[AZ-Observing] Re: Need Advice on Losmandy Polar Alignment

Jim,
It might help to review the polar alignment procedures for your Losmandy 
GEM.
Here is a good article with lots of details:
http://www.themcdonalds.net/richard/index.php?title=Polar_Alignment_of_your_Equatorial_Mount
It clearly shows the patterns in the polar axis alignment scope, so you 
can tell if yours is aligned properly.
In addition to getting Polaris into the field of view of the polar scope 
initially (to set the approximate latitude angle of the polar axis), you 
may need to rotate the alignment scope to place the reticle in the 
correct position for the season of the year...

Here is another online source for the Losmandy GEM manual...
http://www.company7.com/library/losmandy/losgeminiman1.2.pdf

I had some difficulty a couple years ago with my 10 inch LX200 (which of 
course does not have a polar alignment scope, as it is a fork mount...)
(I do use a polar align circle reticle in the finder....)
I eventually discovered that I had the wedge angle set about 3 degrees 
off, probably from setting up on my driveway, which has an incline... 
When I leveled the mount in the field, evidently I was "finding" a set 
of three stars >>below<< Polaris that pretty nearly matched the correct 
triangle pattern of stars surrounding the North Celestial Pole... When I 
correctly set my latitude angle on the wedge, I was then able to get it 
spot on the next time, and tracked very well for more than 30 minutes on 
Jupiter at high power without any further tweaking....

...Only been at this about 45 years, but can still get flummuxed, I 
guess....

Gene Lucas
(17250)
jwaters125@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I have a G8 that I have been having some problems with.  I can not get an
> accurate polar alignment on the mount.  I use the polar alignment scope 
> and align Polaris and the 2 other reference stars then proceed to drift 
> align the mount.  I have a feeling that my reticle in the polar scope is not 
> centered or I am drift aligning the mount incorrectly.
>
> Is there somebody in the Phoenix metro area with a G8 or G11 that they 
> polar align for astrophotography?  I would like to meet up with you during 
> the next star party or chat over e-mail.
>
> Jim Waters
> EVAC
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