Third Star Alignment - Celestron NexStar 60 Instruction Manual

•
Helpful
Hint
If the wrong information has been input into the hand control, the UNDO button will act as a backspace allowing the user to
re-enter information.
Finally, you must enter the location of your observing site. The NexStar will display a list of cities to choose from. Choose
the city from the database that is closest to your current observing site. The city you choose can be saved in the hand controls
memory so that it only has to be entered once from any given location. Alternatively, if you know the exact longitude and
latitude of your observing site, it can be entered directly into the hand control and remembered for future use as well. To
choose a location city:
When Select Method
1.
City City if it is not already displayed, and press ENTER. City City
2. The hand control will allow you to choose from either U.S. or international locations. For a listing of U.S.
locations by state and then by city, press ENTER while United States
use the Up or Down scroll key to select International
3. To display a list of local cities, first select your state from the alphabetical listing (or a list of countries if
International locations was selected) and press ENTER.
4. Choose the closest city to your location from the displayed list and press ENTER.
The display will then ask if you would like to save this city for future use. If you press "Yes", the next time you AutoAlign
the telescope, you can select User Defined
will allow you to choose from either the location cities that were saved or any individual longitude/latitude that was saved.
Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to scroll through the stored cities, when the desired city is displayed, press ENTER. For
saved locations (longitudes/latitudes), enter the number (1-9) of the location coordinates that were saved.
Based on this information, the NexStar will automatically select a bright star that is above the horizon and slew towards it. At
this point the telescope is only roughly aligned, so the alignment star should only be close to the field of view of the Star
Pointer finder. Once finished slewing, the display will ask you to use the arrow buttons to align the selected star with the red
dot in the center of the Star Pointer. If for some reason the chosen star is not visible (perhaps behind a tree or building) you
can press UNDO to select and slew to a different star. Once centered in the finder, press ENTER. The display will then
instruct you to center the star in the field of view of the eyepiece. When the star is centered, press ALIGN to accept this star
as your first alignment star. (There is no need to adjust the slewing rate of the motors after each alignment step. The NexStar
automatically selects the best slewing rate for aligning objects in both the Star Pointer and the eyepiece). After the first
alignment star has been entered the NexStar will automatically slew to a second alignment star and have you repeat this
procedure for that star. When the telescope has been aligned to both stars the display will read Alignment Successful
and you are now ready to find your first object.
Trouble
If the wrong star was centered and aligned to, the NexStar display will read Bad Alignment
Shooting
display will automatically ask you to re-center the last alignment star and press ALIGN. If you believe that the wrong star
may have been centered (remember the alignment star will always be the brightest star nearest the field of view of the finder),
then re-center the star and press ALIGN. If you wish to try aligning on a different star, press UNDO and the NexStar will
select two new alignment stars and automatically slew to the first star.
Helpful
Hint
In order to accurately center the alignment star in the eyepiece, it will be necessary to decrease the slew rate of the
motors for fine centering. This is done by pressing the RATE key (11) on the hand controller then selecting the number
that corresponds to the speed you desire. (9 = fastest , 1 = slowest).
T h i r d S t
T h i r d S t
The NexStar has a third star alignment feature which allows you to replace either of the two original alignment
stars with a new star. This can be useful in several situations:
If you are observing over a period of a few hours, you may notice that your original two alignment stars have drifted
towards the west considerably. (Remember that the stars are moving at a rate of 15º every hour). Aligning on a new
Select the time zone that you are observing from. Again, use the Up and Down buttons (10) to scroll through
the choices. To enter a numeric time zone, select Zone and enter the number for the appropriate time zone.
For time zone information, refer to the Time Zone map in the appendix of this manual.
Select Method is displayed on the hand control screen, use the Up and Down scroll keys to select Choose
Select Method Select Method
User Defined instead of the Choose City
User Defined User Defined
a r A l i g n m e n t
a r A l i g n m e n t
United States is displayed. For international locations, United States United States
International and press ENTER. International International
Choose City. When User Defined
Choose City Choose City
21
User Defined is selected, the hand control
User Defined User Defined
Alignment Successful, Alignment Successful Alignment Successful
Bad Alignment. Should this occur, the Bad Alignment Bad Alignment
Choose
Choose Choose