Meade Tripod LX600-ACF 14 inch User Manual - Page 59

Appendix E are acceptable. Do not allow undue attention to precise polar alignment of the telescope to interfere with your basic enjoyment of the instrument. Fig. 22. Optional X-Wedge for equatorial mode. Note: The Meade equatorial wedge is designed solely for use in conjunction with your Meade tripod. The wedge should never be used without the tripod (e.g., by placing the wedge alone on a table top and then mounting the telescope on the wedge-the wedge may become seriously unbalanced, to the point where the telescope may actually tip over. Lining Up with the Celestial Pole Objects in the sky appear to revolve around the celestial pole. (Actually, celestial objects are essentially "fixed". Their apparent motion is caused by the Earth's rotation). During any 24 hour period, stars make one complete revolution about the pole, making concentric circles with the pole at the center. By lining up the telescope's polar axis with the North Celestial Pole (or for observers located in Earth's Southern Hemisphere, with the South Celestial Pole), astronomical objects may be followed, or tracked, simply by moving the telescope about one axis, the polar axis. This tracking may be accomplished automatically with the LX600 ACF electric motor drive. If the telescope is reasonably well aligned with the pole, very little use of the telescope's Declination slow motion control is necessary. Virtually all of the required telescope tracking will be in Right Ascension. (If the telescope were perfectly aligned with the pole, no Declination tracking of celestial objects would be required.) For the purposes of casual telescopic observations, lining up the telescope's polar axis to within a degree or two of the pole is more than sufficient: with this level of pointing accuracy, the telescope's motor drive will track accurately and keep objects in the telescopic field of view for perhaps 20 to 30 minutes. Begin polar aligning the telescope by locating Polaris. Finding Fig. 23. Locating Polaris Polaris is simple. Most people recognize the "Big Dipper". The Big Dipper has two stars that point the way to Polaris (Fig. 23). Once Polaris is found, it is a straightforward procedure to obtain a rough polar alignment. To line up with Polaris, follow the procedure described below. Refer to the instruction sheet included with your equatorial wedge for information about attaching the wedge to the telescope and also about using the azimuth and latitude controls. 1. Select "Setup: Telescope" from the AutoStar II menus. Press ENTER. Scroll to "Telescope: Mount" and press ENTER. Scroll to "Scope Mounting: Polar" and press ENTER. The telescope mount is now set to the polar mode. 2. Press MODE until "Select Item: Setup" displays. Press ENTER. "Setup: Align" displays. Press ENTER. "Align: Easy" displays. Scroll to "Align: One-Star" and press ENTER. AutoStar II now prompts you to set the telescope in the polar home position. a. Using the bubble level placed on the wedge floor, adjust the tripod legs so that the bubble is level. b. Set the wedge to your observing latitude. c. Using the Up and Down Arrow keys, rotate the telescope tube in Declination so that the telescope's Declination reads 90°. See SETTING CIRCLES, page 58. Tip: You can check if the declination is set at true 90°. Look through the eyepiece and rapidly move the optical tube on the R.A. axis. If all the stars rotate around the center of the field of view, the Declination is set at 90°. If the stars arc out of the field of view, move the optical tube on the Declination axis until you achieve the centering effect. d. Loosen the RA lock, and rotate the fork arms to the 00 position H. A. : Move the forks arms 59