North aligning the camera.
Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 11:51AM I was taken by surprise last night (14th November) when I discovered that it was clear at 11pm - I should have checked earlier!! However I managed to align the camera properly before the inevitable clouds set in at 1 a.m.
The new external focuser is shown below
The thumbscrew on the top of the focuser can be loosened to allow the entire focuser and attached camera to rotate to get the camera aligned to have North at the top.
The image above shows the Crayford Focuser attached to the LX200 and to the camera.
The Crayford now takes over the focusing role from the LX200 and so the mirror is clamped as shown in the image below which shows the fully (firmly but not putting any stress on the mirror) tightened spring on the focus lock.
Images were taken to determine the Position Angle - this is the first image of Globular Cluster Herschel - H201-1.
The plate solution gives a Position Angle of 1.98 degrees.
I adjusted the Position Angle once more - took a random image - and solved the plate.
Here are the actual image and "The Sky" solution.
As you can see the alignment with North is good - as the North arrow is vertical
The Plate Solution gives the detail
The position angle is now 0.31 degrees - this is near enough!!