Quote:
Originally Posted by octebra
Hi, I live in Australia and I have a Skywatcher AZ GTi mount and I can't any definite information on initial setup. Do I point it north or south, do I mount it on the left or right and do I level it ?. If anyone could help that would be great.  Skywatcher tells me to point it south and level it but does not tell which side. |
In the southern hemisphere you need to ensure that you have good polar alignment with the south celestial pole, i.e: the RA (right ascension) axis needs to point at the South Celestial Pole (a point in the sky) which is in the direction of TRUE (not magnetic) south and at an elevation equal to your local latitude. The right ascension axis of the mount is the axis of rotation around which the mount rotates to counteract the movement of the earth relative to the stars and is coincident and parallel with the optical axis of the polar scope.
Best
JA