Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeroID
If you are using a regular spot in your yard to setup then do a solar noon alignment to get your Nth-Sth axis correct and mark it out on the ground with a paint line maybe. Then square it off to get your E-W axis. Your tripod legs will be aligned on these.
As my driveway had a slight incline I made a leveller board so I could leave the tripod legs all fully closed up. Builders level and a 4 x 2 or whatever with spacers to level the lowest two points with the highest point ( mine were the E-W but it could be the North and East or West). As long as you have a consistent start point so once you've got the tripod and the mount head all aligned next time it just drops into place. Then all you have to do is get the DEC right. A bit of stop start drift aligning using a DSLR camera will give you any E-W error and once you've corrected it all next time you should just about be able to put the tripod down on the board and spots and be up and running. My little yellow paint spots are still visible on the driveway.
Compasses are notoriously inaccurate but the sun .... you can't beat it.
Google 'Solar Noon' to get a site which will tell you a time for your location. Mine was always 17 mins past the hour.
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Thanks for your suggestions. I don't have a problem with balancing the tripod itself, thankfully. It's more the elevation and azimuth knobs on the mount itself. But certainly once I get the alignment right, I'll put out some timber boards with paint dots on them.
Sadly, my backyard is very poorly light-polluted, so I usually drive for an hour or so to get to a good spot. So my setup needs to be pretty mobile. Thankfully, I've got enough batteries to sink a ship.
