(Stupid)? c-band alignment question

[esm]

Hi,

Today I tried to align my dish to South. I went out at exactly 12 noon and rotated the dish on the pole until the shadow oft he feedhorn cover was vertically centered on the mesh. Then I checked my compass and it was way off.

Then I did the same thing at 1 pm and now the compass reads right. I could understand this one-hour offset during Summer savings time but not in Winter were we are supposed to run on "normal" time.

Am I nuts or is there something wrong with the sun [somewhat unlikely ]?

Thanks,

Ed

 

[Lone Cloud]

Each time zone is about a thousand miles across, and the lines zig and zag all over the place besides. To get real true south using that method, you have to go to a site that gives you the exact time of day when the sun is due south.

Better method is to center your dish on its mount and go for your due south satellite. If the longitude of the satellite and your longitude are a bit off, it usually is still ok.

Your dish can be off quite a bit. by your method.

 

[Phottoman]

OR, if you have a NORTH view of the sky at night, try this. Find the north star, lay something on the ground at the back of the dish pole pointing AT the north star, then in the daylight, when you look from the back, point the dish due south. That always worked for me when aI was putting up BUDs early in my career.

 

[esm]

I do see the North Star at night and that's why I know the North-South axis on my property pretty well.

I followed Lone Cloud's advice and caculated the exact time for true South for my location and it came out to 12:40pm.

Thanks for the help, it's greatly appreciated.

Ed

 

[Lak7]

I followed Lone Cloud's advice and caculated the exact time for true South for my location and it came out to 12:40pm.

I believe it changes every day, like sunrise / sunset.

 

[esm]

I believe it is the midpoint between sunrise and sunset and it will fluctuate a bit accordingly.