Orion Sirius EQ?G, Manual, Page: 12 / 28

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control of the Sirius EQ-G mount at almost any step in opera-
tion. These controls are locked out when the mount is slewing
to an object. The directional buttons are very helpful when
initially aligning the mount, centering objects in the eyepiece
field of view, and manual guiding. The directional buttons are
typically used in conjunction with the
RATE
button. The left
and right directional buttons can also be used to move the text
cursor when entering data into the hand controller.
scroll Buttons
The up and down scroll buttons allow you to scroll up and
down within the menu tree or selections displayed on the
hand controller screen.
Dual Purpose Buttons
The dual purpose buttons serve two distinct purposes. They
are used for data entry and as quick reference keys.
TOUR button: Takes you on a preset tour of the best night sky
objects visible
RATE button: Changes the speed of the motors when the
directional buttons are pressed. There are 10 speeds to
choose from, with 0 being the slowest and 9 being the fast-
est.
UTILITY button: Provides “hot key” access to the Utility
Functions menu.
USER button: Enter or recall coordinates for up to 25 objects
in the User Defined database.
ID button: Identifies the object the mount is currently pointing
to.
NGC , IC , M , Planet , and Object buttons: Allow direct access
to catalogs and databases of over 13,400 objects.
Goto Hand controller
operation
This section provides a guide for initial setup and alignment of
the Sirius EQ-G mount with the GoTo hand controller.
initial setup
1. Perform the polar alignment using the procedure previ-
ously outlined in Section 6 of the instruction manual. A
rough polar alignment will suffice, but an accurate polar
alignment using the polar axis finder scope will increase
tracking accuracy (and pointing accuracy for one-star
alignments).
2. Rotate the telescope tube about the mount’s declination
axis so the tube is parallel with the mount’s R.A. axis (and
the front of the tube is pointed to the sky, not the ground).
Rotate the mount’s R.A. axis so the counterweight shaft is
pointed straight down. The telescope and mount should
now appear as shown in Figure 14. This will be called the
“home” position of the mount.
Note: Once the mount is initially set to its “home” position, the
mount should not be moved manually. Otherwise, the GoTo
Figure 13.
The GoTo hand controller.
Display screen
Mode buttons
Directional
buttons
Dual purpose
buttons
Scroll buttons
Figure 14.
The telescope and mount in their “home” position