NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2015 Apr 10, 02:15 -0700
Marty said. Your setup is very similar to what I use. I have not found ghost images to be a problem, it's easy to distinguish ghosts from the real image. I would suggest that you upgrade to a better level. Maybe something like a Starrett Cross test level.
I did some experiments yesterday. Most of the ghosts seem too originate in the vicinity of the horizon glasses. Then I remembered the little telescope eyepiece filter and used that instead of the various filters. That seemed removed all the ghosts, but it made it harder to differentiate between AH and index mirror images. I think I’m going to stick with shooting centre to centre in future. Edge to edge ought to be more accurate, but remembering whether I’m seeing top to top or bottom to bottom, and which way and where to allow for semi diameters, is just too mind boggling for what ought to be a relaxing hobby. Last night I had a go at Jupiter, 4nm and 9nm. I can see star shots are going to need a lot of practice and a firm grip. I was getting the index image down to the AH OK, but then I kept losing one image or the other and having to start off again. I’ve got a star splitter amongst the index filters, which I ought to try out, but that’s a third thing to get in line, so I think I’ll leave it for a bit until I get more practice in the warmer evenings. I'm fairly happy with the circular level at the moment. Time will tell as to its accuracy. Parallax on the bubble might need careful consideration. Dave