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 appendices 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 StarSeeker 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.
Sky Align
Sky Align is the easiest way to get your StarSeeker aligned and ready to observe. Even if you do not know a single star in the sky, the StarSeeker will have you aligned in minutes by asking for basic information like the date, time and location. Then you simply need to aim the telescope to any three bright celestial objects in the sky. Since Sky Align requires no knowl- edge of the night sky it is not necessary to know the name of the objects at which you are aiming. You may even select a planet or the moon. The StarSeeker is then ready to start find- ing and tracking any of the objects in its 4,000+ object data- base. Before the telescope is ready to be aligned, it should be set up in an outside location with all accessories (eyepiece, diagonal and finderscope) attached and lens cover removed as described in the Assembly section of the manual. To begin Sky Align:
1.You are now ready to begin the alignment. Choose your first target and use the arrow buttons on the hand control to slew (move) the telescope towards the selected object in the sky. Align the object with the red dot of the finder- scope and press ENTER.
2.If the finderscope has been properly aligned with the tele- scope 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 align- ment step. The StarSeeker automatically selects the best slewing rate for aligning objects in both the finderscope and the eyepiece).
3.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 buttons (3) to center the object in the finderscope and press ENTER. Then once centered in the eyepiece press the ALIGN button.
4.Repeat the process for the third alignment star. When
the telescope has been aligned to the final stars, the dis- play 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.
Note: If the message, “Alignment Failed” appears on the dis- play it means the computer was unable to identify the three objects chosen and you will need to restart the alignment pro- cedure again. Common causes are inaccurate time/site infor- mation input into the hand controller. Confirm that you have all correct information before proceeding. It could also be that the objects chosen we’re not accurately centered in the eye- piece before pressing the “Align” key. It can be helpful to use an Illuminated Reticle eyepiece (see oriontelescopes.com for more details) or switching to a higher power eyepiece after centering the object in a low power eyepiece. This will help you achieve greater accuracy.
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.
Accurate 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 move- ments as the direction of the GoTo Approach. For exam- ple, 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.
