Quote:
Originally Posted by Solanum
OK, thanks for all the comments. Just to clarify:
The 8SE has an automatic alignment procedure using position and date (SkyAlign), I haven't used this as I don't have those accurately (see earlier posts), this uses three bright objects. Also when I did try it a couple of times it failed (N hemisphere centric database I suspect being the problem).
|
Seriously, try the SkyAlign routine - it REALLY works!
Level the mount, set your location (it will remember this next time you fire up), and set the date and time. Surprisingly, location, date and time don't need to be super-accurate - location within 50 km or so is good enough, and time to within 5 minutes or so is fine. Remember that for Southern hemisphere observers, latitude is negative, and remember that it uses USA date format yy/mm/dd . For Coromandel Valley, just using "Adelaide" from the database in the handset will probably be good enough.
Pick three bright naked - eye objects for the alignment - you don't even need to know what they are, but they should be well-spaced, and not in a straight line. I understand that it actually only uses two objects for the alignment, and the third is a cross-check / calibration, which adjusts for slight levelling errors, and can therefore get better accuracy than the 2-star alignment.