William R. Mattil wrote:
canopus56 wrote:
I am confused about the east horizon test for polar drift alignment.
Most instructions appear to say that one should find a star due east
on the celestial equator. But the celestial equator crosses the
eastern horizon at a zero degrees altitude. Do you in fact have to
pick a star on the celestial equator somewhat east south east in order
to have a drift alignment star with sufficient altitude? - Canopus56




I usually use an Eastern star about 20 to 30 degrees up from the horizon.


Bill



Same here.

Here is a nice webpage on polar aligning for
canopus56 to read;

http://www.darkskyimages.com/gpolar.html



To get close upon initial setup, I use a
compass, to set azimuth, and a protractor
to set elevation of the tube. It cut's
my drift alignment time in half.

YMMV


--

AM