Celestron Advanced VX 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope Advanced VX Manual - Page 15

Note: East/West Filtering - In order to ensure the best possible full-sky pointing accuracy, your computerized mount automatically filters and chooses its initial alignment stars so that the first two alignment stars are located on one side of the Meridian and any calibration stars are on the opposite side of the Meridian, as indicated by the "W" or "E" displayed in the upper-right corner of the LCD. East/West filtering can be changed simply by pressing the MENU button at any time during the alignment process. 3. Use the UP and Down keys to select Sun Menu and press ENTER. 4. Press ENTER again to allow the Sun to appear on the hand control display. The Sun can be removed from the display by using the same procedure as above. Tip: To improve the telescope pointing accuracy, you can use the Re-Align feature as described below. Tips for adding calibration stars: • Although for casual observing it is not necessary to add calibration stars, it is recommended that you add as many as three calibration stars for optimal point accuracy. • Choosing calibration stars that are near the celestial equator offer the better results than stars near the celestial poles. • A lthough it is not necessary to use calibration stars if the telescope mount has not been moved since its original alignment/calibration, it may be necessary to recalibrate the telescope if the optical tube has been removed for any reason. Quick-Align Quick-Align uses all the date and time information entered at startup to align the telescope. However, instead of slewing to the alignment stars for centering and alignment, the telescope bypasses this step and simply models the sky based on the information given. This will allow you to roughly slew to the coordinates of bright objects like the Moon and planets and provides the telescope with information needed to track objects in any part of the sky (depending on accuracy of polar alignment). Quick-Align is not meant to be used to accurately locate small or faint deep-sky objects or to track objects accurately for astroimaging. To use Quick-Align, simply select Quick Align from the alignment options and press ENTER. The telescope will automatically use the entered date/time parameters to align itself with the sky and display Alignment Successful. Note: Once a Quick-Align has been done, you can use the Re-alignment feature (see below) to improve your telescope's pointing accuracy. Note: Meridian - The Meridian is an imaginary line in the sky that starts at the North celestial pole and ends at the South celestial pole and passes through the zenith. If you are facing south, the meridian starts from your Southern horizon and passes directly overhead to the North celestial pole. For safety purposes, the Sun will not be displayed in any of the hand control's customer object lists unless it is enabled from the Utilities Menu. To allow the Sun to be displayed on the hand control, do the following: 1. P ress the BACK button until the display reads "Advanced VX Ready" 2. P ress the MENU button and use the Up and Down keys to select the Utilities menu. Press ENTER. Last Alignment The Last Alignment method will automatically recall the last stored index positions to continue using the alignment that was saved when the telescope was last powered down. This is a useful feature should your telescope accidentally lose power or be powered down. Note: Just like with Quick-Align, you can use the Re-alignment feature (see below) to improve your telescope's pointing accuracy after using the Last Alignment method. To maintain a more accurate alignment over a series of observing sessions, use the Hibernate feature described later in this chapter. Re-Alignment The mount has a re-alignment feature which allows you to replace any of the original alignment stars with a new star or celestial object. 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 stars are moving at a rate of 15° every hour). Aligning on a new star that is in the eastern part of the sky will improve your pointing accuracy, especially on objects in that part of the sky. I 15