m
ALIGNING NORTHSTAR FOR THE FIRST TIME (Continued)
Again by using the SCROLL UP and SCROLL DOWN buttons and the ENTER button, the COUNTRY can be chosen.
When the appropriate Country is found and the ENTER button is pushed, choose the city that you are closest to with the UP/
DOWN buttons, then press ENTER when it is displayed.
NOTE: CHOOSE THE CITY CLOSEST TO YOUR VIEWING LOCATION. THIS IS NOT A CRITICAL STEP AND THE ALIGNMENT WILL BE REFINED
AUTOMATICALLY AS WE PROGRESS.
step 5: choose anD center a star
After your CITY has been entered, the next scrolling message reads CENTER STAR 2 THEN PRESS ENTER
This means that you will need to choose the name of a star (this will be your "guide star") from the list on the display, then position
that star in the center of the viewing field as you look through the telescope (by moving it by hand or via the motor buttons),
and then press ENTER.
You may be wondering why the message refers to "STAR 2"-why not "STAR 1"? The reason is that we are using the faster, easier
ALIGN EARTH mode, which only requires you to locate and center one star (unlike the ALIGN STAR mode, which requires using
two stars). When you entered the time, date, country and city, that basically took the place of finding "STAR 1"-you're using earth
based information in its place.
If you are located in the earth's northern hemisphere, the easiest star for a beginner to find and use is probably one of the brighter
ones in the familiar "Big Dipper" as shown below. As you may already know, the stars that form the Big Dipper are located near
Polaris, also known as the North Star, which is the star at or near the center of the night sky, appearing directly overhead. (Note
that the Big Dipper may appear upside down in the sky or in positions other than the one shown below at different times of the year).
An imaginary line can be traced through Merak and Dubhe in the Big Dipper directly to Polaris (it's about 5 times farther away
than the distance between those two "pointer stars").
to polaris
(north star)
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