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EQ North
EQ South
Off
Tracking Rate
View Time-Site
- Displays the current time and longitude/latitude downloaded from the GPS receiver. It will also
display other relevant time-site information like time zone, daylight saving and local sidereal time. Local sidereal time
(LST) is useful for knowing the right ascension of celestial objects that are located on the meridian at that time. View Time-
Site will always display the last saved time and location entered while it is linking with the GPS. Once current information
has been received, it will update the displayed information. If GPS is switched off, the hand control will only display the
last saved time and location.
User Defined Objects
Save Sky Object:
Save Land Object:
Save Database (Db)
Object:
a flat surface or tripod without the use of an equatorial wedge. The
telescope must be aligned with two stars before it can track in altazimuth
(Alt-Az).
Used to track the sky when the telescope is polar aligned using an
equatorial wedge in the Northern Hemisphere.
Used to track the sky when the telescope is polar aligned using an
equatorial wedge in the Southern Hemisphere.
When using the telescope for terrestrial (land) observation, the tracking
can be turned off so that the telescope never moves.
In addition to being able to move the telescope with the hand control buttons, the CPC will
continually track a celestial object as it moves across the night sky. The tracking rate can be
changed depending on what type of object is being observed:
Sidereal
This rate compensates for the rotation of the Earth by moving the
telescope at the same rate as the rotation of the Earth, but in the opposite
direction. When the telescope is polar aligned, this can be accomplished
by moving the telescope in right ascension only. When mounted in Alt-
Az mode, the telescope must make corrections in both R.A. and
declination.
Lunar
Used for tracking the moon when observing the lunar landscape.
Solar
Used for tracking the Sun when solar observing.
- The CPC can store up to 400 different user defined objects in its memory. The objects can be
daytime land objects or an interesting celestial object that you discover that is not included in
the regular database. There are several ways to save an object to memory depending on what
type of object it is:
The CPC stores celestial objects to its database by saving its right ascension and declination
in the sky. This way the same object can be found each time the telescope is aligned. Once a
desired object is centered in the eyepiece, simply scroll to the "Save Sky Obj" command
and press ENTER. The display will ask you to enter a number between 1-200 to identify the
object. Press ENTER again to save this object to the database.
The CPC can also be used as a spotting scope on terrestrial objects. Fixed land objects can
be stored by saving their altitude and azimuth relative to the location of the telescope at the
time of observing. Since these objects are relative to the location of the telescope, they are
only valid for that exact location. To save land objects, once again center the desired object
in the eyepiece. Scroll down to the "Save Land Obj" command and press ENTER. The
display will ask you to enter a number between 1-200 to identify the object. Press ENTER
again to save this object to the database.
This feature allows you to create your own custom tour of database objects by allowing you
to record the current position of the telescope and save the name of the object by selecting it
from any one of the database catalogs. These objects then can be accessed by selecting GoTo
Sky Object.
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