of eight, then only objects of magnitude 8.0 or brighter will be found. The limiting magnitude range is from one (bright) to 17 (faint). Those objects which do not have a magnitude defined are only found with a limit of 17.

When both search parameters have been defined, press ENTER and the computer will display the name of the nearest object meeting your search criteria. Because the display is updated every few seconds to indicate the nearest object at that instant, you may move the telescope until an object you wish to observe is shown. Pressing ENTER will scroll the information available on the object.

When no object fits the search parameters, the first item in the catalog is displayed (e.g. FOUND NGC0001).

ALIGN

This is similar to the ALIGN STAR mode, except that an alignment may be done on any object in the MAX computer catalogs. This includes the planets and user defined objects.

The object used for the ALIGN mode is that last displayed in the ALIGN STAR, CATALOG or IDENTIFY modes. Use one of these modes if you wish to select a different object.

The ALIGN mode can be used in place of, or in conjunction with the ALIGN STAR mode to meet the initial alignment requirements, as well as for subsequent alignments, as outlined below.

the angular separation of the alignment positions is essentially equal to the separation of the objects. Note the distinction between alignments and objects. Relative to the Earth, an object's position is changing with time, however the alignment positions remain fixed.

Any time a subsequent alignment is made, pointing accuracy in the neighboring region should be improved. However, it is possible for such an alignment to decrease pointing accuracy elsewhere, even to an extent worse than that observed prior to the new alignment.

When a new alignment is made, one of the previous two alignment positions — that which is least desirable relative to the new — is discarded. Therefore, the angle of separation between the remaining previous alignment position and that of the new alignment becomes the critical factor. If this angle is too small or too great, the overall pointing accuracy will degrade.

For the average user, this should not be a noticeable problem, but if you should experience degraded accuracy, it can probably be eliminated by following these steps in selecting subsequent alignment objects:

1.Recall the positions of your last two alignment objects, relative to the Earth (these are not their current positions).

2.Try to make your subsequent alignment on an object which is as close to 90° (±30°) from either one of your last two alignment positions as possible.

This process will maintain maximum pointing accuracy and should be followed with each subsequent alignment.

Subsequent Alignments

If, in the course of an evening's viewing, you find that the accuracy of guiding has decreased, you may re-align the telescope on an additional object to restore this accuracy. Such a situation is normally caused by inaccuracies in the manufacture of the telescope's mount, affecting its orthogonality (meaning all axes are perpendicular). This introduces a pointing error when moving the telescope from one side of the sky to the other. The MAX computer assumes a perfectly orthogonal mount for its calculations.

TIMER (NGC-miniMAX and NGC-MAX)

This is a 24 hour event timer which displays to the second. Possible uses for this mode include recording elapsed time between occultation contacts or other astronomical phenomena, and exposure times for astrophotography.

Upon entering this mode, the display will read:

00 00 00.0

If your mount is very close to being orthogonal, you will probably never see such an error, and should not need to make additional alignments. If, however, you do wish to make an alignment subsequent to the initial two required, you should keep the following in mind. (This does not apply to users of the EP or GP settings.)

When making alignments, the MAX computer "sees" all such locations in terms of an Earth-based reference. In other words, the altitude and azimuth of an object, at the time of its alignment, determines its angular separation from another alignment object.

Of course, if alignments are done near to each other in time, Page 10

(Tenths of a second are not displayed on the NGC- miniMAX.)

While in this mode, use the MODE and ENTER buttons as follows:

MODE This will exit the timer mode, permitting another mode to be chosen. The timer will continue in the background, so that returning to this mode will accurately show the current elapsed time.

ENTER This button cycles through a series of three functions: START, STOP, and RESET.