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Polaris
Little Dipper
Big Dipper
Cassiopeia
Fig. 42 Locating Polaris.
star, and also of the object you wish to locate, in a star atlas. Point the object at the
bright star. Then loosen the R.A. setting circle lock knob (
32, Fig. 1d) and turn the
R.A. setting circle to read the correct R.A. coordinate of the bright star; lock the R.A.
setting circle lock knob onto the object. Next, loosen the R.A. lock (
33, Fig. 1d) and
turn the telescope in R.A. to read the correct R.A. coordinate of the object. Tighten the
R.A. lock (
33, Fig. 1d). If the procedure has been followed carefully, the desired object
should now be in the telescopic field of a low-power eyepiece.
If you do not immediately see the object you are seeking, try searching the adjacent
sky area. Keep in mind that, with the 26mm eyepiece, the field of view of the
LXD75-
Series is about 0.5°. Because of its much wider field, the viewfinder may be of signif-
icant assistance in locating and centering objects, after the setting circles have been
used to locate the approximate position of the object.
See
USING AUTOSTAR TO FIND OBJECTS NOT IN THE LIBRARIES, page 33, for infor-
mation on how to manually enter coordinates into Autostar.
Locating the Celestial Pole
To get basic bearings at an observing location, take note of where the Sun rises (East)
and sets (West) each day. After the site is dark, face North by pointing your left shoul-
der toward where the Sun set. To precisely point at the pole, find the North Star
(Polaris) by using the Big Dipper as a guide (
Fig. 42).
Polar Alignment
Autostar provides several different methods of Polar Alignment: Easy, One-Star, Two-
Star and Three-Star. See EASY ALIGNMENT, page 21, and THREE-STAR ALIGNMENT
USING AUTOSTAR, page 52, for those procedure.
One-Star Polar Alignment
Polar One-Star Alignment requires some knowledge of the night sky. Autostar pro-
vides a library of bright stars and one star from this library is chosen by the observer
for alignment. Polaris is chosen by Autostar. The rest of the procedure is almost iden-
tical to the
EASY ALIGNMENT, page 21, except that Autostar prompts you to point the
telescope at Polaris and center it in the telescope's eyepiece.
Two-Star Polar Alignment
Polar Two-Star Alignment requires some knowledge of the night sky. Autostar pro-
vides a library of bright stars and two stars from this library are chosen by the observ-
er for alignment. Polaris is chosen by Autostar. The rest of the procedure is almost
identical to the EASY ALIGNMENT, page 21, except that Autostar prompts you to point
the telescope at Polaris and center it in the telescope's eyepiece.