On Saturday, June 2, 2001, at 08:29 AM, Michael A. Covington wrote:

>> ...Leveling errors up to 5 degrees have no effect, as far as I can
>> determine,
> as long as you are going to align on 2 stars. (If it looks roughly
> level,
> it's good enough...

that's right. I once tested this by deliberately setting up my tripod
grossly out of level; I don't remember exactly but it was probably at
least 10 or 20 degrees off. After two-star alignment everything worked
just fine. I didn't carefully measure the pointing accuracy but did get
me about as close as it ever does. Theoretically, there are minor
corrections that work better with a level base. But for my scope these
appear to be smaller than the inherit slop in the gears.

Once again, by far the most important aspect of altaz alignment is
carefully centering the alignment stars.

--
Bill Arnett
http://nineplanets.org/ 37 27 38 N 122 16 11 W

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