ok pulling my hair out over this, i have read the article on here, and it makes little of no sense to me when trying the practicle. can anyone offer any help here? i think actually mentioning star names to align to might help, instead of "a star in the west not more than 30 degs ..." .. something that people can understand!! i am not a n00b, although i am a n00b at this !!
any help gratefully recieved before i bite the head of the next person that so much as squeaks at me ..
Hi Duncan,
It took me a while to get used to Drift alignment as well and i think i can feel the pain. From what i know diffrent people performs the drift alignment in diffrent ways, some may use the illuminated rectice to determine the drift some may use the CCD cam to determine the drift, some may use polar alignment softwares.
Naming a star wont give you a good reference because star position differs from time to time, place to place. But for rough idea look at orions belt it will pass through the areas you want to point at.
I use Starry night software to determine which star would be most suitable at that time and then use CCD Drift align technique to get me close to polar alignment http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/pandb/hall/polar.htm
Let me know if this suits your way of doing things and I will be more than happy to email you my step by step documentation.
duncan, at the moment if your pointing north use Regulus in the early evening that will give you an indication of where the celestial equator is, to the east use spica later on use antares. This will change of course as the year progresses This should get you ball park. Nothing with this hobby is easy lol. For once I'd like something to just work. What I wouldnt give to be one of those guys that just plug in PHD and it just guides, no futsing around it just freaking works.
I share your frustration.
Say hello to Glasgow for me and tell her I miss her.
Last edited by White Rabbit; 19-05-2009 at 07:34 PM.
Here is something I put together in power point hope it helps. The second is from starry night from your location, it will show you where the celestial equator runs. took me for ever to figure that out.
I didnt bother with the altitude side because thats easy. if the star drifs up the adjust the altitude of your scope to bring it back down and vise versa. Dont be afraid to make big adjustments. If the star move really quickly make big adjustments.
good luck
Last edited by White Rabbit; 19-05-2009 at 07:43 PM.
No problem, most tutorial on drift alignment go into way to much detail and use way to much technobable. Fact is if you are just learning how to drift align your not going to know what celestial equator is let alone know how high 30 deg is.
I pulled my hair out trying to nail this, now I'm learning how to guide. Wait till you get into that, save some hair mate because your going to need when you get to guiding, lol.
There have been a few times when I thought that this whole astro photography thing is just a little to technical for me because the concepts are so indepth. Just when I start to think that I'll have a break though and then I'm onto the next problem. Little by little you chisel away at it.
No problem, most tutorial on drift alignment go into way to much detail and use way to much technobable. Fact is if you are just learning how to drift align your not going to know what celestial equator is let alone know how high 30 deg is.
I pulled my hair out trying to nail this, now I'm learning how to guide. Wait till you get into that, save some hair mate because your going to need when you get to guiding, lol.
There have been a few times when I thought that this whole astro photography thing is just a little to technical for me because the concepts are so indepth. Just when I start to think that I'll have a break though and then I'm onto the next problem. Little by little you chisel away at it.
I found most DA guides a bit complex too. I've been using this one. It assumes you've done the rough alignment South with a compass+ magnetic offset and set the head angle to your latitude. Only thing I did find was the direction of adjustment is reversed from the instructions during azimuth setting when using the reflector.
I found most DA guides a bit complex too. I've been using this one. It assumes you've done the rough alignment South with a compass+ magnetic offset and set the head angle to your latitude. Only thing I did find was the direction of adjustment is reversed from the instructions during azimuth setting when using the reflector.
Hey White Rabbit - how are you getting that celestial equator in the starry night screen grab? Only way I can see that you have done it is use the ecliptic equator and then that is wrong (i.e moves etc.) isn't it?
My undersatnding (could be wrong - often am ) is that the celestial equator intersects the merridan at 90 - your current lattitude so for me in Brissy it is 90 - 27.5 so will be at 62.5 on the alt-az merridian as you have shown it starry night.
Only reason I mention it is that I can't get starry night to mark this equator i.e at 62.5 (the alt-az equator is at 0) and like I said it looked like you had used the ecliptic one. (i.e - your line doesn't run E-W - FYI Stellarium you can show this equator i.e E-W at 62.5 for me in Brissy)
Yes you are right the green line is the ecliptic equator. At the moment at around 1900/2000 in the evening there isnt much space between them. Please correct me if this is wrong but it's worked for me so far.
In starry night if you go into "Guides" in the right hand menu hover youre mouse over the word celestial guide, a box appears, click it and then check the box for celestial equator.
Under celestial guides I had the solstice and equinox check boxes at the root level and as all the others were expanded I just didn't even realise that you could expand below these for the equator etc. Double (but thanks for that )
Yeah they are close at about 7-8 but if you are doing the drift alignment at say midnight they are no where near each other so I thougt you use the celestial equator (i.e for me 62.5) rather than the ecliptic (which of course will change depending on the time that you choose to do it). Like I said I am often wrong so perhaps opne of the more knowledgeable folks could clarify it for me at least.
) is that the celestial equator intersects the merridan at 90 - your current lattitude so for me in Brissy it is 90 - 27.5 so will be at 62.5 on the alt-az merridian as you have shown it starry night. 
