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SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE & STAR DRIFT POLAR ALIGNMENT
Polar alignment in the Southern Hemisphere is more difficult that in the
Northern Hemisphere because there is no corresponding pole star to use
for alignment in the Southern Hemisphere. Polar aligning in the Southern
Hemishpere is a two part process because of this. A rough alignment must
first be made based on your viewing location. Then, a star drift alignment
should be made to fine tune your alignment.
Begin by roughly aligning your telescope to the pole by using the mount’s
latitude scale. Set the declination scale to 0° to align the optical tube asssem-
bly with the mount’s polar axis. Check the latitude of your viewing location
and set the latitude scale to the same number. For example, if you were view-
ing from Sydney, Australia, you would point your telescope due south and
set your latitude adjustment to 34°, since Sydney lies at 34°S latitude. this will
point you roughly at the southern celestial pole.
1. Having already roughly aligned your telescope, loosen the declination
clamp and swivel telescope until scale reads 90°, then retighten clamp.
Loosen the right ascension clamp and rotate telescope so that it points 6
hours away from the celestial pole and retighten clamp. The R.A. and Dec.
adjustment cables may need to be temporarily removed in order to swivel
the telescope freely. The telescope should now be pointing roughly where
the meridian and celestial equator intersect.
ROUGH ALIGNMENT
STAR DRIFT ALIGNMENT
Star Drift alignment is more precise than polar star alignment, but may also
prove to be more difcult to those not used to aligning a telescope. Once
you polar align using the star drift method a few times, it becomes easier,
but the rst few times may take a considerable amount of time. For general
viewing uses, the rough alignment described above may prove to be suf-
cient. The alignment procedure described below can be used to acheive
more accurate alignment when needed. The alignment is described using a
standard eyepiece without an erecting prism.