[AstroTom (Tom)]

Hi Everyone,

I went out with my telescope last night and had my CPC 800 telescope on the wedge. I was very careful setting up the scope so that it would be pointing South and had the wedge set at the right altitude. I checked with several compasses and an angle meter to double check and noted the True South from Magnetic.

After the GPS had kicked in and pin pointed my position and checking the time setting to that of an astronomical clock I went through the usual EQ South align routine with 2 star align.

I used Altair and Antares for the two alignment stars. I then started to do the wedge align. When I checked the "Display Align" it appeared that I was 99 degrees out in azimouth and -57 degrees in altitude from the celestial pole. I know I wouldn't have been bang on with my initial set up but not as much as halfway around the sky. I continued on to sync to a star and then got the telescope to slew back to where the star should be if polar aligned. It was always way off. Antares was below the horizon as though I was in the Northern Hemisphere in the UK.

I am wondering whether this wedge align routine only works for the North celestial pole? The instructions for the CPC all seem to be for aligning on Polaris and the Northern stars. There is very little mention about the South Sky.

Anyway wondering if anyone has any advice. I'm currently waiting for my ED120 black diamond scope to arrive and that will go on my AZ-EQ6 mount which is currently locked in a cupboard but thought I would have a play around with my CPC last night. I'm thinking of asking Celestron the same questions as above too.

Regards,

Tom