Celestrial Pole V Magnetic Pole

[Dennis G]

From my location I'm unable to find the South Celestrial Pole and have used the Magnetic Pole with minor adjustments to correct drift when setting up the equatorial platform. Can some kind member tell me what is the recognised magnetic reading for the South Celestrial pole or near to it for southern West Australia.

[edwardsdj (Doug)]

Hi Dennis,

The magnetic declination varies considerably from location to location and over time. After you have performed a drift alignment, couldn't you just use your compass to determine what it is for your location? Your mounting will be aligned very accurately Noth/South after a drift align.

I get a rough alignment by remembering the angle of the mount with the edge of the verandah. Then I drift align from there.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Have fun,
Doug

[Karls48 (Karl)]

Have look at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/geomag/jsp/Declination.jsp

[Popeye (Bert)]

G'day Dennis,
If you have gone to the link supplied by Karl and now have the declination (its called variation by salty old blue water mariners like me!) for Albany and assuming that you have the accurate Lat & Long for Albany, are you able to work out how to point to the SCP now or do you need more help? If so call out on this forum and I will give you the benefit of my limited knowledge. I used to have a Meade LX50 - the precursor to the LX90 (goto) that I now have and had to find the SCP to align that beast.
If my wife and I ever get to sell this house in Tassie we will be back in the Golden West, probably around Mandurah.
Cheers!
Bert

[rmcpb (Rob)]

I just use the offset from a topo map to get the variation for true south for setting up my equatorial platform then apply it with the compass.