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Hi Barry,
I was thinking about rewriting those Stellarium instructions for someone using say a LX200 or similar on an equatorial wedge.
Here's how it seems to me:
Set your scope into the Polar Home position in the usual way assuming you have the polar axis aligned as well as you can to the southassuming you have also set your local latitude and the reciptocal angle on the wedge - and you should be within a ball-park of southern alignment.
Start Stellarium and choose a star that will cross the 180 degree line within ten minutes or so - choose one that is within say 10 degrees of the SCP. For an example, Miaplacidus might be a good choice. Accelerate Stallarium and watch the star until it reaches the 180 degrees mark and note the declination angle. It'll be around 69 degrees 40 on the azimuth projection. Keeping your fork horizontal and adjusting only the declination, raise the tube until you are still on the meridian and pointing more or less where the star should be when it crosses the line. As it aproaches the line, use the azimuth adjustiment on your mount so that the star is on the line at the time it actually crosses it. Use a reticle or a program like StarTarg to give you a grid/scele if you want to do this using a webcam or the like.
When you get the azimuth adjustment just right, you are pointing due south.
You could also adapt the technique to adjust the altitude on your wedge I suppose. What do you think?
Peter
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