Dish Pointing... Elevation Question

[jdmcs]

I'm trying to point a Dish 300 towards 61.5 with an azimuth of 161 and an elevation of 42. [End of DISH specific details.]

When I set the dish to an elevation of 42 and placed the dish on the mast, I was expecting the dish and LNBF arm to be at a near 45 degree angle... but it wasn't. The mast was near level, but should have been close enough for my "where would the dish point" test.

So where does the 42 degrees come from, and how does it corespond to how the satellite signal will hit the dish? A picture would be nice. I am trying to figure out where to put the dish to avoid some trees -- if possible -- and understanding where the 42 degrees is coming from would be a big help.

I figure the answer will apply to any single-LNB 18" dish.

And please, don't try to confuse me my describing how this works on a multi-LNB dish (DISH SuperDish, DirecTV Phase III, etc.). I'm not ready to be completely confused when you skew things...

 

[sattech]

The signal is reflected from the dish to lnb which makes the dish look like it is pointing lower than it should. The ground or horizon is 0 degrees and straight up would be 90 deg. Hold your arm out at an angle in between these and that is 45 deg. approximently where the dish will need to point.

 

[PSB]

An off set dish points around 22 deg. higher than it looks to be pointing, so in your case the dish elevation is set at 45 deg. but the dish looks like its pointing at
45-22= 23deg. elevation

It fools a lot of people hope the below link helps visualize it.

http://www.satsig.net/azelhelp.htm