Hi,

I never tried the drifting method, but the two star alignment did work well until the scope had to look at a third star, which was suddenly far off centre.
Then I decided to go back to basics and to do the following two step approach:

1. to set the scope to exactly (fork mount allowing) HA=90 by initially setting the Decl setting circle at 90 and then do an iteration on the Decl setting by rotating the scope in RA and find the exact point of HA=90 when the image through the eyepiece rotates on a point inside the eyepiece field and to get it doing so at the centre of the view.

2. with the Decl aligned to 90 deg, to use the alt and az settings of the wedge to get exact South (yes, I live in that part... eta Car, Cen A etc..). This is achieved by looking through a medium sized (15 mm) eyepiece at the Southpole, which is depicted on a 30' x 30' image downloaded from the DSS and centred around South pole (2000).

The described alignment ought to work in theory, but doesn't take into account bending of the OTA, back lash and other mechanical 'realities' and off course the occasional kicks and knocks which happen unfortunately when spending some time in the observatory. A metal pier will be more sturdy in this regard.

Did anyone try this type of alignment? We do live in the internet age, don't we?
Any comments about possible short comings that I didn't think of....

Regards,

Berto Monard
Pretoria
PS it is good to read and share info from/with experts on the LX 200 and its optimal use

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