move the telescope until you have centered the star on the crosshairs of the finder scope. Look into the eyepiece of the telescope, and you should see the alignment star in the field of view of the eyepiece. If it isn’t, then your finder scope is out of alignment with your tel- escope and will need to be adjusted. Once the alignment star is in the eyepiece’s field of view, center it in the eyepiece as best you can by making small movements to the tele- scope. (If you have one, an illuminated reticle eyepiece is great for centering alignment stars). Once this is done, press the Enter button on the controller. You have now com- pleted
The LCD screen will now read “ALIGN STAR 2” on the first line with an alignment star’s name flashing on the second line. As before, scroll through the names of the stars with the arrow buttons until you reach your second chosen alignment star. Repeat the proce- dure described above for your second alignment star. When you have aligned on the sec- ond star, press the Enter button. The LCD will then display a number. It is the alignment error factor, or “warp” (W) factor.
The Alignment Error (Warp) Factor
The “warp” alignment error factor essentially lets you know if your alignment was accu- rate or not. Ideally, this number should be as low as possible, but any “W” of 0.5 or small- er is acceptable (regardless of + or - sign). Warp factors of ±0.3 and ±0.4 are the most common. Warp factors under ±0.2 are typically not achievable. If you complete an align- ment and the warp factor is larger than ±0.5 (e.g., +0.6,
An unacceptable warp factor may indicate that you aligned on the wrong star or did not have the telescope initially in a precisely vertical position. If you are having problems get- ting the warp factor at or below ±0.5, see the troubleshooting section in Appendix A.
Your IntelliScope Computerized Object Locator is now ready to find objects. Replace the high- powered eyepiece you used for centering the alignment stars with a
3. Overview of Controller
The IntelliScope Computerized Object Locator has been specifically designed for ease of use. This section will help familiarize you with the basic layout and operation of the controller.
Pushbuttons
Besides the Power, Enter, ID, FCN, and up/down arrows, all pushbuttons have letters on them with numbers above them. The letters designate the function of the pushbutton. The numbers above them are used for entering numerical data only; the numbers are never active until a function is first chosen. The numbers are arranged like a telephone keypad for ease of number entry. None of the function buttons will work properly until an initial alignment, as outlined previously, is completed. If you press a function button before the
The Guide Arrows
The controller leads you to astronomical targets with guide arrows displayed on the LCD screen. After an object is selected to view, you will see two guide arrows, one that points
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