1 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Window: Has a four-line,
18 character display screen that has red backlighting
for comfortable viewing of telescope information and
scrolling text
2 Align: Instructs the hand control to begin the process
of aligning your telescope
3 Direction Keys: Allows complete control of the
Advanced VX mount in any direction Use the direction
keys to center objects in the eyepiece or manually slew
telescope
4 Catalog Keys: The Advanced VX has a key on the hand
control to allow direct access to each of the main catalogs
in its 40,000+ object database Your mount contains the
following catalogs in its database:
• Solar System – All 7 planets in our Solar System plus
the Moon, Sun and Pluto
• Stars – Custom lists of all the brightest stars, double
stars, variable stars and asterisms
• Deep Sky – Custom lists of all the best galaxies, nebulae
and clusters as well as the complete Messier and select
NGC objects
5 Identify: Searches the Advanced VX databases and
displays the name and offset distances to the nearest
matching objects
6 Menu: Displays the many setup and utilities functions, such
as tracking rate and user defined objects and many others
7 Option (Celestron Logo): Can be used in combination
with other keys to access more advanced features and
functions
8 Enter: Pressing ENTER allows you to select any of the
Advanced VX functions, accept entered parameters and
slew the telescope to displayed objects
9 Back: Pressing BACK will take you out of the current
menu and display the previous level of the menu path
Press BACK repeatedly to get back to a main menu or
use to erase data entered by mistake
10 Sky Tour: Activates the tour mode, which seeks out all
the best objects in the sky and automatically slews the
Advanced VX to those objects
11 Scroll Keys: Used to scroll up and down within any of
the menu lists A double arrow symbol on the right side
of the LCD indicates that the scroll keys can be used to
view additional information
12 Motor Speed: Slews the telescope faster or slower
when the direction buttons are pressed
13 Object Info: Displays coordinates and useful informa-
tion about objects selected from the Advanced VX
database
14 Mini usb port (cable not included): Links to PC
to control telescope with desktop or to perform
firmware updates
15 Help Menu: In future firmware updates, this button
will offer troubleshooting tips For your convenience, it
currently functions as a shortcut to the Messier Catalog
Hand Control Operation
This section describes the basic hand control procedures
needed to operate all Celestron computerized telescopes
These procedures are grouped into three categories:
Alignment, Setup and Utilities The alignment section reviews
the initial telescope alignment as well as finding objects in
the sky The setup section discusses changing parameters
such as tracking mode and tracking rate Finally, the last
section reviews all of the utilities functions such as calibrating
your mount, polar alignment and backlash compensation
Alignment Procedures
In order for the telescope to accurately point to objects in the
sky, it must first be aligned with known positions (stars) in the
sky With this information, the telescope can create a model
of the sky, which it uses to locate any object with known
coordinates There are many ways to align your telescope
with the sky depending on what information the user is able
to provide:
• Two Star Align uses the entered time/location information
and allows the user to select which two alignment stars the
telescope will automatically slew to
• One Star Align uses the same time/location information
but only uses one star for alignment
• Solar System Align will display a list of visible daytime
objects (planets and the Moon) available to align the
telescope
• Quick-Align will ask you to input all the same information
as you would for the Two Star Align procedure However,
instead of slewing to the alignment stars for centering and
alignment, the telescope bypasses this step and simply
models the sky based on the information given
• Last Alignment restores your last saved star alignment
and switch position Last Alignment also serves as a good
safeguard in case the telescope should lose power
Startup Procedure
Before any of the described alignments are performed,
the Advanced VX mount needs to be positioned so that
the index marks are aligned on both the right ascension
and declination axes Once the index position has been set,
the hand control will display the last entered date and time
information stored in the hand control
1 Press ENTER to begin the alignment process
2 The hand control will prompt the user to set the mount
to its index position Move the telescope mount, either
manually or with the hand control, so the index marked in
both R A and Dec are aligned Press ENTER to continue
• The hand control will then display the last entered
local time, time zone and date
• Use the Up/Down keys (10) to view the current
parameters
ENGLISH
I 11