Drift Alignment

[Jeffkop (Jeff)]

Hi all

Can anyone tell me if this procedure will work exactly as described in the southern hemisphere with a Mak.
http://www.darkskyimages.com/gpolar.html

Thank you

Jeff

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Jeff

There's a couple of drift alignment tutorials in the Articles section of IceInSpace.

Maybe one of those will help you?

[g__day (Matthew)]

It may be basic, but it really helps to know when your pointing East, or straight up, which way is North and which way is South. This may seem really obvious but when the light is flip across an odd or even number of mirrors and lens, you need to be sure which way is which!

Just wish I had of realised that a few months ago!

[pvelez (Pete)]

I'm impressed with anyone who can figure out drift alignment without seeing it done in practice. All these ups/downs/norths/easts etc for drift left me confused when I tried them. I must have read 20 different guides and still couldn't get it to work.

Till I found this article:

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1042

Simple left hand or right hand to work out which way to adjust. Easy to remember.

The other trick I find (after reading several excellent threads here) is to overcompensate when adjusting till the star drifts in the opposite direction.

Hope that helps

Pete

[Jeffkop (Jeff)]

Thanks for the reply Pete. I have received help about this from some people on this forum and I know they know what they are talking about but you've hit it on the head. Theory is OK, Practical is where one has to walk the walk, and YES the norths and souths etc were confusing to the point where I had myself thinking I could move the star in ANY direction that I liked and it would comply with the instruction. Obviously I have got nowhere fast and thanks to people like yourself, I may remedy that. Thanks once again.

[Zuts]

Hi,

One thing that confused me was trying to find a bright star on intersection of meridian and celestial equator. I thought this meant a naked eye visible star....

It doesn't, it means any star you can see through the reticle which is much easier.

Also the intersection bit confused me, it means mount pointing south, the scope is pointing North, the scope is at right angles to the eq head, the eq head is paralell to the ground; and a few degrees either way (up, down, left, right) to find a star doesn't matter.

This link shows the scope positions really well, thanks Baz http://www.asignobservatory.com/driftalignment.aspx

Paul

[pvelez (Pete)]

Paul

I agree - it was also the ASSIGN Ob photos that clarified the meridian position for me.

Pete

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hi Jeff,

Drift alignment is hard I know, coz I gave up long ago.

Try this one on for size if you can see to the south and have a GEM mount

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.p...63,466,0,0,1,0

It also helps because it only takes 3-4 mins and thats it.

Excellent article, even if I do say so myself.

Chris

[Jeffkop (Jeff)]

Thank You to all who have taken an interest in my thread. Its cloudy AGAIN in Northern NSW tonight ... So Im relegated to the PC and some books .. no practical tonight. I appreciate your inputs

Jeff