User's Manual

43
Advanced AutoStar II Features
Polar Drift Alignment (Northern
Hemisphere)
The LX600 with StarLock is specially equipped to perform an
Automatic Drift Alignment. In the Autostar Setup menu, select
“Drift Align” and the LX600 will guide you through a quick
Automatic drift alignment procedure. This method is substantially
quicker than the manual drift alignment method.
During the Automatic Drift Alignment Procedure, LX600 will slew
to a Southern star and Starlock will begin monitoring the stars’
drift on its CCD chip. Autostar will then let the user know how
many turns of the mounts’ Azimuth Adjustment knob to make to
improve the mounts’ polar alignment.
Next, the LX600 will slew to an Eastern star and StarLock will
monitor its drift on its CCD chip. Again, the StarLock will suggest
to the user the appropriate number of turns, this time using
the mounts Latitude Adjustment knob, to achieve the optimal
polar alignment.
However, if you prefer to drift align the mount using the manual
drift alignment procedure, see Appendix H.
StarLock Automatic Rate Calibration
(ARC)
Obtaining best performance from StarLocked telescopes requires
that the guiding aggressiveness be optimally set for current
viewing/imaging conditions. This is an essential procedure to
obtain peak tracking accuracy Please refer to Appendix C, page
54 for details.
Periodic Error Correction (PEC Training)
Training the mount using AutoStar's built-in Periodic Error
Correction is necessary to achieve peak performance of the LX600
Telescope System. This is especially true when you are taking long
exposure photography.
Periodic Error Correction should be done after you have fully
assembled your mount, balanced with all the auxiliary equipment
you plan on using and you have successfully aligned the telescope.
It is also important that this performed under reasonably dark
skies with good seeing conditions. If atmospheric conditions
are poor you will not obtain accurate error correction. See
page below for directions on how to perform the Periodic Error
Correction routine.
Starlock Assisted PEC Training
Periodic Error Correction (PEC) helps to remove the slight
perturbations in tracking that occur due to the mechanical nature
of a telescope. Follow the steps below to perform this procedure
using StarLock:
1. Point the telescope’s OTA at a moderately bright star near
0 declination (celestial equator).
2. Wait for the StarLock indicator lamp to stop blinking and
become solid red, which indicates that it has located and
locked onto the guide star.
3. Using your AutoStar handbox, navigate to the “Setup:
Telescope” menu. Press ENTER.
4. Scroll through the options until “Telescope: RA PEC”
displays. Press ENTER.
5. Scroll through the options until “RA PEC: Train” displays.
Press ENTER. Training begins.
6. Scroll through the options until “RA PEC: Update” displays.
Press ENTER. Update training begins.
7. Repeat step 6 one more time to improve the PEC training.
Update Menu Option
Use the Update option to further refi ne your training; it is
recommended that you update your original training two or
three times when fi rst using your telescope. Update does not
overwrite the data, but updates the training using information
gathered from both the last and the current training sessions.
Press the MODE key to exit from this option. If you wish to
further refi ne your training, select this menu again and repeat
the procedure.
Erase Menu Option
Select this option to erase all PEC training data.
On and Off Menu Options
Select “On” when you want the telescope to use the training
information. Select “Off” when you do not want for the telescope
to use the training information. Select “On” to enable the Smart
Drive.