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Old 27-12-2013, 06:13 PM
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mithrandir (Andrew)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sconesbie View Post
So, now I've got that sorted, I have another question.

I'm at true south now (theoretically speaking), should the DEC and RA settings be on 0? That way when I'm searching for something via charts and co-ordinates, it should be close to being spot on?
If the scope is pointed at the SCP the declination is -90 so you could set that circle.
RA is different. At the poles all the meridians of RA meet so you can't set the RA circle unless you know the RA for that day. A somewhat longer explanation. Assume you had the scope pointed at dec 0 and left it off. Every day any given time - say 21:00 - the RA where it is pointed will have increased by 4 minutes.
What you can do is center the scope to a object with known RA and Dec and set the circles to those values.
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