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Old 27-08-2009, 05:42 PM
dpastern (Dave Pastern)
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dpastern is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 2,874
The problem is the land that my parents house is on - from the backyard I have no views of the South, and none of the East. Limited of the West. North is pretty much OK. Positioning the scope on the East/West of the property doesn't help. That leaves setting up the scope on the front section of the property. As the front is shallow, and steep, and as either trees or houses block views to the east/west (although not as bad as from the backyard), I'm limited to a very small area to place the scope and get some semblance of view. Sadly, the best place is not on our property, but just off it, on council property. So I can't set up anything permanently there. I can move the scope/tripod 2 metres back from this semi ideal spot, but alas, I start to lose views to the east/west (north/south are still OK). It's a really bad situation and I can't do much with it. It pretty much kills a permanent mount setup imho.

I do need to get a inclinometer and I have measured due South due to solar noon. It's no longer marked, but I could probably permanently mark it somehow. I know I need to get longer subs.

Of course, I'm not even to the point of guiding yet, but that, also, will come in the future.

I think the first step is to get an electronic inclinometer and work on getting due south better. And also a reticular eyepiece and get drift alignment going. Then I should be able to get 5 min subs at least!

Bojan - I'm not sure what you mean by aligning with the built in polar finder during the day. How can I do that when the stars won't be visible to align against, or am I completely misunderstanding you?

Dave
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