swannies1983
13-02-2007, 04:19 PM
I know there is quite a lot of tutorials on drift alignment but i want to just clarrify something as I can't quite get it to work.
Ok, so i pointed my scope to a star close to the intersection of the celestial equator and the meridian. I turned off the tracking to see the natural westwards movement of the stars. The stars moved visually quite quickly at 160x magnification to the right or east through the scope but west in real due to nature of the telescope. I then orientated one set of crosshairs in the east-west direction (parrallel with a star's movement). I turned on the motors and watched for north-south drift in declination (while the stars moved right in the reticle). I changed the azimuth until there was no dec drift and the stars moved align the reticle lines.
I then swung over the scope to a star about 20 degrees above the eastern horizon. Turned the tracking off and watched the star movement. Once again, the stars moved quite fast to the right in the eyepiece, which continued once I switched the mount's tracking back on. Now, the question is, if i got the RA alignment spot on, should I only see north-south drift at this point and not the rapid east-west drift?
When I got this mount, I was able to roughly set this scope up and keep objects in the FOV for quite a while at medium powers (in the order of 5 mins). I'm lucky to get anything to stay in the FOV for 5 mins even at low powers.
My RA is in sidereal mode and my emiglobe is set to south (austral hemisphere). I do also have an option to set RA and Dec rotation (clockwise or anti-clockwise). I haven't changed this at this stage but may have accidently done this when scrolling through the menu but what should this setting be?
Ok, so i pointed my scope to a star close to the intersection of the celestial equator and the meridian. I turned off the tracking to see the natural westwards movement of the stars. The stars moved visually quite quickly at 160x magnification to the right or east through the scope but west in real due to nature of the telescope. I then orientated one set of crosshairs in the east-west direction (parrallel with a star's movement). I turned on the motors and watched for north-south drift in declination (while the stars moved right in the reticle). I changed the azimuth until there was no dec drift and the stars moved align the reticle lines.
I then swung over the scope to a star about 20 degrees above the eastern horizon. Turned the tracking off and watched the star movement. Once again, the stars moved quite fast to the right in the eyepiece, which continued once I switched the mount's tracking back on. Now, the question is, if i got the RA alignment spot on, should I only see north-south drift at this point and not the rapid east-west drift?
When I got this mount, I was able to roughly set this scope up and keep objects in the FOV for quite a while at medium powers (in the order of 5 mins). I'm lucky to get anything to stay in the FOV for 5 mins even at low powers.
My RA is in sidereal mode and my emiglobe is set to south (austral hemisphere). I do also have an option to set RA and Dec rotation (clockwise or anti-clockwise). I haven't changed this at this stage but may have accidently done this when scrolling through the menu but what should this setting be?