...when you wheel the scope out of the garage for the first time in seven months, then spend twenty minutes staring at it, trying to figure out what doesn't look right.

Then you notice that unless you turn the tripod 180 degrees the polar axis will be pointing south.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

At least it pointed south and not east or west. This time take a picture of it in proper orientation to a landmark and tape it to the scope when you store it. (just kidding - I once put my scope away for several years and had much to relearn.)

-Veeger

Back in 1965 I was using a simple barn door drive for a 50mm camera. It used a wind up alarm clock to turn the drive screw. I was taking daily shots of Comet Ikeya Seki each morning. I'd wind the alarm clock. Plop the tripod with the barn door mount and camera down, checking the hinge was pointed north and that was good enough for up to a 10 minute exposure. Then I'd drive back to town, develop the film then head off to work. One morning I had horrid trails. Worse than no drive and they had the wrong arc. Suddenly I realized I'd pointed it south not north. And I was doing it every day from the same location! I didn't need month's off to screw up. The club members wouldn't let me forget that for years. The attached photo was taken with this arrangement the day after I pointed it south. The "scratch" across the image is really Echo II a 120' mylar "balloon" satellite soon after it was placed in polar orbit. Micro meteors soon deflated it into a blob that varied in light intensity. It was thought they could bounce radio waves off of it but soon deformed and was a very poor radio reflector. There never was a third try to make it work. I didn't save the backwards negatives from the previous day.

Rick

Attached Images

IKEYAS.JPG (51.4 KB, 20 views)

Egad! That picture brings back memories. Taking the neighbors out to watch for Echo......

And a clock drive clock drive! So to speak.

And there is (take no offense) a pleasing, 19th century quality to the photo, like seeing an image printed from an old glass plate negative.

__________________
The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.