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Old 11-11-2012, 10:18 AM
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rogerg (Roger)
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Posts: 4,563
I'd suggest organising yourself a laser holder:

http://rogergroom.com/astronomy-reso...lescope-mount/

Your geared head should be accurate enough to do decent fine-tuning adjustment and get a good alignment. I used one recently (I don't have one, I have the AT Wedge) and I was surprised and impressed how heavy duty and fine those Manfrotto geared heads are.

There are many methods of drift alignment mentioned on the Yahoo! AstroTrac forum, are you a member? I would suggest searching there.

A friend of mine used a "sped up" variant of polar alignment with his AstroTrac. I haven't tried it, but the explanation I have from him is as follows:

Quote:
I'm ecstactic! I finally discover an easy, quick, repeatable way to drift align the Astrotrac without the need of any PC or software. I did a quick trial tonight and even though the clouds keeps rolling in, I found that I can now do it a whole lot easier and quicker. It's a combination of traditional drift alignment and the DSLR/CCD method but with the Astrotrac!

This involves first puting the Astrotrac in Test mode. In this mode, the Astrotrac will move forward at the same speed as rewind speed. I set my exposure for 2 minutes and 5 seconds, the first 5 seconds with the Astrotrac at Start position, I then start the Astrotrac at full speed forward for one minute and then rewind it back for the second minute. The results is the same as the CCD method.

You'll be able to see the drift easily on the camera screen at full
magnification and then adjust the wedge accordingly.
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