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Old 02-01-2007, 05:52 PM
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sheeny (Al)
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Oberon NSW
Posts: 14,319
Quote:
Originally Posted by paninaro View Post
I have another method of alignment.

I bought my Meade 8" SCT on an EQ mount of a retired guy (nice old bloke) who was a bit of a tinkerer, he gave me a pole which i slide into the polar scope hole and it dangles a plumb down towards the ground. At noon EST I point the scope to mag. south, adjust 11 deg. east (Sydney) then move the fine tune nobs so that the shadow of the pole lies along the plumb line.

He says it is then aligned, I mark on the ground the position of the legs and use that in future.

Should I use this method? Does this make sense to you guys? I have not seen this mentioned anywhere else.
G'Day Alex,

As Doug and Dennis have explained there are problems using this method at noon civilian time... however...

if you download this little clock program I wrote a while ago, you can perfrom your procedure at noon solar time, and you'll be a hell of a lot closer!

http://alsworld.topcities.com/astro/AlsClock.htm

Neat! Mike asked me what the use of solar time was! It's found a purpose!

Al.
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