Quote:
Originally Posted by brian nordstrom
 Steve , I am glad the problem is fixed ,,,, BUT , I cant for the life of me understand why you need to adjust the Altitude after a session??? . Once that is set you never have to touch it again, it only has to be moved if you move north or south any large distance , thus changing your lattitude .
If you are adjusting it for precise polar allignment try adjusting the tripod legs and banging in 3 plastic tent pegs into the ground that the 3 tripod legs ( Drill little dimples into the top of the pegs to mate with the3 tips on the legs ) that way every time you place the tripod down on the dimpled plastic pegs ( they are at ground hight , of course) you will be facing south every time .  and if you dont adjust the tripod leg length you will de accuratly alligned every time , and wont have to touch the offending alt adjustement again .  .
Brian. |
I will say i have learnt quite a bit in the last 24hrs. I thought i had a handle on this alignment business until my discoveries today. All this time i had discovered the North part of the eq3 was pointing South. Even after hours of reading about Polar Alignment, for some strange reason i thought because it must have been built for the Northern Hemisphere and being used in the Southern, it had to point south as it looked natural when the scope was sitting on the mount. And while this was the case around the wrong way, i kept getting drift no matter how many adjustments i made during star drift method. So i kept raising the Alt (to about 60 deg) in the end
, thats when the damage really took its toll.
Now i think i have it better set up. I have N facing North
, i have the Alt at around 35 deg. I leveled the tripod. Put a compass on top of mount to face true south (or as close as possible) and now waiting for a chance to try another alignment. The tube (OTA is it
) is resting facing North with the DEC at +90.
Nothing like a bit of trial and error
Thanks everyone for the info and tips, this learning curve just get steeper
Steve.