James
I have some heavy cloud moving in here at the moment. Can I get an extension on the homework til Wednesday?
Everything you have said makes sense, to a point. And is quite clear. But there is just one point of contention. Regardless of how the scope is aligned in relation to the pole, these steps would work but I don't see how it helps to polar align.
Just say you had the mount perfectly aligned. And lets say that points to 182 degrees (a little bit to the right of magnetic south). The centred star will move to the edge of the FoV and look good.
But lets say you were not perfectly aligned and were pointing at 184 degrees (to far to the right). Or even 183 degrees - 1 degree off. The centred star will still move to the edge of the field of view and look good. The star will still line up in the reticle or rather on the lines in the reticle as I rotate the ep. If I press the opposite arrow to move the star back to the centre it will move there okay.
Ah, hang on; hang on. IF you are not aligned properly the star will drift away from the lines as you try to move back to the centre. Okay, that may be where my confusion is. I thought you used the reticle STARTING from the middle and let the star drift as it moved to the outside of the FoV. But there is no frame of reference for that. Do you check the drift as the star moves from the OUTSIDE back to the middle? Yes, this would work.
I am still going to press the post button here after all this typing. Even though I feel I should cancel; go away and try this then come back.
Sorry to be painful about all this. I just seem to have a mental block.
Darrell