NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: John D. Howard
Date: 2019 Jul 12, 15:29 -0700
Fred,
Hope you don't mind my two cents worth of advise.
When you level your telescope there are two things to look for: is the horizontal axis level and is the vertical axis straight up. I asume you are using an alt-az mount - like a surveyor's transit. If the telescope horizontal axis is not 90 degrees to the plane of rotation of the vertical axis then the telescope will be level in only two azimuths. Most telescope mounts that I have seen do not have a method for adjusting the horizontal axis in the yoke. If the axis is off from perpendicular of the vertical axis then you will never be able to have a horizontal axis in all azimuth.
You can check by looking at vertical objects - the side of tall buildings or radio towers at different azimuths or, set the azimuth first, then level the horizontal axis.
Old books about surveying have methods for adjusting the transit instrument which may be helpful.
John H. 41N 100W
