[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Coolhandjo

If you can't see the south pole you will need to try a slightly different method but first you must ensure that the orthogonality is good. Even not being able to see the south pole you can still get a perfect alignment provided this is so.

This is the method. Find your OTA 90 degree as per the book method and lock it there so it won't move till the scope is turned on and mark it so you can find it exactly again. A pointer clamped onto the fork pointing at a marker on the rear housing of the scope should give an accurate enough point. Line your wedge as close to n/s and -34 degrees latitude as you can. Set your RA to exactly 0,0 using the scale. You should be able to get this within about 5 arc seconds. Turn your telescope on and start the standard polar alignment. Accept 90 degree point and 0,0 by pressing enter. The scope will slew to Sigma Octans. When the slew is finished accept the position and press enter. The scope will now slew to your second alignment star. When the slew is finished centre this star with the wedge controls only.

This will get the wedge almost exactly correct. Now park the scope and turn off. Put the OTA back to the 90 degree point and the RA to the 0,0 mark again and repeat the procedure. This should get you a little closer.

Test your gotos and maybe now a fine tune with a drift alignment may or may not give an improvement.

As I said first up if the orthogonality is accurate this method will give extremely good results. It is how I do it in the field. I start from the park position (I have it very accurately marked) select a star near the zenith, Goto it, The GPS takes a fix and slews to the star. I adjust the wedge controls to center the star. This gives as good a polar alignment as I can get.

Barry