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with all accessories (eyepiece and Star Pointer) attached and lens cover removed as described in the Assembly section of the
manual.
1. Once the NexStar is powered on , Press
ENTER
to begin alignment.
2. Use the Up and Down scroll keys to select AutoAlign if it is not already displayed, and press ENTER.
3. The telescope will then ask you to use the arrow keys (3) to level the telescope tube and point the front of the telescope
towards north. North can be found by finding the direction of the North Star (Polaris) or by using a compass. You do
not need to point at the North Star, only the north horizon. Alignment only needs to be approximate, however a close
alignment will make the auto alignment more accurate. Once the telescope is in the north and level position, press
ENTER.
4. The hand control display will then ask for the following information:
Date
- Enter the month, day and year of your observing session. The display will read:
mm/dd/yy
Time
- Enter the current local time for your area and select PM or AM.
• Choose between Standard time or Daylight Savings time. Use the Up and Down scroll buttons (10) to toggle
between options.
• Select the time zone that you are observing from. Again, use the Up and Down buttons (10) to scroll through
the choices. To enter a numeric time zone, select Zone and enter the number for the appropriate time zone.
For time zone information, refer to the Time Zone map in the appendix of this manual.
Finally, you must enter the location of your observing site. The NexStar will display a list of cities to choose from. Choose
the city from the database that is closest to your current observing site. The city you choose can be saved in the hand controls
memory so that it only has to be entered once from any given location. Alternatively, if you know the exact longitude and
latitude of your observing site, it can be entered directly into the hand control and remembered for future use as well. To
choose a location city:
1. When
Select Method
Select MethodSelect Method
Select Method
is displayed on the hand control screen, use the Up and Down scroll keys to select
Choose
Choose Choose
Choose
City
CityCity
City
if it is not already displayed, and press ENTER.
2. The hand control will allow you to choose from either U.S. or international locations. For a listing of U.S. locations by
state and then by city, press ENTER while
United States
United StatesUnited States
United States
is displayed. For international locations, use the Up or
Down scroll key to select
International
InternationalInternational
International
and press ENTER.
3. To display a list of local cities, first select your state from the alphabetical listing (or a list of countries if International
locations was selected) and press ENTER.
4. Choose the closest city to your location from the displayed list and press ENTER.
The display will then ask if you would like to save this city for future use. If you press "Yes", the next time you AutoAlign
the telescope, you can select
User Defined
User DefinedUser Defined
User Defined
instead of the
Choose City
Choose CityChoose City
Choose City
. When
User Defined
User DefinedUser Defined
User Defined
is selected, the hand control
will allow you to choose from either the location cities that were saved or any individual longitude/latitude that was saved.
Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to scroll through the stored cities, when the desired city is displayed, press ENTER. For
saved locations (longitudes/latitudes), enter the number (1-9) of the location coordinates that were saved.
Based on this information, the NexStar will automatically select a bright star that is above the horizon and slew towards it. At
this point the telescope is only roughly aligned, so the alignment star should only be close to the field of view of the Star
Pointer finder. Once finished slewing, the display will ask you to use the arrow buttons to align the selected star with the red
dot in the center of the Star Pointer's field of view. If for some reason the chosen star is not visible (perhaps behind a tree or
building) you can press UNDO to select and slew to a different star. 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 first alignment star. (There is no need to adjust the slewing rate of the motors after each alignment step. The
NexStar automatically selects the best slewing rate for aligning objects in both the Star Pointer and the eyepiece). After the
first alignment star has been entered the NexStar will automatically slew to a second alignment star and have you repeat this
procedure for that star. When the telescope has been aligned to both stars the display will read
Alignment Successful
Alignment SuccessfulAlignment Successful
Alignment Successful
,
and you are now ready to find your first object.
If the wrong star was centered and aligned to, the NexStar display will read Bad Alignment. Should this occur, the display
will automatically ask you to re-center the last alignment star and press ALIGN. If you believe that the wrong star may have
been centered (remember the alignment star will always be the brightest star nearest the field of view of the finder), then re-
center the star and press ALIGN. If you wish to try aligning on a different star, press UNDO and the NexStar will select two
new alignment stars and automatically slew to the first star.
Trouble
Shooting