Douglas Benn wrote:

> Sorry to ask a really stupid question but.....
>
> Last week my illuminated reticule and Maxim DL arrived. I fitted the eyepiece and rebalanced the OTA without trouble. However, I am confused by the manual that says with the scope pointing along the meridian one should move the wedge to the West if the star drifts South or down. Now true south in the eyepiece is actually north since the image is inverted.
>
> My question is - if the star drifts South will it go "up" in the eyepiece field?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Douglas

Others have given good advice on this but I will add what one of my
professors told me 40 years ago ... after all the carefull calculations
of drift etc, decide what needs to be done and then multiply by -1 ...

Seriously, this stuff is pretty easy to mess up. The best approach is
to keep careful records while carrying out drift alignment adjustments.
Something like:
----------------
15/16Apr01 0 dec star near 0h HA
2200 lift up on eyepiece makes star go up so bottom of field is S
drive off makes star go left so right side is E
2213 star drifted N 1/2 FOV in 5 mins
adj az 1 turn CW
2221 star drifted N 1/2 FOV in 3 mins, phoo ... wrong way
[Note to self: correct drift N with CCW turns]
adj az 1 1/2 turn CCW
2227 star drifted N 1/4 FOV in 15 mins! (also drifted E 1/4 field)
... etc.

--
John Oliver
Department of Astronomy
University of Florida

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