Meade Instruments LX200 - Manual (Page 26)

Meade Instruments Corporation - Meade LX200 Instruction Manuals
fork arm. The LX200 will track an overhead object, but it does so by moving higher in Altitude up to the
illegal position, then the drive speeds up and move 180° in Azimuth so that the optical tube assembly can
now be lowered in Altitude to keep up with the overhead object. Confusion arises because the LX200 does
not know which side of 180° of Azimuth that it is on. Similarly, Polaris presents position problems in ALTAZ
alignment because it is so close to the North Celestial Pole. In this region of the sky, the lines of Right
Ascension are so close together that even the LX200's high-resolution encoders can yield ambiguous data.
In our example of January 15, we would use the January chart, face Southeast and look up about 45°.
Orion is probably the easiest constellation to recognize, and we will use the star Betelgeuse for our
example. Use the PREV and NEXT key to scroll through the list of alignment stars until the arrow is
positioned on Betelgeuse (Display 23).
13. Press the ENTER key to select Betelgeuse. The Keypad Hand Controller displays a message (Display
24).
14. Center the alignment star (Betelgeuse in our example) in the eyepiece of the telescope. You can
manually move the telescope by loosening the Dec. Lock Knob and R.A. Lock or electrically by using the
N, S, W, and E keys. If moving the telescope electrically, be sure to use the speed keys, SLEW to get
close, FIND to center in the viewfinder, and CNTR to center the star in the eyepiece. When the star is
centered, press ENTER.
The telescope is now aligned and fully functional, and will automatically begin to track objects. From this
point on, make all telescope movements by use of the Keypad Hand Controller. Manual movements by
loosening the Dec. or R.A. locks will cause the LX200 to "lose" position, requiring realignment.
[ toc ] c. Using the Telescope
[ toc ] 1) The MODE Key
The LX200 has 5 basic Keypad Hand Controller displays, and the MODE key is used to move between
them. The 5 modes are:
1. Telescope Functions. The TELESCOPE mode is where all telescope functions are changed or activated
and the OBJECT LIBRARY is where the features of the object library are accessed.
2. Telescope Position. The first display shows the RA and DEC (telescope position in stellar coordinates)
and the second display (accessed by pressing the ENTER key) shows the telescope position in ALTAZ
coordinates.
3. Time and Date. The first display shows local time and Sidereal time and the second display (accessed
by pressing the ENTER key) shows the date.
4. Timer and Freq. This display is a countdown timer and allows the user to change drive rates. These are
advanced features.
5. All Off. This mode simply turns off all displays and backlighting. You can also adjust the backlighting
brightness by pressing the ENTER key and using the PREV and NEXT keys to adjust the brightness.
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