Dear All,
Can someone in this group give me some clear advise. As a second
telescope I often use an ETX, tripod mounted, which I find usefull before
dragging out the 10". But many times I find the time has gone by too fast as
I'm enjoying the simplicity of the view etc.- except for one thing. Due to
the arrangement of the ETX its almost impossible to view around the South
Polar region due to no travel between the forks etc and the etx is a bugger
in this area of the sky. At 38 degrees south of the equator (Melbourne,
Australia) many good views are to be had with this small scope just set up
Alt/Az with no drive. So last night I thought why not turn the scope around
and flip the N/S switch to North setting and see if it tracks objects OK.
Tripod was still set for 38o declination. It seemed to track OK but a bit
off. The question is:- is this a valid thing to do and how could I improve
the tracking?
When used normally ie South polar aligned the scope is very good especially
after making the RA modifications to the drive as on Ed Weasners site
(Thanks for a great site, Ed).
A little tip from the web is to use a clothes peg on the focus knob of the
etx - turns it into a very smooth focuser with very little shaling. So good
that I used a slight modification of this on the 10" with great results -
especially for a 10 cent outlay.
Allan Gould

"Friends come and go......Enemies accumulate"

"Ignorance can be fixed; stupid is forever!"

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