Session To Session Pointing Repeatability; Making Sure Synchronization Is Correct - Software Bisque Paramount MX User Manual

Paramount MX User Guide
Partial clouds or twilight can make this task more difficult than it might seem. The Paramount
MX can be synchronized to virtually any position on the celestial sphere on the east or west side
of the meridian (See "Best Synchronization Practice" on page 21).
6. Center the bright star in the eyepiece, photo or video display using the joystick on the hand
controller or TheSkyX Professional Edition's Motion Controls on the Telescope window.
7. TheSkyX Professional Edition, enter the name of the bright star in the Search For text box and
click the Find button on the Telescope window to identify the star. Or, click on the star if it is
visible on the Sky Chart.
8. Choose the Synchronize command on the Start Up pop-up menu in Telescope tab. When the
Telescope Synchronization window appears, click the Sync button.
The mount is now synchronized on the bright star.

Session to Session Pointing Repeatability

In subsequent observing sessions, TheSkyX Professional Edition computes the current equatorial and
horizon coordinates of the telescope using the stored hour angle and declination of the mount and the
local sidereal time. In fact, the Paramount MX's pointing accuracy should be virtually identical from
session to session.
Please verify the repeatability of the Paramount MX pointing before proceeding:
1. Turn the mount off.
2. Turn the mount on.
3. Home the mount (this terminates communication between TheSkyX Professional Edition and the
Paramount MX).
4. From TheSkyX Professional Edition, choose the Connect command from the Telescope menu.
The telescope cross hairs appear at the relative home position (see page 101 for an explanation
of the difference between the absolute and relative home position).
5. Slew the mount to the star you just synced on. The mount should slew back to this star; that is,
it should return to the same position in the eyepiece, video or CCD detector. In practice, there
may be small pointing errors that are introduced by mirror flop, or slight differences in time, so
the star may not be in exactly the same position, but it should be very close.
Note that during the process of polar alignment, you will be required to synchronize the mount several
times (each time the mount is adjusted to a new altitude and/or azimuth). For permanent installations,
once the mount is sufficiently aligned with the celestial pole, it should not have to be synchronized again
unless the optical tube assembly or the telescope's physical mounting changes.
Portable setups must synchronize the mount each session.

Making Sure Synchronization Is Correct

The first step to ensure the Paramount MX is properly synchronized is to look at the hour angle and the
declination of the homing sensors reported by TheSkyX Professional Edition.
22 | P a g e