Drift Alignment

Folks - a question for those of you with a better understanding than me...

I have been doing some drift alignment following a pretty well document process.

Point the telescope to the South (on the meridian) at zero deg declination. If the star moves up or down, you alter the azimuth of the mount/pier. You ignore any East/West movement of the star.

Point the telescope to the East and if the star moves up or down, alter the azimuth of the mount. Again, ignore any East/West movement of the star.

Here's the rub - I have eliminated all the north/south movement of stars both at the Meridian and pointing East. i.e. I have my alt and az adjusters tweaked to near perfection... But if I point East or South, my star always drifts West - not by much but it drifts for sure...

Any ideas?

Dave, I strongly advise you use WCS.

wcs.ruthner.at/index-en.php

It just cuts out any guess work and will have you perfectly drift aligned in 10 - 15 minutes. The best 20euro I ever spent.

I was thinking of using polealignmax. Not sure that WCS would work with the Proline. But given that its a 30 day free tiral, I'll give it a go. Thanks for the tip!

Cheers
Dave

Dave,

I had forgotten that you have pinpoint, in that case polealignmax should work out better. WCS is only better for those not ready to shell out for pinpoint.

Dave,

Is WCS suitable for an unmodified SPC900NC. Or do I have to mod it for long exposures?

Dave,

Is WCS suitable for an unmodified SPC900NC. Or do I have to mod it for long exposures?

John,

Unmodded cameras are perfect. In fact WCS doesn't support LX modded cameras.