Alternate Polar Alignments; Two-Star Polar Alignment; Easy Polar Alignment; One-Star Polar Alignment - Meade LX850 Instruction Manual

Alternate Polar Alignments

If you would rather set up your telescope without
using the One-Star alignment routine, Autostar II
offers alternative alignment methods for equatorial
mounting. During some of these procedures, you
will (unlike the Automatic and Easy alignment
procedures) manually place the telescope in the
home position.
Initialize Autostar II
First, you need to initialize Autostar II.
1. Plug in the AC adapter to the control panel.
2. Verify both the RA and DEC clutches are tight.
3. Connect Autostar II to the HBX port of the
control panel.
4. Flip the power switch of the RA control panel to the
ON position.
The Autostar II screen is activated and a copyright
message displays briefly.
5. "Press 0 to Align or Mode for Menu" displays.
Press Mode.
6. The telescope will seek the home position. The
RA and DEC motors operate briefly and "Finding
Home" displays.
7. "Align: One Star" displays.
You are now ready to align your telescope using one of
the alternate polar alignment procedures.
One-Star Polar Alignment (Default)
Please see page 22 thru 23 for detailed instructions
on how to set-up your telescope and perform this
alignment. Briefly, One-Star Polar Alignment procedure
requires you to align first on Polaris using the manual
controls to center that star. Autostar then selects and
slews to a second star which you center using the
handbox.

Two-Star Polar Alignment

AutoStar choses and slews to two bright star that it
choses based on time and location.
1. Alignment Option Screen.
displays.
2. Select Alignment. Press the Scroll keys until "Align
Tw0 Star" displays. Press "Enter" to select.
3. Set the telescope in the german equatorial home
42
4. "Taking GPS Fix" will display followed by "Selecting
5. Autostar will beep when it has completed its slew.
6. AutoStar will repeat the process with a second
7. AutoStar will then display how far the telescope's

Align on Home

If Calibrate Home has been performed, power up your
telescope and select this menu to return the previously
calibrated home position. In other words, the telescope
is fully aligned according to the setting that were stored
in Autostar II's memory during the Calibrate Home
procedure. See Calibrate Home, below, for more
information.

How to Drift Align LX850

(Northern Hemisphere)
The LX850 with StarLock is specially equipped to
perform an Automatic Drift Alignment. In the Autostar
Setup menu, select "Drift Alignment" and the LX850
will guide you through a quick Automatic drift alignment
procedure. This method is substantially quicker than
the manual drift alignment method.
Before performing an Automatic Drift Alignment you
must perform either a One-Star, Two-Star or an Easy
Polar alignment.
During the Automatic Drift Alignment Procedure, LX850
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 LX850 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
"Align Automatic"
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 A, pg
49.
position and press "Enter".
Star" upon successful GPS fix. The telescope will
then slew to the first of two star.
Center the first star using the hand controller.
Press "Enter".
star.
alignment is off the pole.