Celestron skyexpedition 60, Instruction Manual, Page: 8 / 26

1. Power on the SkyExpedition by flipping the switch located
on the side of the base, to the “on” position. Once turned
on the hand control display will say
LCM Ready
. Press
ENTER to choose
sky align
. Pressing the ALIGN key will
bypass the other alignment options and the scrolling text and
automatically begins
sky align
.
2. Once sky align has been selected, the hand control will
display “Enter if OK”, “Undo to edit” and “Saved Site.” The
bottom line of the LCD will display either the current time
or the time when you last used the telescope. Since this is
your first time using the SkyExpedition, press UNDO to enter
current time/site information.
The hand control display will then ask for the following information:
Location
— The hand control 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 will be
remembered in the hand controls memory so that it will be
automatically displayed the next time an alignment is done.
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:
• Use the Up and Down scroll keys to choose between
city
database and custom site . city database will allow you to
select the closest city to your observing site from a list of
either international or U.S. location.
custom site allows you to
enter the exact longitude and latitude of your observing site.
Select
city database and press ENTER.
• 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
is
displayed. For international locations, use the Up or Down
scroll key to select
International
and press ENTER.
• Use the Up and Down Scroll buttons to choose your current
state (or country if International locations was selected) from
the alphabetical listing and press ENTER.
• Use the Up and Down Scroll buttons to choose the closest city
to your location from the displayed list and press ENTER.
time
— Enter the current time for your area. You can enter
either the local time (i.e.
8:00
), or you can enter military time
(i.e.
20:00
).
• Select PM or AM. If military time was entered, the hand
control will bypass this step.
• 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.
For time zone information, refer to the Time Zone map in the
appendix of this manual.
date
— Enter the month, day and year of your observing
session. The display will read:
mm/dd/yy
.
• If the wrong information has been input into the hand control,
the UNDO button will act as a backspace allowing the user to
re-enter information.
• The next time that your telescope is aligned, the hand control
will automatically display the last location (either a city or
longitude/latitude) that was entered. Press ENTER to accept
these parameters if they still apply. Pressing the UNDO button
will allow you to go back and select a new city location or
longitude/latitude.
3. Use the arrow buttons on the hand control to slew (move)
the telescope towards any bright celestial object in the sky.
Align the object with the red dot of the finderscope and
press ENTER.
4. If the finderscope has been properly aligned with the
telescope tube, the alignment star should now be visible
inside the field of view of the eyepiece. The hand control will
ask that you center the bright alignment star in the center of
the eyepiece and press the ALIGN button. This will accept the
star as the first alignment position. (There is no need to adjust
the slewing rate of the motors after each alignment step. The
SkyExpedition automatically selects the best slewing rate for
aligning objects in both the finderscope and the eyepiece).
5. For the second alignment object, choose a bright star or
planet as far as possible from the first alignment object.
Once again use the arrow button to center the object in the
finderscope and press ENTER. Then once centered in the
eyepiece press the ALIGN button.
6. Repeat the process for the third alignment star. When the
telescope has been aligned to the final stars, the display will
read “
Match Confirmed
.” Press UNDO to display the
names of the three bright objects you aligned to, or press
ENTER to accept these three objects for alignment. You are
now ready to find your first object.
tips for using Sky align
Remember the following alignment guidelines to make
using Sky Align as simple and accurate as possible.
• Be sure to level the tripod before you begin alignment.
the time/site information along with a level tripod will
help the telescope better predict the available bright
stars and planets that are above the horizon.
• remember to select alignment stars that are as far
apart in the sky as possible. For best results make sure
that the third alignment star does not lie in a straight
line between the first two stars. this may result in a
failed alignment.
• don’t worry about confusing planets for stars when
selecting alignment objects. skyalign works with the
four brightest planets (venus, Jupiter, saturn and Mars)
as well as the Moon. In addition to the planets, the hand
control has over 80 bright alignment stars to choose
from (down to 2.5 magnitude).
• rarely skyalign will not be able to determine what
three alignment objects were centered. this sometime
happens when a bright planet or the Moon passes near
one of the brighter stars. In situations like these, it is
best to try to avoid aligning to either object if possible.
• Be sure to center the objects with the same final
movements as the direction of the goto approach. For
example, if the scope normally finishes a goto with the
front of the scope moving right and up, you should center
all three alignment objects in the eyepiece using the
right and up arrow buttons (the up/down arrows reverse
at slew rates of 6 or lower). approaching the star from
this direction when looking through the eyepiece will
eliminate much of the backlash between the gears and
assure the most accurate alignment possible.
auto two-Star align
As with Sky Align, Auto Two-Star Align requires you to enter
all the necessary time/site information as before. Once this
information is entered, the hand control will prompt you
to select and point the telescope at one known star in the
sky. The SkyExpedition now has all the information it needs
to automatically choose a second star that will assure the
best possible alignment. Once selected, the telescope will
automatically slew to that second alignment star to complete
the alignment. With the SkyExpedition set up outside with all
accessories attached and the tripod leveled, follow the steps
below to align the telescope:
1. Once the SkyExpedition is powered on, Press ENTER to
begin alignment.
2. Use the Up and Down scroll keys (10) to select Auto Two-Star
Align and press ENTER.
3. The hand control will display the last time and location
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