Ok I think I have it. I did have the control panel on the North side
of the mount so I was facing south to look at it but I had turned
the scope so that it was pointing North which had the dec cable
already wrapped around a little. I did notice that after moving to 30
or so objects that it was still centered pretty good. I had used an
illuminated reticule for the 2 star aligment and tried to get very
close on that.
I was looking at arcturus and then went to polaris and then back to
vega and noticed that it took the long way around. I suspected that it
was smart enough not to strangle itself with the cables :)
Can't wait till dark to try again. Thanks to everyone for the help

Larry

>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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