Quote:
Originally Posted by janoskiss
 It does not sound right to me either. When you're on the south pole, the SCP is straight up at zenith. For every degree you move north of the south pole the SCP moves one degree closer to the horizon. At latitude 37S you are 53 degrees from the pole so polar axis needs to point 53 degs away from zenith or 37 degs up from the horizon. No?  Or are Meade SCTs under some strange curse?  |
The wedge is not the polar axis, so that's why you do not set the wedge angle to your Latitude or point the open end of the wedge to the South. Think of the polar axis (SCP direction) as being defined by the forks with the OTA sitting in between the Forks (parallel to the forks) so the eyepiece is pointing down to the base. Then, the corrector plate is pointing at the SCP and the eyepiece pointing N.
With the Forks at right angles to the base, and with the base sitting on the wedge, then we can see the open angle of the wedge must “point” N at an angle of 90 deg minus your Latitude.
Cheers
Dennis