Re: leveling a tripod

Fred Scharmann wrote:
Why is leveling so unimportant to you?

Thinking otherwise is a common misunderstanding...

The polar axis of a mount is an imaginary line that extends from the azimuth pivot of the mount to the celestial pole. Everything in the sky rotates around this axis.

Once the azimuth of the mount is in this orientation, its motions are called Right Ascension, and the altitude motions are called Declination.

It doesn't matter HOW you get the azimuth axis of your mount aimed at the pole.

Look at it this way, to put an alt-azimuth fork mount in to an equatorial orientation, you use a wedge. Clearly the fork is no longer level.

If it wouldn't tip over, you could drop the north leg of your tripod until the fork arms are aimed at the pole. In fact, there is a tripod that is designed to do just that. It has two legs to the north, and one to the south such that the two to the north are leaning southward far enough that when the fork mount is "hung" on the north two legs, it will be aimed at the pole.

Experience will teach you all you need to know about this subject.


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