Oh! Darryl ...yes it would be so much easier if together we could point to the east and raise our arm to follow the stars in the sky... I'd bend my arm at the elbow to point north/south... you'd see it in front of your own eyes... not just my vague words!! you'd see immediately what I mean, and immediately show me if/where I'm wrong, by demonstration in front of
my eyes.. ( something like "Netmeeting" setup on our puta's, and drawing on graphics -tablets would help, but sofar at my end I'm not yet "on top" all that
)
..but let's say, together side by side we're facing east... I hold my arm out pointed at the horizon, straight, ..my fist at the end is the open end of the telescope tube..... my shoulder is the pivot-point for my arm.. let's say I'm leaned against a stump beside me , on my left, so my shoulders are parallel with the earth-N/S-axis...... now my straight arm moved at the shoulder will follow the movement of the sky.. my shoulder is doing the job of the EQ-platform.
..now I bend my elbow to point my fist N-S...parallel to my shoulder-line, (it will point down to the ground!--my right arm to point north) or my left arm to point south....it will point up to the sky! ) I don't have an elbow that can swing both ways... but a Dob does
) ... so my fist can point E-W from shoulder movement. and anywhere N-S from elbow movement, along the parallel-to-earth-axis N-S horizon...
doesn't this leave a gap between the "real" N-S horizon and the "polar-aligned" one? ( on the south end)
...well, there's nothing to stop the shoulder axis pointing
below its horizon!!, (my shoulder can't swing behind my back, but the EQ-platform mounted arm can!!)
and the (left arm) elbow can range in that field too! ...it'll just mean a short duration of track until that object rises above the polar-aligned-horizon of the shoulder (to the East) ....all this is if the object goes behind the earth....
but imagine an object very close to the south polar point (of the sky, not the Earth).. at some convenient distance from earth. In the southern hemisphere. .. that point will not go behind the earth ..... at a certain point from the equator that "object" could be observed without
any tracking, it would remain centre-scope, ..only revolving.. like an old EP on a platter
....your EQ-mount "crippled" scope could lie flat on either side or be flagpole erect... no difference between'em! ...every point on your latitude focused on the same point purely by the 'alt' angle...
I've concluded from all this : "Azimuth" is a flat-earth concept!!!
