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Old 16-01-2005, 06:18 PM
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Robby
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posts: 1,079
Hi Paul,
Yes, I guess that does need a bit more explaining.
Basically I used K3 to assist in drift aligning. I had the ToUCam in the C8, and ran K3's drift explorer, which displays a graph showing the movement in RA & DEC over time...
Here's the process I followed (extracted for K3 help file)

<font color="#FF0000">· Drift Alignment rules for the Southern hemisphere:

Step 1 - Correcting East-West misalignment

Go to a star near the celestial equator near the meridian.
If the star drifts South, the polar axis is pointing too far West.
If the star drifts North, the polar axis is pointing too far East.

Step 2a - Correcting North-South misalignment (using Eastern horizon)

Point the telescope at a star close to the celestial equator and
near the eastern horizon.
If the star drifts South, the polar axis is pointing too high.
If the star drifts North, the polar axis is pointing too low.

Step 2b - Correcting North-South misalignment (using Western horizon)

Point the telescope at a star close to the celestial equator and
near the western horizon.
If the star drifts South, the polar axis is pointing too low.
If the star drifts North, the polar axis is pointing too high.
</font>
The drift explorer window allowed me to easily see if my polar corrections were improving things.
Only problem I had was each time I made a polar axis correction I had to re-find a alignment star. Flip mirror would have helped heaps! Must get one of those.
Attached is a pic of the drift explorer from K3.

Cheers
PS.. I'm not trying to promote K3, it's just the tool I use. There are others out there, and K3 does have a few hiccups, namely the annoying licence scheme!!!..
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