20
•
Use the up and down arrow keys (3) keys to rotate the telescope tube until the index marker that
moves with the optical tube is lined up with the stationary index marker on the fork arm. See figure
5-2.
•
Use the left and right arrow keys to 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
index
position, press ENTER.
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 finderscope. 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. 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 Star Pointer, 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.
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 the second star. When the telescope has been aligned to both stars the
display will read
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
Alignment Failed
and scroll the
message, "
the positions of the alignment stars did not match the database
".
Should this occur, press the UNDO
button and re-align the telescope. Remember the alignment star will always be the brightest star nearest the
field of view of the finderscope.
For the best possible pointing accuracy, always center the alignment stars using the up arrow button and the
right arrow button. 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. However, if the “Goto
Approach” of the telescope has been changed (see ”Goto Approach” later in this section), then remember to
always center the alignment stars in the same direction that the telescope centers objects when completing a
slew.
Two Star Alignment
With the two-star alignment method, the NexStar requires the user to know the positions of only two bright stars
in order to accurately align the telescope with the sky and begin finding objects. Here is an overview of the two-
star alignment procedure:
1. Once the NexStar is powered on, use the Up and Down scroll keys (10) to select
Two-Star Align
,
and press ENTER.
2.
The NexStar display the message
Set Alt to Index
. Use the Up and Down direction keys (3) and rotate
the telescope tube until the index marker that moves with the optical tube is lined up with the stationary
index marker on the fork arm (See figure 5-2). Press ENTER.
3. The
SELECT STAR 1
message will appear in the top row of the display. Use the Up and Down scroll keys
(10) to select the star you wish to use for the first alignment star. Press ENTER.
Trouble
Shooting
Observing
T
T
i
i
p
p
Figure 5-2 – The Altitude Index Markers for the
NexStar 5i (left) and the NexStar 8i (right).
