Yes good advise there John , a polar scope is a great tool ,,, BUT !!
be aware its a Southern one not a Northern one with the plough and cassiopea in the etching , it has to have sigma Octans and surrounding stars in the etching , for us down south here .
A lot of new amateures get caught out but this .And if you dont know its as good as usuless ,
Oh yes some of the newer ones have a duel North/South etching
, but I dont know how easy these would be to read .
Maybe someone has used one ?
Brian.
Quote:
Originally Posted by John0z
Hi,
You need to align the mount towards true south, not magnetic south - from most maps you can work out what you need to move by to get near to true south. Also the EQ3 probably has provision for installing a polar alignment scope - this is a handy device but requires that you have a view of the south celestial pole in order to use it.
I have a chinese copy of an EQ3 and this one came with a polar alignment scope. Maybe your mount comes with one too!
The other thing is that most of the altitude readings are not necessarily accurate and do require some adjustment.
-John
P.S. Have a read of this http://www.myastroshop.com.au/guides...lign-basic.pdf document - for Adelaide you need to point the mount about 8 degrees to the east to get to near true south. Here in Sydney we move it further. |