NavList:

I have a couple of questions to ask of my betters in this installment of "Art fumbles around doing lunars."

The sky was hazy with clouds moving thru (unlike the "clear" the weather guessing app said it was).  The Moon was visible with a distinct halo.  I picked out Sirius from the murk as Mars was obscured.  The Moon was lower than Sirius so decided to shoot with the horizon mirror on the Moon.

With my C+P, I had no problems getting the polarizing horizon shade adjusted for the Moon.  The angle between Moon and Sirius I judged to be about 70° so started with that.  And there is my first question.  Other than a SWAG at the angle, what is the easiest way to pre-set the index?  Some function of Zn and Hc?

70° wasn't quite right - I ended up resorting to the technique for bringing a star down to the horizon by swinging the index, but sideways and to the Moon.

I was able to get Sirius to the near limb and took a series of shots and graphed them.  This time, I was "only" 15 minutes off.  So, some progress.

But here is my second question.  The Moon was more or less straight east of my location, with Sirius off a little west of south (ie: if facing the Moon, Sirius was to the right).  The Moon phase was waxing gibbous, I shot to the near limb.  This from remembering the moon headdress with the center disc and two outer cresents with the horns facing away from center  Looking thru the telescope, it appeared to me that the far limb was rounder and that the near limb was kind of flat.  

Did I bring the star to the wrong limb?

Thanks for all hints and admonitions.

-- Art