Meridian Flips

Have you ever discovered (possibly to your cost!) that when tracking an object across the meridian using a German Equatorial mount it is only too easy for your telescope tube to hit the tripod or the mount? And if so, have you wondered how to avoid this unfortunate clash? In words, the solution is simple - you need to do a Meridian Flip. However, unless you have a computerised mount of some sort (which will usually be able to carry out the procedure for you), the adjustment to the Right Ascension and Declination axes required to get you tracking safely again will probably not be at all obvious. An Internet search won't help you either, as the manual procedure is either not mentioned at all or is stated incorrectly.

In order to solve the puzzle, a friend and I carried out theoretical & practical experiments which showed that the required procedure is actually quite straightforward. In support of this result we wrote a "scientific paper" detailing our work to determine the answer and to verify it by tests on actual astronomical targets. So, if you would like to explore the subject in greater depth do please read the paper - you can view it by using the link below.

Download the paper

All information (c) R.A.Firth & S.P.Holmes 2022
Reproduction by permission only

	Have you ever discovered (possibly to your cost!) that when tracking an object across the meridian using a German Equatorial mount it is only too easy for your telescope tube to hit the tripod or the mount? And if so, have you wondered how to avoid this unfortunate clash? In words, the solution is simple - you need to do a Meridian Flip. However, unless you have a computerised mount of some sort (which will usually be able to carry out the procedure for you), the adjustment to the Right Ascension and Declination axes required to get you tracking safely again will probably not be at all obvious. An Internet search won't help you either, as the manual procedure is either not mentioned at all or is stated incorrectly.
In order to solve the puzzle, a friend and I carried out theoretical & practical experiments which showed that the required procedure is actually quite straightforward. In support of this result we wrote a "scientific paper" detailing our work to determine the answer and to verify it by tests on actual astronomical targets. So, if you would like to explore the subject in greater depth do please read the paper - you can view it by using the link below.