Hi All,
Please help me.
For the life of me I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong with my RA setting circle axis and I have got myself into a horrible confidence mess with this now.
This is what happens on my GEM EQ2.
1) I align my scope to the SCP. (easy)
2) Scope's Dec setting is showing 90 degrees.
3) Swing the scope West to line up Sirius (for example) in the eyepiece and then using Astronomy 2008 details on page 137, set the RA setting circle (bottom scale for Southern Hemisphere) to value 06 45.
4) I then swing my scope to say, Acrux in Crux and check the RA scale to see if its reading 12 26 etc. NO IT ISNT! Last night when I checked this Acrux was showing up as 00 15???
Do I need a brain transplant? or just another kick in the head to figure this out?
I have tried setting off Betelgeuse, Canopus, Spica, Aldebaran, Rigel and Rigil Kent and NOTHING seems to work. Whatever I set the circle to (and yes, I have tried the other scale too) seems right for the object targeted, but then I can never swing the scope to something else and look at the scale and go....Bam, right RA number as its not even CLOSE to what it should read!
Ummm, Help????
Chris