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Old 09-06-2008, 04:52 PM
TrevorW
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TrevorW is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 8,260
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Ielasi View Post
What a great idea. I usually set up in the same spot so I have marked it all out on a concrete pad but I often run astronomy nights with the kids I teach at school and I can see your method being very useful (now where did I put that mig welder...). Your true south bearing is about right at 178 degrees (being a science teacher I always go about it the hard way e.g. 1 degree 44" E of due south but hey you can never get lost if you start from first principles . My reference of 180 was to due south on the comapass not for correction for the mag dec). I use the site below to find out magnetic declination.

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomagmodels/Declination.jsp
Mark where abouts in Perth do you teach.

I use wood for the T piece as it doesn't affect the compass. Your link site is where I got my bearings from as well.

Likewise I have marked the spots where I set up the tripod at home but my little tool is handy for correcting and trips away.

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