Meade Instruments LX200 - Manual (Page 43)

Meade Instruments Corporation - Meade LX200 Instruction Manuals
about to commence. At this point try to keep the star on the same location of the crosshair during the eight
minute training sequence by pressing the N,S,E, and W keys. After eight minutes, the training is over and
Smart Drive will play back your drive corrections automatically, dramatically improving the R.A. drive
tracking characteristics.
If you wish to further refine the accuracy, move the LCD arrow to UPDATE and press ENTER and follow
the same instructions as above. This can be done in UPDATE as many times as you wish. With each
training the Smart Drive will average your training sequences.
If you find that you have made a mistake in training (e.g. pushed E instead of W when you should have),
you can eliminate the memory by moving the LCD arrow to ERASE and press ENTER.
A star that drifts consistently North or South during guiding, can also be corrected for. Move the LCD arrow
to DEC LEARN and press ENTER. Begin making drive corrections immediately by pressing any of the
direction (N, S, E, W) keys to keep the star on the crosshair of the guiding eyepiece. It is suggested that
you train in DEC LEARN for at least half of your intended exposure time for an astrophoto. The longer that
you train, the more accurate the DEC LEARN will be. Once the desired time is finished, press ENTER and
the training will cease. The Smart Drive will then determine how many key pushes that you gave in N and S
and choose the direction based from which direction received more commands. It then averages the time
between key pushes in the chosen direction. In this way, the Smart Drive can correct for Declination drift
(should your polar alignment be slightly off), or will allow you to more precisely guide on non-stellar objects,
such as comets, asteroids, etc.
To play back your DEC LEARN training, move the LCD arrow to DEC CORRECT and press ENTER. To
halt the play back press ENTER again. To erase the DEC LEARN training, either move the LCD arrow
back to DEC LEARN and press ENTER twice or turn the LX200 off.
[ toc ] 4) 12/24 HR
The 12/24 HR menu selection of the TELESCOPE file simply toggles between a twelve and twenty-four
hour display of local time in the time mode.
To toggle between 12 and 24 hours displays, move the LCD arrow to 12/24HR and press ENTER. To
return to the original setting, press ENTER again.
[ toc ] 5) HELP
The HELP menu selection of the TELESCOPE file is an electronic mini-manual that will briefly describe the
function of each command key on the LX200 Keypad.
To use this menu, move the LCD arrow with the PREV or NEXT key to HELP and press ENTER. To read
the lines of text, use the PREV and NEXT keys. To exit, press MODE.
[ toc ] 6) REVERSE NS
The REVERSE NS menu seletion of the TELESCOPE file reverses the direction of the telescope in North
and South movements (e.g. when you press the N key the scope will move South or down instead of North
or up). This is especially useful during some guiding applications in imaging and observing.
To use the REVERSE NS menu, move the LCD arrow to REVERSE NS and press ENTER. If you wish to
return the direction commands to the original setting, press ENTER again.
[ toc ] 7) REVERSE EW
The REVERSE EW menu selection of the TELESCOPE file reverses the direction of the telescope in East
and West movements (e.g. when the W key is pressed, the telescope moves East). This is particularly
useful during some guiding applications in imaging and guiding.
To use the REVERSE EW menu, move the LCD arrow to REVERSE EW and press ENTER. If you wish to
return the direction commands to the original setting, press ENTER again.
[ toc ] 8) BALANCE
When adding optional equipment to the LX200, like a heavy camera or Dewshield, it is often necessary to
rebalance the telescope using the Meade #1401 (for 8" LX200's), #1402 (for 10" LX200's) , or #1403 (for
12" LX200's) Tube Balance Weight Systems.
Selecting option #8 from the TELESCOPE menu moves the LX200 telescope rapidly up and down in
Declination. This provides an easy way to determine when the telescope is balanced in the Declination
axis. (Remember, loosening the Dec. lock to check the balance will cause the LX200 to lose alignment.)
When the telescope is out of balance, the LX200 will draw more current when slewing in the "heavy"
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