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Brightest Star alignment
Aligning the 1st Star
1.
Select "Brightest Star" as your Alignment Method. Press
ENTER.
2.
The hand controller will prompt you to "Select Region."
Referring to Figure 18, choose the region that
corresponds with where you see the brightest star in the
sky. There are eight overlapping regions to choose from,
each covers a 90-degree span in azimuth. The direction
you choose will only affect your alignment star selection;
you will still be able to choose objects to view across the
entire sky once the alignment is complete. Referring to
the included compass may be helpful during this process.
The red portion of the pointer points North, so orient the
compass so that the "N" (0 degrees) is directly under the
red tip.
3.
After you have selected a region of the sky, the hand
controller will generate a list of the brightest stars in that
region. Only stars or planets brighter than magnitude
1.5 will appear in the list, and only if they are between
10 and 75 degrees in elevation. If none is found meeting
those criteria, the hand controller will display "No object
found in this region." Press ENTER or ESC and select
another region of sky.
4.
Now, use the Scroll keys to scroll through the list of bright
stars. There will only be a few stars, at most, on the list,
and sometimes only one star. The hand controller will
display the name and magnitude of the bright star on the
first line, and its position on the second line (Figure 19).
On the second line, the first number is the star's azimuth
angle, or E-W coordinate, in degrees, and the second
number is its altitude above the horizon in degrees.
These coordinates provide a simple way to identify the
bright star you have chosen. When you are confident the
hand controller is displaying the name of the bright star
you wish to align on, press ENTER.
5 .
The mount will NOT slew to the first selected bright
star automatically . Instead, you will use the direction
keys to slew the telescope to the 1st alignment star
selected in the previous step. Center the 1st align ment
star in the field of view of the EZ Finder II first, then
center it in the telescope eyepiece. Press ENTER to
proceed to the next step.
NOTE: During this step the mount will select a medium
speed for centering the star in the EZ Finder's field of
view. If the mount is moving too slowly to the selected
region you can move the mount manually. You could also
change the speed as explained in the section Moving the
Mount
6.
Now the screen will display "Ctr. to eyepiece" and
the name of the selected 1st alignment star. The star
should be inside the eyepiece field of view. Now use the
direction keys to center it in the eyepiece and then press
the (ENTER) key to proceed to the next step.
NOTE: During this step the mount will select a slow
speed allowing easy centering the star in the eyepiece
field of view. Don't move the mount manually, other-
wise you will overshoot the star position and lose it. If
the default speed is inadequate you can change it as
described in the section Moving the Mount. Be sure to
end the centering procedure by using the UP and RIGHT
direction keys!
Aligning the 2nd Star
1.
Once the first alignment star has been centered in the
eyepiece, the SynScan will prompt you to "Choose 2nd
Star." (If the first alignment "star" was actually a planet,
you'll be prompted to re-select a first alignment star.)
Scroll through the list using the Scroll keys and refer to
the appropriate star chart in the back of this manual to
choose a second alignment star, then press ENTER. The
mount will now automatically slew toward the selected
star, which should land in or near the field of view of the
EZ Finder.
2.
After the mount stops, the hand controller will give a long
beep and display "Use dir. keys to center object." Don't
worry if the star does not land in the center of the field
of view – that's normal at this point. The mount is not
yet fully aligned with the sky, after all. Center the star in
the finder scope and then in the telescope's eyepiece,
then press ENTER. If both alignment stars were properly
aligned, the LCD will display "Alignment Successful."
Press ENTER to complete the alignment process.
If the message "Alignment Failed" displays, it usually
means the star positions do not correspond with the loca-
tion and date/time information input during setup. Please
check your user initialization settings before starting
again.
3.
After pressing (ENTER) to complete the alignment
process the SynScan hand control will display the
alignment menu again. Press the button (ESC) twice until
the SynScan hand control displays CHOOSE MENU.
Cancellation During Alignment Process
1.
While the mount is slewing during the alignment, you
may press the ESC key to stop the mount. The hand
controller screen will display "Mount stopped. Press any
key..."
2.
Press any key and the SynScan hand controller will ask
you to select another align ment star.
3.
Press the ESC key again, and the LCD screen will
display "Exit Alignment? 1) YES 2) NO." Press key 1 to
exit the alignment process; press key 2 to go back to
choose an alignment star.
2-Star alignment
To perform the two-star alignment, follow the same steps
described for the Brightest Star alignment, except that the
hand controller will not prompt you to select a directional
region for a bright star. Instead, you'll be presented with a list
of stars available in your current sky to choose from, for each
of the two alignment stars. Refer to the appropriate star chart
in Appendix C to identify a star to select.
13
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