow you to connect the AC power cord for your scope or the cable for your Questar Powerguide II system into the base of your scope when it is mounted on the Tri-Stand.
Geared manual tilt plate controls in both altitude and azimuth permit a quick and very accurate polar alignment of your telescope. Hand-tighten lock knobs keep each axis from shifting once your scope is polar aligned. The range of fine adjustment in azimuth (left or right) is +/- 30° from center. The standard altitude (latitude) range is from 26° to 90°. However, an optional 26° low latitude wedge #19339A permits use over a 4° to 64° latitude range. Throughout the full range of latitude travel the center of gravity of your telescope remains consistently positioned approximately over the centerline of the pier.
The tilt plate has a latitude scale with engraved markings filled in white. The Tri-Stand works in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres, since dual latitude scales are provided. The close-up feature image of the Tri-Stand below shows the latitude scale. The Tri-Stand pier does not have to be level to permit polar alignment. However, for reasons of stability we suggest setting up where the ground is reasonably level. Optional leveling feet #19335 are available if a precise level is desired for astrophotography. Optional casters #19333 are also available for more convenient moving of the scope and Tri-Stand from indoors to outside.
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