User's Manual

Appendix E

the altitude adjustment knob on the X-Wedge to set your latitude.

Turn on the power to the telescope and when the AutoStar II

handbox displays "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 with). 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. Tighten the locking screws on the

X-Wedge. 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.

Easy Polar Alignment

Two alignment stars are chosen by AutoStar II based on the

date, time, and location. First, choose “Polar” from the “Setup:

Telescope: Mount” menu. The rest of the procedure is identical to

the (Alt-az) Easy (Two-Star) Align, page 41, except the telescope

will be placed into the Polar home position before beginning the

night sky alignment.

Two-Star Polar Alignment

Polar Two-Star Alignment requires some knowledge of the night

sky. AutoStar II provides a library of bright stars and two stars

from this library are chosen by the observer for alignment. First,

choose “Polar” from the “Setup: Telescope: Mount” menu.

The rest of the procedure is almost identical to the (Alt-az) Two

Star Alt-az Alignment, page 42, except the telescope will be

placed into the Polar home position before beginning the night

sky alignment.

Fig. 25. LX600 in polar home position.

North

Pointing

at Polaris