Compass placement on the Skywatcher Virtuoso

[TraderBoo]

Greetings to all 

I have a question regarding the placement of small compasses on scopes like the skywatcher virtuoso. By the way great  little grab and go scope I'm having the best time with this little scope.

In the photo I;m including they have the small provided compass sitting on the bottom clutch lock. When I put this on the clutch lock it doesn't seem to point north would it be getting from the motors bellow or is this the right location?? 

 

 

[Peter Drew]

Hello Trader. I also have one of these, as you say, a great little telescope, probably the best of this mini dob design. The compass points to the magnetic North which is variable and often several degrees off from true North. I would advise getting Polaris in the eyepiece and then lower the telescope to horizontal before anything else, assuming of course you can see Polaris from your location. Welcome to SGL. 

[popeye85]

Hi Trader. Personally I have never trusted the small compass you usually get with a scope-to much magnetic and electrical interference for my liking. Either do like @Peter Drew suggests it just use a separate handheld it compass app and find north from a couple metres away and then find a land mark as a constant frame of reference.

[happy-kat]

There is no compass on my skywatcher flavoured virtuoso just big N S lettering on the top. I tend to do as Peter suggested, face tube at Polaris then set it horizonal and turn mount on. (Have already set latitude for my location).