This page last changed on Dec 02, 2012 by rp7772.

You may find that telling the telescope to slew to an object you know may always take you to a coordinate that has the desired object off-centre. This means that the coordinate system that the telescope is obeying is not in line with the 'real' coordinate system.

In this situation, the problem can be solved by working out by how much the right-ascension and declination are out by and compensating for it with each slew.

To do this, use an object you know such as Betelgeuse and centre the telescope on it after performing the alignment procedure. Then, read off from the handset which coordinates the telescope is reporting it is looking at. Compare this to the 'real' coordinates of the object as quoted on your star catalogue or planetarium software (eg. Stellarium). Then simply add/subtract this difference from the co-ordinates of every future object observed.


coordsshift.jpg (image/jpeg)
Document generated by Confluence on Jun 12, 2013 09:50