Gotst my reticule yesterday and tonight want to practice using it.
I've read through the - great - article on the basics of drift aligning here on IIS twice. I understand almost all of it. I just have a couple of questions:
I have a neq6 and will be using either a sw 10" newt or the sw 80ed pro, Meade reticule and have sussed out mag dec ( true north), long - latt and height above MSL.
1) in step 3, if the star is more than 30 deg above the horizon (east or west) will it affect the alignment a lot?
2) in step 4 it says 'pick a star on the meridian near the equator' . Just to check- the meridian is the north south line, and equator is the celestial equator. At 9 pm tonight here in Perth, the celestial equator will be past the zenith towards north. this means I need to change the RA to get the scope facing the CE. Is this true?
I understand the logic behind the pictures and the explanations Geoff Smith has given.... it's just that last one that has me double checking.
3) mmmmmm I have to ask just to make sure - tracking needs to be ON when doing this?
I've got a couple of hours before the sun goes down and hope the whispy clouds disappear.
Cheers for any replies!!!!!
Bartman
