Hi everyone
I own an 8" Meade LX200 ACF and operate it on a wedge and standard field tripod. I have two questions about polar alignment and GO-TO's that have been bugging me for quite a while now and I am unsure how to tackle them. The end result is I spend most of my time setting up the telescope instead of observing/astrophotography.
Normally I complete a standard 1 star polar alignment (Sigma Octantis) in the Southern Hemisphere, and then complete the relevant Go-TO. After doing this I am "reasonably aligned". That part is fine.
However, once I commence the drift alignment process, or iterative process to improve the polar alignment, and make manual alterations to the wedge, this subsequently throws my Go-To's out. Not a lot, but just enough that it makes finding things really difficult.
So I have two questions:
1) After I complete the drift alignment (or iterative process), should I re-do the Go-To alignment procedure?
If so, I'm limited to using the Meade one-star alignment procedure (apparently Meade has a bug in it's software that limits the use of the two-star alignment in polar mode) and I end up in a bit of a loop... (i.e. align with Sigma Octantis, sync with relevant star, perform drift align... wash, rinse and repeat)
2) Can I simply use the SCP for polar aligning (instead of Sigma Octantis) right from the start and when the hand-controller asks me if Sigma is centred, just say YES and move onto the relevant sync star? Would this save me the trouble of needing to perform the drift alignment procedure?
Thanks in advance for your time,
Sincerely
Evan