Drift alignment question

[msinclairinork]

Hi,

Can you use drift alignment as an alternative to having your mount pointing to true north?

The reason I ask is I am going to be making a pier soon and polaris is a bit out of view.

Oh I should also mention I don't really want to have the mount facing north either, just the lay of the land.

So is there any acurate aligning alternatives available for this?

Thanks,

Michael

[Demonperformer]

Michael

I am no expert, but if you use a method like http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/61019-lbs-method-polar-alignment.html, it seems to me that both the RA and DEC axes must be aligned correctly. Presumably having a rough idea of where North is would make the procedure faster.

[ollypenrice]

Hi Michael,

You do have to have the polar axis pointing at the celestial north pole. There is no alternative to that. Pointing roughly north by compass and setting the latitude scale of the polar axis to your latitude will get you near enough to start drift aligning. When its done its done, assuming you leave the mount in place. If you are going to have to take the mount head off each time then one trick is to lock one of the azimuth adjuster bolts in place with a locknut and loosen only the other when removing the head. Then you can just tighten it up against the fixed bolt next time.

Olly

[msinclairinork]

Ah ok chaps. It is not a big deal it was actualy because I want to build a wooden housing to cover the hole setup, scopes included but to fit it all in and to have all as small as possible I would have to have the housing at an angle to have it North, was hoping to avoid the angle bit just because the way the garden is set out.

But Polar alignment trumps garden prittieness any day!

Thanks,

Michael

[ollypenrice]

But does the building have to orientated north just because the mount is orientated that way?

Olly

[msinclairinork]

It wont be a building unfortunatly lol It will be somthing more like a rabbit hutch?

We have to make do with the space available to us. (miniture garden).

But a permenant setup, I can already imagine to be a massive advantage. Even to catch a half hour break in the clouds!

Michael