Meade Tripod LX600-ACF 14 inch User Manual - Page 61

Appendix E North Pointing at Polaris Telescope: Mount" menu. The rest of the procedure is identical to the (Alt-az) Easy (Two-Star) Align, page 41, except the telescope will be placed into the Polar home position before beginning the night sky alignment. Two-Star Polar Alignment Polar Two-Star Alignment requires some knowledge of the night sky. AutoStar II provides a library of bright stars and two stars from this library are chosen by the observer for alignment. First, choose "Polar" from the "Setup: Telescope: Mount" menu. The rest of the procedure is almost identical to the (Alt-az) Two Star Alt-az Alignment, page 42, except the telescope will be placed into the Polar home position before beginning the night sky alignment. Fig. 25. LX600 in polar home position. the altitude adjustment knob on the X-Wedge to set your latitude. Turn on the power to the telescope and when the AutoStar II handbox displays "0 to Align, Mode for Menu", press "0". The AutoStar II will ask you to place the telescope in the polar home position. Polar home position is where the DEC axis is at 90 degrees (telescope tube pointing directly away from the drive base and parallel to the fork arms) and the RA axis is at 0:00 hour angle (rotate the RA axis to put the viewfinder on the underside of the telescope tube and the base of the fork arms is parallel to the ground with). Press "ENTER" and the telescope will get GPS time, date and location, and will then slew near to the star Polaris. Find Polaris in the viewfinder (it is very important to have the viewfinder aligned with the optics of your telescope. See page 18) and using the azimuth and altitude controls on the X-Wedge, center Polaris on the crosshairs of the viewfinder. Now, look through a low power eyepiece like the 26mm Super Plössl and further adjust the X-Wedge controls until Polaris is accurately centered in the field of view. Tighten the locking screws on the X-Wedge. Press "ENTER" to confirm and the telescope will slew to a second star. Using the AutoStar II handbox slew keys, center the star in the viewfinder and then accurately center it in the eyepiece. Press "ENTER" and the alignment is complete. Easy Polar Alignment Two alignment stars are chosen by AutoStar II based on the date, time, and location. First, choose "Polar" from the "Setup: 61