WCS Polar alignment

[Gerald Sargent]

I need help in using WCS. Has anyone used it in the S Hemisphere ? I
have downloaded the brief text describing its use and suspect that
these notes apply to the N hemisphere, what changes in use are needed
if any for the S hemisphere _ Gerald.

[Zuts]

Hi,

I used it once but then it rained for a month and my trail finished. All I can remember changing is the tick box which says southern hemisphere operation.

I also remember the RA adjustment seemed easy but that the DEC adjustment confused me.

Not much help I know, maybe someone else can jump in.

Paul

[Omaroo]

I used it for the first time one night last week to PROPERLY align my Takahashi Teegul Sky Patroll II with the FS60-C doing the honors optically and an Agent webcam (cheapie) providing the imaging.

All I did was tell the program that I was looking AT a star in the south (Alpha Centauri) and that it was (according to my planetarium) sitting at 19 degrees elevation.

I rotated my webcam so that a star image moved reasonably horizontally on screen when I moved the scope back and forth in RA using the slow motion control. I then did a "Calib" which took care of any inaccuracies by putting the star in a grid on the left (clicked on the star) and then in a grid on the right. This told the software that my camera's CCD was 1.24 degrees off kilter and it compensated from then on.

I did the RA exercise three times and then turned to Rigel (in the west at the time) to do my Dec drift. All you do is let it go and then when finished, adjust the course alt and az controls to move the star within the lines when asked.

I'm in a hurry to go now - but would be glad to help more if required.

I saw ROUND stars for the first time on this mount thanks to WCS.

Ving has also used this software with a great measure of success.

[ving]

yes, yes i have! :D

just check the SH box as per the first reply.

I found that i could get very well aligned in about 20mins. enough to keep a star centered in a 7mm EP (8" f/6 newt) for quite some time before it started to drift.

my trial expired too tho and i havent done anything about it. great proggy tho :D
its good for those that cant actually see the scp because of obstructions.