Excellent article on polar alignment

[AJE]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to Russ for this one.

There was an excellent article about polar aligning a scope with a polar alignment scope. Basically you need two think and two peices of information.

1st a compass, and second a bubble level.

and the information you need is your latitude and your local magnetic offset fromtrue north.

Basically you level the mount and set the latitude scale to exactly match you latitude. then use the compass to point exactly ? degree's/minutes away from magnetic north. Sounds really simple but I'm guessin that like most things it's not going to be quite that simple...

Can't wait to give it a go, all I need to do now is buy a compass... This is for my new EQ1 driven camera platform.

I would suggest reading the article in the first edition of Sky at Night magazine.

LB

[AndyMac]

Some of us with permanent set ups don't have to worry about polar alignment. But that just sounds too smug to post!