Polar Alignment fo SCP

[leon]

Hi All,

I am just about to put the wedge under my 12"Gps, and as we all know we live in the other part of the world...South.

I have studied and read up on the subject, but of coarse it is all about the Northern Hemisphere.

Do i just follow the Northern Instructions, but do everything to the Southern Direction, is there any tricks that i need to know before i take the 12" of it's peir so i can fit the wegde.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks Leon

[mick pinner]

because of our location we do not have a specific star to mark the celestial pole as Polaris does in the northern hemisphere so drift alignment for acurate polar aligning is the way to go.
make sure when you set the latitude on your wedge that it is set 90 degrees minus your latitude, your wedge needs to be set at true south not magnetic south which for you would be 12 degrees east of magnetic south.
when the wedge and scope are set up the control panel should be facing north, set your dec setting circle to 90 degrees and the ra to 0 degrees, the tube should be facing south and fairly well aligned to the celestial pole.
now you need to drift align to make small adjustments for perfect drift alignment. any problems PM me with your ph no and l will try and help.

[leon]

Thanks Mick, i figured it was something like that, but had to be sure before i started and pointed it in the wrong direction... :P

Cheers leon :thumbsup:

[Lee]

One of the IIS members - rogerg - has some good directions on his website about drift aligning....

[leon]

Thanks Lee Iv'e got heaps of info, so things should be ok, dont know where i would be with out this site, it's really helped and inspired me to keep going in Astronomy

Leon

[5ash]

hi leon,
like you i made my own wedge and i polar aligned using the autostar alignment on the start up menu . All you do is align your wedge roughly by placing the telescope in the equatorial home position (90degrees), then pointing the scope in azimuth to compass south +or - the magnetic shift from true north ( consult ordinance maps of your area or find on web). then set up the autostar as normal and select one star alignment . the scope should attempt to slew to sigma octanis. look through the low power eyepiece and try to identify sigma octanis in the field of view. their should be a pattern of stars in the field of view that contains sigma octanis ( look up one star alignment on the web to find a reference) having identified sigma octanis centre it using azimuth and elevation adjustments. repeat one star alignment several times until sigma octanis is centred in your gotos. I am able to take unguided pics for up to 2.5 minutes with noticeable star drift in only 1/3 of my shots and thats only due to pec error. the rest of the shots show nice round star images. i think this is the easiest alignment method for a wedge and it seems to work fine.
regards philip

[leon]

Thanks Phillip, for your comments, and help, yes i'm going to give it a shot over the weekend, i just have to wait for someone to help me lift the thing off the peir, it's a bit risky on your own, the 12" is pretty heavy.

Cheers leon :thumbsup:

[dcalleja]

Leon
Try this site http://www.southern-astro.com.au/php/guides/lx200gpssouthpolaralignment.php. Pretty good description

I have to drift align and I always get confused with which way to go so have to take some printed pages out with me

Dan

[dcalleja]

I should have noted - I dont try to find Sigma Octanis etc (there is a tree right smack in the way). Drift alignment is tedious but does work

Dan