StarTrak: Making Setting Circles
From this site you can download a program which will help you to create setting circles. The program requires Windows 95, NT or later. The link (below) downloads the program as a self-extracting zip file called SETCIRCZ.EXE. After this has downloaded, double-click on its icon to extract the setting-circle program.
Download Setting Circles program.
The program will print a large 90 degree protractor to assist in making an azimuth circle. The protractor is printed over 4 sheets of paper, which you then join together to give a protractor having a radius of over 360 mm. The program also prints a linear strip (to dimensions which you supply) graduated from 0 to 90 degrees. This is used for measuring altitude (if you have a Dobsonian mount, this strip can be fixed to the inside surface of the altitude pivot tube).
Large azimuth circle fitted beneath Cambridge Astronomical Association's half-metre Dobsonian reflector
Some other ATM sites
Of course, you don't have to use StarTrak to guide your telescope. Here are some very good websites from people who have used the setting circles program to design their setting circles for use with other star-finding software:
Rod Nabholz's site: http://www.indytel.com/~rnabholz/twotube/index.htm
Two of Berislav Bracun's sites: http://www.scopemaking.net/hrv/cald.htm and
http://www.scopemaking.net/300/300.htm.
..and for equatorial 'scopes...
(Here's an extra program which you really don't need if you have an altazimuth mount such as a Dobsonian. This extra program is for owners of equatorial telescopes, who wish to construct their own Right Ascension (RA) setting circle. This sort of setting circle is marked in hours and minutes, rather than in degrees. If you also want to create a Declination (Dec) setting circle for an equatorial telescope, please use the SetCirc program provided above - this is ideal for this purpose.)
(This link downloads the program as a self-extracting zip file called RACIRCZ.EXE. After this has downloaded, double-click on its icon to extract the RA setting-circle program.)