celestial pole alignment

[NCC-2893]

Hi all, What do folk do about alignment . Are there any tips beside just drawing a line in the sky down through crux and one down from the pointers? Seems a bit agricultural. Sometimes I get lucky and other times ,not so much.

[MrB]

If the sky is dark enough, I try to align by looking for the trapezium in Octans.

[Poita]

I use alignmaster usually.

[Rex]

G'day John,
I usually use my polar scope to align the octans and then drift align to touch it up. There is an article in the Projects and Articles page about drift aligning. If you don't have a polar scope you can position your mount using the line through crux etc as you mentioned and then drift align to touch it up. You will need a reticle eyepiece to do this properly though. Hope that helps.

[NCC-2893]

Cheers Rex. I keep seeing drift align mentioned but always figured it to be a little high tek. Now that you mention it I'll try and find it and have a read. Also Simon I just went outside and took a look and yea, with a bit of practice I can make out Octans. Point the laser just below the middle of the long side of the triangle and bobsya. cheers guys.Some serious practice coming up this weekend.