The DIY Pier Kit provides just what the name says: a pier you build yourself. But don't worry this isn't a major engineering project were you start with a set of plans and build everything from scratch. AE have done the technical stuff for you, and provided a kit of parts that contains all the engineering hardware you need to make the actual connection between the top of the concrete pier and the bottom of an equatorial wedge. The actual pier body is made in concrete by the shuttering method using standard 300mm (12") industrial air-conditioning ducting. A list of suppliers who will provide an off-cut delivery service is provided in the comprehensive instructions.

About the designer: born in Ilford in 1959, Robert J Dalby is well known to amateur astronomers as an exacting practitioner and populariser of CCD astro-imaging. He is co-inventor (with Dr Kunihiko Okano) of the LRGB image compositing method, and designer of over 600 astronomy accessories on sale under various brand names around the world. Robert has provided mountings for literally thousands of telescopes used by professional and self-funded astronomers (his preferred term for amateurs!). His high performance telescope mountings can be found from research installations in Moscow to the top of a volcano on La Palma! In 1989 Robert founded Astro Engineering – a UK manufacturer of some of the world’s finest astronomy accessories, many of which can be purchased from Pulsar Optical. When not at the AE works Robert lives under the dark skies of Norfolk with his fiancé and a lazy ginger cat named Boswell.