13
you choose will only affect your alignment star selection;
you will still be able to choose stars to view across the
entire sky once the alignment is complete.
3. After you have selected the region of the sky contain-
ing the brightest star, the hand controller will generate a
list of the brightest stars (magnitude 1.5 or brighter and
between 10 and 75 degrees above the horizon only) in
that region. (If there are no suitable stars in the direc-
tion you have chosen, the text “No Star Found in the
Region” will display. If this occurs, press ENTER or ESC
and select another region of sky.) Now, use the Scroll
keys to scroll through the list of bright stars. There will
only be a few stars, at most, on the list, and sometimes
only one star will be on the list. The hand controller will
display the name and magnitude of the bright star on the
first line, and the approximate position of the star (based
on the time and date entered during the initial setup) on
the second line. The first coordinate on the second line
is an E-W coordinate, and the second coordinate on the
second line indicates degrees above the horizon. These
coordinates provide a simple way to identify the bright
star you have chosen. When you are confident the hand
controller is displaying the name of the bright star you
wish to align on, press ENTER.
4. The mount will not slew to the selected bright star auto-
matically. Instead, the hand controller will direct you to
slew the mount to the coordinates displayed on the LCD.
It might be easier to refer to the appropriate seasonal
star chart, find the selected star on it, and slew the tele-
scope to its location in the sky. Slew the scope using the
directional keys and center the star in the view of the EZ
Finder II reflex sight. Press ENTER. The hand controller
will now instruct you to center the star in the telescope
eyepiece. Once again, use the directional keys to do this.
You may change the slewing speed by pressing the RATE
button, and then choose a number between 0 (slowest)
and 9 (fastest). You may find that Rate 4 is best for cen-
tering the object in the EZ Finder, while Rate 3 or less is
best for centering in the eyepiece view. When the star is
centered in the eyepiece, press ENTER.
5. The hand controller will now generate a list of bright stars
to choose as your second alignment star. Scroll through
the list using the Scroll keys and refer to the appropriate
star chart in the back of this manual to choose a second
alignment star. Ideally, you want this star to be about 60
degrees (i.e., about six fist-widths held at arm’s length)
away from the first alignment star in azimuth, and pref-
erably at roughly the same altitude. The more distance
between the two alignment stars, the better accuracy the
alignment will produce. Once you’ve selected the sec-
ond alignment star, press ENTER. The mount will now
automatically slew to the selected star, which should land
in or near the field of view of the EZ Finder II. When it
stops slewing you’ll hear a beep, then the hand controller
will instruct you to use the directional buttons to center
the star in the eyepiece. After you’ve done that, press
ENTER.
The message “Alignment Successful” should display on the
LCD. You may now use the hand controller to locate objects
to view. At this time it is recommended that you switch to the
low-power DeepView 2" eyepiece for acquiring targets using
the GoTo system.
If the message “Alignment Failed” displays, it usually means
the star positions do not correspond with the location and
date/time information input during setup. Please check your
user input settings before starting again.
NOTE: To ensure the accuracy of the star alignment, make
sure to end the movement of the telescope with the UP
or RIGHT directional button when centering the object in
the eyepiece view.
NOTE: The hand controller will beep when the telescope
has finished slewing to an object. Do not try to adjust the
telescope position further before you hear the beep. The
hand controller will only respond to the ESC key while
slewing.
Two-Star Alignment
The standard two-star alignment is suggested if you have a
star chart handy or are able to identify two bright stars visible
in the night sky. To perform the two-star alignment, you follow
the same steps described for the Brightest Star alignment,
except that the hand controller will not prompt you to select a
directional region for a bright star. Instead, you’ll be presented
with a list of stars available in your current sky to choose from,
for each of the two alignment stars.
Use the supplied 12.5mm Illuminated Plössl to ensure accu-
rate centering of your alignment objects. Refer to the appro-
priate star chart in the back of this manual for help in locating
a specific star.

315° –

45°

135° –

235°

45° –

135°

225° –

315°

NSW ESENWSWNE

270° –

360°

90° –

180°

180° –

270°

0° –

90°

Figure 24. Pie chart of the eight directional regions referenced in
the Brightest Star Alignment procedure.