If you have the time/date/lat/long set right, and level correctly, setting
up with the panel on the north side and the tube level and pointed south
will allow you to do a goto and be fairly close without even using the
alignment stars. Useful for looking at Venus or Jupiter during the daytime
for example.

Putting the panel facing directly North keeps the DEC cable from
strangulating the scope because the scope does not do a goto by using the
shortest distance from where you are, - it will not go past directly north.
If set up properly, and you are looking at an object a degree West of North
and then tell it to goto an object that is a degree East of North, the scope
will not move 2 degrees, it will spin all the way around through 358 degrees
to hit the object from the other direction because you are trying to cross
north.

If the panel is facing north, the DEC cable has an equal amount of distance
to stretch no matter where you point the scope. If the panel is somewhere
else, it may only stretch a bit one way, and try to wrap itself all the way
around when going the other.

It is abuilt in limitation just like trying to make the scope spin in
circles by holding the 'N' key down - at a certain point (directly down I
think) the scope just stops because of internal software limiters of some
sort base on where it thinks everything is.

Another one to watch out for is when trying to goto an object that is below
the horizon the scope will beep at you and say 'object below horizon' - cool
:-). However, if you go to an object near tyhe horizon, the scope WILL
continue to follow it for as long as you want to look at dirt or until it
strangles itself - not so cool :-(.

Anthony J. Kroes
Green Bay, WI

> -----Original Message-----
> Mark de Regt
> Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 12:57 PM
> Subject: [M]: RE: 2nd light with 10in lx200 YAHOOOOOO!!!!
>
>
> Larry--
>
> Leveling is good, but not critical. Orienting the control panel North is
> important, as that is where the processor thinks it will be, and it is
> programmed to try to avoid wrapping the dec cord around the
> scope. Whether
> the tube faces north or not seems to me to be irrelevant in an
> LX200. When
> I am setting up in Alt-Az, I just level the tripod, use the 26mm
> eyepiece to
> eyeball centering two stars which are about 90 degrees from each
> other, and
> both well away from the zenith or the horizon. It works every time.
>
> For just viewing (as opposed to CCD imaging), a casual two star alignment
> like I do should always be sufficient.
>
> --Mark
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > Larry Blair
> > Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 9:07 AM
> > Subject: [M]: 2nd light with 10in lx200 YAHOOOOOO!!!!
> >
> >
> > Wow!! What a telescope. OK now I'll try to hold it down a little. My
> > first time Monday night I had to learn a bunch but last night was
> > great. 11 Messiers in 10 minutes. Of course with the moon like stadium
> > lights and the next door neighbors porch light I could read the manual
> > but it was still great. In a couple of weeks I'll get out of town
> > where its dark.
> >
> > I have a question about initial alignment. I think 'The Book' says
> > that I should start by placing the control panel on the north side of
> > the mount and then level the tube facing north. Then I did a 2 star
> > alignment and it tracked really great. The first night I just started
> > off by aligning on Vega and Arcturus and it seemed the tracking wasn't
> > as acurate. But it was my first night so who knows what I really did
> > :)
> > Anyway should I start off pointing North and level or does it make any
> > difference?
> > Larry Blair
> > Seattle
> > _________________________________________________________ Do You
> >
>
>

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