information that was entered into the hand control. Use the Up and
Down buttons to scroll through the information. Press ENTER to accept
the current information or press UNDO to manually edit the information
(see Sky Align section for detailed instruction on entering time/site
information).
4. The display will now prompt you to select a bright star from the
displayed list on the hand control. Use Up and Down buttons (6 and 9 on
the keypad) to scroll to the desired star and then press ENTER.
5. Use the arrow buttons to slew the telescope to the star you selected.
Center the star in the finderscope and press ENTER. Finally, center the
star in the eyepiece and press ALIGN.
6. Based on this information, the SkyExpedition will automatically display
the most suitable second alignment star that is above the horizon. Press
ENTER to automatically slew the telescope to the displayed star. If for
some reason you do not wish to select this star (perhaps it is behind a
tree or building), you can either:
• Press the UNDO button to display the next most suitable star for
alignment.
• Use the UP and DOWN scroll buttons to manually select any star you
wish from the entire list of available stars.
Once finished slewing, the display will ask you to use the arrow buttons to
align the selected star with the red dot of the finderscope. 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 second alignment star. When the telescope has been
aligned to both stars the display will read Align Success, and you are
now ready to find your first object.
Two Star Alignment
With the two-star alignment method, the SkyExpedition requires the user
to know the positions of two bright stars in order to accurately align the
telescope with the sky and begin finding objects. Here is an overview of the
two-star alignment procedure:
1. Once the SkyExpedition is powered on, use the Up and Down scroll keys
(10) to select Two-Star Align, and press ENTER.
2. Press ENTER to accept the time/site information displayed on the
display, or press UNDO to enter new information.
3. The SELECT STAR 1 message will appear in the top row of the display.
Use the Up and Down scroll keys (10) to select the star you wish to use
for the first alignment star.
Press ENTER.
4. The SkyExpedition then asks you to center in the eyepiece the alignment
star you selected. Use the direction arrow buttons to slew the telescope
to the alignment star and carefully center the star in the finderscope.
Press ENTER when centered.
5. Then, center the star in the eyepiece and press ALIGN.
In order to accurately center the alignment star in the eyepiece, you
may wish 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).
6. The SkyExpedition will then ask you to select and center a second
alignment star and press the ALIGN key. It is best to choose alignment
stars that are a good distance away from one another. Stars that are
at least 40º to 60º apart from each other will give you a more accurate
alignment than stars that are close to each other.
Once the second star alignment is completed properly, the display will read
Align Successful, and you should hear the tracking motors turn-
on and begin to track.
One-Star Align
One-Star Align requires you to input all the same information as you
would for the Two-Star Align procedure. However, instead of slewing to
two alignment stars for centering and alignment, the SkyExpedition uses
only one star to model 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 gives the SkyExpedition the information needed to track
objects in altazimuth in any part of the sky. One-Star Align is not meant
to be used to accurately locate small or faint deep-sky objects or to track
objects accurately for photography.
To use One-Star Align:
1. Select One-Star Align from the alignment options.
2. Press ENTER to accept the time/site information displayed on the
display, or press UNDO to enter new information.
3. The SELECT STAR 1 message will appear in the top row of the display.
Use the Up and Down scroll keys (10) to select the star you wish to use
for the first alignment star.
Press ENTER.
4. The SkyExpedition then asks you to center in the eyepiece the alignment
star you selected. Use the direction arrow buttons to slew the telescope
to the alignment star and carefully center the star in the finderscope.
Press ENTER when centered.
5. Then, center the star in the eyepiece and press ALIGN.
6. Once in position, the SkyExpedition will model the sky based on this
information and display Align Successful.
Note: Once a One-Star Alignment has been done, you can use
the Re-alignment feature (later in this section) to improve your
telescope’s pointing accuracy.
Solar System Align
Solar System Align is designed to provide excellent tracking and GoTo
performance by using solar system objects (Sun, Moon and planets) to
align the telescope with the sky. Solar System Align is a great way to align
your telescope for daytime viewing as well as a quick way to align the
telescope for night time observing.
1. Select Solar System Align from the alignment options.
2. Press ENTER to accept the time/site information displayed on the
display, or press UNDO to enter new information.
3. The SELECT OBJECT message will appear in the top row of the display.
Use the Up and Down scroll keys (10) to select the daytime object
(planet, Moon or Sun) you wish to align. Press ENTER.
4. The SkyExpedition then asks you to center in the eyepiece the
alignment object you selected. Use the direction arrow buttons to slew
the telescope to the alignment object and carefully center it in the
finderscope. Press ENTER when centered.
5. Then, center the object in the eyepiece and press ALIGN.
Once in position, the SkyExpedition will model the sky based on this
information and display Align Successful.
Tips for Using Solar System Align
• 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. Press the UNDO button until the display reads “LCM Ready”
2. Press the MENU button and use the Up and Down keys to select the
Utilities Menu. Press ENTER.
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.
To improve the telescope pointing accuracy, you can use the Re-Align
feature as described below.
Re-Alignment
The SkyExpedition has a re-alignment feature which allows you to replace
either 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 the stars are moving at a rate of 15º every
hour). Aligning on a new star that is in the eastern part of the sky will
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