Bushnell NORTH STAR GOTO 78-8840 User Manual

Page 15

ALIGNING NORTHSTAR FOR THE FIRST TIME (Continued)

Merak, Dubhe and Mizar are bright and relatively easy to find, so you might try one of those. If you are located in the

earth's southern hemisphere where the "Big Dipper" is not visible, you can of course still use "ALIGN EARTH" mode,

selecting any star you like from the list of visible stars in your area shown on the telescope's display. The star charts

towards the back of this manual may also be helpful in choosing a star.

Use the UP/DOWN scroll buttons to find the name of the star you've chosen on the display. The display will also show

you two numbers with vertical and horizontal arrows, indicating roughly which direction and by how much the

telescope needs to be moved to place that star in the center of the telescope's view. If you press the "GO" button, the

telescope's motors will move it into a position that is at least "in the ballpark"-remember that you have not finished

the alignment process yet, but this may still be helpful to get you in the general area of the sky. The numbers by the

position arrows should be closer to "0" now (when they get below 10, the arrows act as "decimal points", displaying

each number with greater precision-"8 arrow 4" indicates 8.4). Now you can use the red dot finder scope to aim the

telescope more precisely at the star you chose (one within the Big Dipper). Next, looking through the eyepiece, position

that star right in the center of the viewing field by moving the telescope by hand or using the motorized movement

buttons). Once you have your star centered, press ENTER.

After this step is completed, you will see a display that reads:

ALIGN COMPLETE

RATING *****

(Note: The more stars that appear on the second line of the display the better, up to 5. If the rating is very low, you

may need to find and center a different star to better refine the alignment)

step 6: eXpLore the night skY!

After EARTH ALIGN, the display will then read:

SELECT MODE

EXPLORE 56

Select EXPLORE by pressing ENTER. SCROLL UP and DOWN to see what flashing menu choices you have. Choose

PLANET. These are the most interesting. Even if you are a first time telescope user, PLANET objects can be very
exciting.

Press ENTER when the display reads:

EXPLORE

PLANET

This will take you into a list of named PLANET objects. By using the SCROLL UP or SCROLL DOWN buttons, you can

explore several items in the object list.

PLANET

JUPITER 56

Press ENTER to choose the PLANET you wish to view. The display will then be (the numbers indicate the object's position

in degrees of azimuth and altitude) :

PLANET

120 552 JUPITER

NOTE: IF AN OBJECT IS CURRENTLY LOCATED BELOW THE HORIZON (WHERE YOU WOULD BE UNABLE TO SEE IT), THE

DISPLAY WILL PERIODICALLY DISPLAY THE WORD “HORIZON.”

SCROLL UP or SCROLL DOWN to see other PLANETS in the list. Notice the display shows you directions to each object.

But what if you are a first time user wanting to find out more about the object? Wouldn’t it be nice to know what the

object is before moving the telescope?