Drift alignment eyepiece

[phattanglo]

I have a question regarding drift alignment.

I assume if I want to start imaging I will need polar alignment to be as accurate as possible.

To perform a drift alignment do I need to buy an illuminated crosshair eyepiece or can I manage without?

[steve51450]

if you have a webcam, ccd camera and any software like maxim etc i think software is quicker and better. I find i no longer get a cricked neck from drift aligning now

i use alignmaster its by the man who wrote guidemaster and its under £20 so cheaper than a good quality illuminated reticule eyepiece

i Used to use a meade 9mm illuminated reticule when i did manual drift aligning and found this a very good eyepiece for the job

[barkis]

You do not need to go to that expense.

You do need an eyepiece with cross hairs on which to place the star you are tracking to check it's drift in declination should your PA be out.

You can illuminate the eyepiece cross with a small bulb.

I used one years ago to align my GEM. I placed the bulb near the Secondary mirror, it was a 2.2w 12volt, and was sufficient to allow the star to still be seen, and the cross hair was still easily seen.

If you are tracking using a frac. tape the bulb to the inside of the dew shield, it will do the same job. If you want to dim the bulb, you can use a potentiometer. They can be bought cheap.

A lot cheaper than an illuminated reticule:D You can make your own cross hair too. Some very fine cotton can be glued to the field stop of an old eyepiece you might have. either a 9 or 12mm.

You have to orientate the crosshairs parallel to the RA of the scope, all you are needing is to see the star drift occurring above or below that line

Ron.

[SteveP]

Phattanglo

If you intend to do AP, then an accurate polar alignment will become critical. Ther longer the focal length of your scope, the more critical.

There are a number of ways to do this inc manually with an illuminated reticle or using software with a camera. Personally i use the 'manual' drift alignment method 'cos it's what I've learned and got used to. This is the best explanation of DA that i ever found ... and I looked at many.

Drift Aligning - Ian King

You don't necessarily need to buy a specialist illuminated reticle but it makes life easier. I bought mine s/h for £40 ((it's a Meade 9mm) and has been worth every penny. If you want to make your own it needs 3 characteristics - reasonable magnification (mine works on 60x and I wouldn't go any lower than that), cross hairs to gauge the movement of the star and something to light up the crosshairs.

HTH

Steve

[astrokat]

C:\Users\photoshop\Desktop\Andy's Shot Glass - Drift Alignment for Amateur astrophotography,ccd, Neutonians and Refractors, amateur astronomy.mht

toby

[Rob]

good resource.. thanks