SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE & STAR DRIFT POLAR ALIGNMENT
Polar alignment in the Southern Hemisphere is more difficult that in the Northern Hemisphere because there is no corresponding pole star to use for alignment in the Southern Hemisphere. Polar aligning in the Southern Hemishpere is a two part process because of this. A rough alignment must first be made based on your viewing location. Then, a star drift alignment should be made to fine tune your alignment.
ROUGH ALIGNMENT
Begin by roughly aligning your telescope to the pole by using the mount’s latitude scale. Set the declination scale to 0° to align the optical tube asssem- bly with the mount’s polar axis. Check the latitude of your viewing location and set the latitude scale to the same number. For example, if you were view- ing from Sydney, Australia, you would point your telescope due south and set your latitude adjustment to 34°, since Sydney lies at 34°S latitude. this will point you roughly at the southern celestial pole.
STAR DRIFT ALIGNMENT
Star Drift alignment is more precise than polar star alignment, but may also prove to be more difficult to those not used to aligning a telescope. Once you polar align using the star drift method a few times, it becomes easier, but the first few times may take a considerable amount of time. For general viewing uses, the rough alignment described above may prove to be suf- ficient. The alignment procedure described below can be used to acheive more accurate alignment when needed. The alignment is described using a standard eyepiece without an erecting prism.
1.Having already roughly aligned your telescope, loosen the declination clamp and swivel telescope until scale reads 90°, then retighten clamp. Loosen the right ascension clamp and rotate telescope so that it points 6 hours away from the celestial pole and retighten clamp. The R.A. and Dec. adjustment cables may need to be temporarily removed in order to swivel the telescope freely. The telescope should now be pointing roughly where the meridian and celestial equator intersect.
