RE: [APML]OT-Drift Alignment

["Serge Theberge" <serge.theberge@wti.on.ca>]

I have been told that for astrophotography, not only you must have a good,
sturdy mount, but you must have good polar alignment.  I have seen various
rules of thumb about what is "good enough" polar alignment such as no
visible drift @ 200X for 5 minutes, others state 15 minutes, etc.  My guess
is that there must be some kind of formula (or rule of thumb) linking
"maximum acceptable polar alignment error" to f-speed, magnification, film
grain size, exposure duration, etc.  Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Thanks

Serge Theberge
Toronto Centre
RASC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: astro-photo-bounces@seds.org 
> [mailto:astro-photo-bounces@seds.org] On Behalf Of Franklin A. Holub
> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 4:25 PM
> To: Discussion of Film Astrophotography
> Subject: Re: [APML]OT-Drift Alignment
> 
> 
> I haven't posted in a while but lets see if I can really mess 
> things up... I'm going to make a statement that is going to 
> fly in the face of years of experience and is going to 
> contradict what we have always been told about drift alignment...
> 
> But first, a little background...
> 
> After a couple of years of being happy with "close enough" 
> polar alignment, I installed a perminant pier and I figured 
> it was time to "nail" my polar alignment. <snip>


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