Finding the SCP

[h0ughy]

tonight I have tried to find in the light pollution the SCP.

The neighbours were not very accomodating. I was trying to work out where it is from one a particular spot in the yard so that I can speed up setup of the scope in the future

[h0ughy]

is this the asterism I should be looking for

[TidaLpHasE]

:sad:Tell me about it Houghy, street lights are my problem.

Seems you got the asterism in the pic, wish i could give a few hours tonight, only these clouds are back:P

[edit] gee i'm slow [edit]

[RAJAH235]

:thumbsup: hOughy. Looks O.K. from here. Lack of star trails give it away. :D L.

[Bert Candusio]

Hope this helps.
If not, try this..
Get a good compass and once youve calibrated it for your magnetic deviation, the SCP will be situated 7.5 degrees to the left of the magnetic pole at your latitude. An inclinometer can help here.
Good luck

[Bert Candusio]

Your Image with the 'Proper' superimposed asterim you
should be looking for.
Happy polar alignment

[h0ughy]

thanks Bert, that will help me and a lot of others who suffer this probelm as well!

[avandonk]

The other trick is to align your telescope with the mounts equ. axis as best you can.Then use this to initially align the mount.Then see what happens when you swing the telescope from the left to the right ie 180deg around the equ, axis.If the field in the telescope rotates about the center of the field then the telescope is aligned with the equ. axis.Then realign the mount to get the center of the field on the SCP.This works best with a wide field or the finderscope and at least you can see the stars even with light pollution.I hope this is clear.Bit hard to put into words.

Bert

[anthony2302749]

Hi Houghy

You nail it. Having own an EQ mount for many years I got quite good at locating Octan even from light polluted skies in Mill Park. I got so good at it, it became intuitive. With a Green laser I can point it out quite quickly.

Anthony

[bird]

Hi Bert. The magnetic deviation changes a bit from place to place around australia - it's about 12 degrees in Canberra. If you dig around on the net you ought to be able to find a table that gives the deviation for different places in Australia.

regards, Bird

[Exfso]

I just set it up roughly then used a Meade illuminated reticle eyepiece with double crosshairs to drift align. This gets it almost exactly spot on. I think Orion make similar eyepieces for just this purpose.

http://www.telescopes.com/products/Meade_Plossl_9mm_Illuminated_Reticl e_Eyepiece_1.25_Inch_Wireless_6349. html

[ving]

sweet!
whats a scp? :confused:

[RAJAH235]

???ving????? scp = South Celestial Pole. ???????
fwiw, mag dev can be found/calc'ed here, >
https://www.ga.gov.au/oracle/geomag/agrfform.jsp
After u enter your details etc etc...... scroll below to 'Declination' map for Aust. Shows mag dev lines. HTH. :D L.

[avandonk]

A silly cow pal!

Ok if you were serious, South Celestial Pole.
The apparent point due to the Earths axis of rotation that is appears central to the rotation.

[beren]

:) I do what Exfso does , with a little practice it becomes easier and quicker .I tried for a while using the LX200 polar home ritual and it was a pain , now i just do a rough alignment to get the the scope/wedge lined up to the SCP and then drift align and synch on a star and the pointing is very accurate

[tornado33]

Howdy, I just emailed u a full res pic of a 400mm lens star trail of the south celestial pole.
Scott

[h0ughy]

thanks scott

[RAJAH235]

Where's ours??? :P :D L.

[h0ughy]

this is his picture :)