Polar Alignment - How tinny can one person be?

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Talk about jagging it.

Now for those of you who have never drift aligned you probably don't get why I'm so chuffed, but for those of you who have and have experienced the curse of "What the hell is going on here !!!! " read on.

After a great week at astrofest and having decided to spend some quality family time with my lovely wife and lovely dog last week, I finally got round to setting up my G11 last night. I was fully prepared not to get any deep and serious imaging done as I knew I'd be spending quite some time getting the polar alignment right again.

For those of you who are not familiar with the G-11, the tripod is not what you would call collapsible friendly. To fit it in just about anything other than a pantech you need to pull the mount off the tripod and then pull the legs off the mount collar. So basically anything that was within exacting tolerances before is now a lost cause.

So the mount (in pieces) goes out to Duckadang in the trailer, get put back together again, adjusted for level out there and then drift aligned for how it is setup. np Knew I'd have to do it, Plus it gives me time to socialize . Bewwdifullll.

After a week, time to pack up and pull down the mount into legs, top and mount head again. Into the trailer for the bounce home. So now we are at last night. Right! Frame of mind is all important. Focused! Goal oriented and task driven. Lets get it happening.

Put legs on collar. Extend legs. Put mount head on collar. Adjust legs to level mount. Put all the electronics on. Put weights on. Whoops where did that bolt in the bottom of the mount head box come from. Damn, one of the restraining bolts for the altitude adjustment had come out. np. New I'd have to readjust it anyway Telescope on. Finder on. Balance for and aft. Balance top and bottom Moving along nicely.

Right, time for the meridian drift. In goes the reticle, fully expecting to have to pick the mount up to move it in azimuth (even though I've tried to get it close to the marks on the concrete as possible). Waiting, waiting, waiting. I waited over a minute and a half before that star started to move of the reticle Three moderate twists of the azimuth adjuster and it jumped to about 4 minutes

Ok, lets go to the Altitude adjustment. I know what's coming. It's going to be so far out that it will put the Az out and I'll have to start all over again. Ha! More than 30 sec before drifting. A couple of quick twists and back to Az. Fifteen minutes in K3 and I have 8 minutes of non drift in Az and another 15 gives me similar in Alt.

Talk about tinny. Should I buy a lotto ticket What a sweet night

[h0ughy (David)]

mumble grumble mumble, ok your a clever boy!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Patience grasshopper

[RAJAH235]

Nice job, Paul. Much better than the usual 1 1/2 hrs some of our people take...
Is it now 'set in concrete'? You could always do with a second, portable tripod anyway. L.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Once I get my observatory Laurie it will be set in concrete

Once I've done the initial drift alignment after being away, it's not a drama for other nights. I have good marks on the concrete and a touch up drift with K3 normally doesn't take me any longer than half an hour. So by the time I get set up, have a cuppa, wander round the back yard looking for observatory spots, curse the mercury street light out the front, chase some possums with my green laser, check out what might be good to image for the night, or decide if I'm just going to look for the night, all the while popping back to check the lappy screen and making subtle adjustments half an hour disappears in no time. Quite a pleasant way to spend the early evening actually

[sheeny (Al)]

No point buying any more lottery tickets, Paul! You've use all your luck on that alignment! I should know... all the ar...tinny things I've done in my life have stopped me from winning a lottery... it's the only logical explanation!
Sounds like the antithesis of my alignment session when I got my scope out last week. I've only just recovered enough to talk about it rationally! First time out in over a month, thanks to the weather... got to admit I'm feeling a little rusty, so concentrating hard on doing everything in the right order and the right way...

The scope is all set up and I have my back to it while I get my guiding eyepiece out for a drift align and collimation ritual, when I hear a funny sound... a sort of almost metallic creaking sound but quite short and sharp! Like the type of sound a wheel nut makes as you tighten it on a car but a bit deeper (I thought about this later!).

Because it's cold my ears a covered with my throat coat and beanie, so I don't get a good feel for direction from this noise. I'm 22ks out of town in the middle of a pine forest... it was a stange sound ... I check the scope out and can't see anything wrong.

Start a meridian drift check... almost like you, it sits there on the reticle for a good 2-3minutes. Wow! I'm impressed!

Go to altitude drift and the Goto is not within a Cooee of the star it's supposed to aim at. Hmmm... OK.... adjust... adjust... adjust... it's pointing at the star... drift... OK, adjust... drift... it's worse... OK adjust the otherway... drift... it's worse - the same way...

To cut a long story a bit shorter... I went back to start and tried re-aligning 4 or 5 times and everytime I had diabolical problems! Arrrgghh! 3 hours later, I give up in disgust! Sleep has got to be a better option!

As I'm packing up, I find the centre bolt connecting the mount to the tripod is loose! It was one of those things that I was sure I checked and double checked as I was assembling everything just because I felt a bit rusty... then I remembered the noise!

My guess is the bolt picked up when I was assembling the scope, so it felt tight. As the scope and mount cooled (it was cooling pretty quickly! ...at least I know I was!) it's let go and released all the tension in the bolt!

Oh well, at least I can say I've tried to polar align a noddy dog!

Fortunately the therapy is working, I can laugh about it now!

Al.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Oh yes cooling metal. Isn't it amazing what a difference 10 - 15 degrees makes to the tightness of your nuts... and bolts and bearings and clutches.

Like when you've spent all that time making sure your scope balance is just right (at 25 deg C) but when you've gotten down to 10 deg it appears that it wasn't balance that was holding everything just right, but the "thermal viscosity of synta snot" Of course it only happens when you have your Dec axis about 45 deg to horizontal, your guidescope on top, your 300D mounted, one hand is holding the nagler and you undo the clutch.

[Lee]

synta snot.......