magnetic variation

Joe Spinosa Spinosa@msn.com
Wed, 23 Oct 96 16:36:54 UT


Being an amateur astronomer for many years, I just use the north star.

This can present its own set of problems:  How to find the star (Polaris), and 
how to turn your antennas at night.  I certainly would not recommend climbing 
any towers when you can't see what your doing.

This may be helpful for some smaller arrays though.

Also, even Polaris is not at true North.  It's off by about 0.89 degrees.  
This only becomes important when I adjust my telescope to automatically track 
the stars.  For most latitudes, the North star is low enough to get a good 
bead when pointing your antenna.  If you're in Alaska (or anywhere else that 
far North) you might want to use a compass and corrections as many have 
pointed out.  And if your too far South (like Australia) you won't even see 
Polaris.  

Best Regards,
Joe Spinosa
KF6CWX
Concord, CA

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