User's Manual

23
Observing
One-star Polar Alignment
Setup the telescope facing true North with the tripod level. Use
the altitude adjustment knob on the X-Wedge to set your latitude.
Make sure the telescope is set to Polar mode in the Autostar
Setup/Telescope/Mount Menu (See page 32). Turn on the power
to the telescope and when the AutoStar II handbox displays
"Press 0 to Align, Mode for Menu", press "0". The AutoStar II will
ask you to place the telescope in the polar home position. Polar
home position is where the DEC axis is at 90 degrees (telescope
tube pointing directly away from the drive base and parallel to the
fork arms) and the RA axis is at 0:00 hour angle (rotate the RA axis
to put the viewfi nder on the underside of the telescope tube and
the base of the fork arms is parallel to the ground). Press "ENTER"
and the telescope will get GPS time, date and location, and will
then slew near to the star Polaris. Find Polaris in the viewfi nder (it
is very important to have the viewfi nder aligned with the optics of
your telescope. See page 18) and using the azimuth and altitude
controls on the X-Wedge, center Polaris on the crosshairs of the
viewfi nder. Now, look through a low power eyepiece like the 26mm
Super Plössl and further adjust the X-Wedge controls until Polaris
is accurately centered in the fi eld of view. Relock the X-Wedge
locking screws. Press "ENTER" to confi rm and the telescope will
slew to a second star. Using the AutoStar II handbox slew keys,
center the star in the viewfi nder and then accurately center it
in the eyepiece. Press "ENTER" and the alignment is complete.
Which One’s the Alignment Star?
If AutoStar II has chosen an alignment star with which
you are unfamiliar, how can you be sure if the star in your
eyepiece is really the alignment star?
The rule of thumb is that an alignment star is usually the
brightest star in that area of the sky. If you perform a GO
TO to an alignment star and you’re not sure if you have
located the alignment star or it isn’t in the eyepiece, look
through your viewfi nder. When you view an alignment star
in the viewfi nder, it stands out dramatically from the rest
of the stars in that portion of the sky. The viewfi nder will
help you locate a star more quickly than the eyepiece,
because it has a much wider fi eld of view than the
eyepiece. Using AutoStar II, set the slew speed to 6 or
higher and use the Arrow keys to center the alignment
star in the viewfi nder. If your viewfi nder has been aligned
with the telescope, the alignment star should now be in
the eyepiece. Set the slew speed to 4 or less and center
the star in the eyepiece.
Syncing your Eyepiece or Camera
using Starlock
Whenever you change eyepieces, diagonals or cameras, the
center fi eld of view may shift slightly. Starlock can compensate
for this slight difference by performing the following routine:
1. Press the MODE key several times, until “Select Item: Object”
is displayed.
2. Press the ENTER key to choose the “Object” option and move
down four (4) levels. “Object: Star” is displayed.
3. Press the ENTER key to choose the “Star” option and move
down one (1) level. “Named” is displayed.
3. Press the ENTER key to choose the “Named” option.
4. Scroll thorough the lists of Named star until you come to a
bright star that is visible (if you are not sure what to choose
use the same star that AutoStar used during the alignment
procedure). Press the GOTO key to choose that star.
5. The telescope will slew to that star. When slewing has been
completed, re-center the star in the eyepiece or camera. Then
hold the “ENTER” key for 2 seconds. Then press “ENTER” again
to confi rm your position.
StarLock will now compensate for the offset.
Tip: The GO TO key also allows you to perform a “spiral
search”. A spiral search is useful when the telescope
slews to an object, but that object is not visible in the
eyepiece after the telescope fi nishes its search. (This
sometimes occurs during an alignment procedure.)
Press GO TO when the telescope stops slewing. The tele-
scope begins to move in a spiral pattern at a very slow
speed around the search area. Look through the eyepiece
and when the object does become visible, press MODE to
stop the spiral search. Then use the Arrow keys to center
the object.
Tip: To manually enter the RA and DEC coordinates of
an object:
Press and hold MODE for two seconds or more. The
RA and DEC coordinates display. Press GO TO. “Object
Position” and a set of coordinates displays. Then enter
the RA and DEC coordinates of any celestial object using
Number keys. As soon as the coordinates are entered,
AutoStar II slews the telescope to the coordinates. Note
that the telescope must be initialized for this procedure
to operate properly.