SCP Alignment Frustration

[BlackWidow]

We now I know why I purchased a Field De-Rotator. I has been having some good results with my De-rotator, but decided it's time to put the scope on a wedge and align the scope. Full moon does not help when trying to find the stars around the SCP. Now I am tring to drift align using a reticle using the instructions I found on this site for an LX200 (which I have)... I am not going to give up on this, but this is a real pain in the back end. I just dont seem to be able to get rid of the drift north and south with the Asimuth adjustment on the wedge. As a mobile setup I have been at this for hours and at this rate won't be able to get any pictures before the sun comes up again :confused2:




Seeing Stars and Hair on the Ground
Mardy

[bloodhound31]

See if this helps dude. I wrote it a while ago.

http://www.asignobservatory.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77&Itemid=116

Baz.

[BlackWidow]

Thanks Baz. I will have a good read of that in the morning. I have just been making some more small adjustments and the star seems to be staying on the marks a lot more at this stage. It just takes sooooo long to get it right. I have stickers all over the wedge to advise me what to turn and in what direction and that is helping. I think I need to just forget about imaging for a while and just kepp doing this for a few nights untill I get it into my head...

Oh I really love the simplicity of a De-Rotator at this stage..
thank you for your assistance


Mardy

[Visionoz]

That's right Mardy - keep at it for a while and it'll just be second nature soon! ;)

What I've discovered is that you need to turn the azimuth more aggressively rather than in small amounts; this helps to speed up the process because you'll discover if you going in the right way or not sooner!!

HTH
Cheers
Bill

[GrampianStars]

I can't understand your problem :question:
http://www.southern-astro.com.au/php/guides/lx200gpssouthpolaralignment.php
http://www.southern-astro.com.au/php/guides/lx200gpsdriftalignment.php :thumbsup:
Once you have the right Latitude setting (up-down) Turn knob on the back
Azimuth setting (east-west)is easy. Just crank knobs on the sides fairly hard till the stars drift back in the other direction. Then reverse and creep until the stars stop moving.
Should take only 20 min the first time.
If your viewing in the same location the Latitude will not need adjusting again. :)

[BlackWidow]

Thanks guys for your help. I got thier in the end and now have a better understanding for what I am doing. To answer GrampianStars comments I guess when you are new and have never use a wedge before, you are not sure what direction to turn things or to what extent. I now know I was being too gentle on my adjustments. I have also got the label maker out and put labels on the dials indicating direction to star movement. Once I have done this I will remove them as I will know what to do. (like Trainig Wheels Really) My first problem was that when the star was moving up in my view finder I took this to be drifting Nort, When in fact that was the direction it was moving in my eyepiece but in fact was a south drift. This made me adjust the Az in the wrong direction very slowly before I realised I was making it worse. I will be going out again tonight to do it again and again. Then I am going to do it using PHD (never used that either). I hope by the end of the week I will have made it to Alighnment Level one certification :lol:


Seeing Stars
Mardy

[GrampianStars]

All Good Mardy :thumbsup:
The first time I mounted the 12" on the pier it was pointing tooo far east :help:
I had to take it down (Heavy Beast) and redrill a mounting hole on the base plate to allow further west Azimuth adjustment :rolleyes:
All in all a W/E job ;)