Bushnell Northstar Goto telescope

[DisrupTer911]

Is anyone familiar with the Bushnell NorthStar Goto 78-8830?

http://bushnell.com/customer_service/manuals/telescopes/78-8830_NorthStar_GOTO.pdf

my girlfriends father has one, never really been used before.
I tried aligning it tonight but I was having a terrible time following these directions I linked above.

I'm assuming that I need to do everything outdoors, obviously, but I can't seem to figure out if I'm supposed to use the location of the Center Star 1 and 2 or if I need to choose different stars.

Anyone? lol this is harder then I thought but I'm sure I'm making it much more difficult then necessary.

[Nighthound]

Step one is to set up the hand controller. It's important that the Time is correct and your location(longitude and latitude) is correct as well. Without these two settings accurately set you'll never get aligned.

1) IMPORTANT: You'll need to align your finder scope(yours looks like a red dot illuminated unit in the diagram) with the main scope to assist you in pointing to and centering stars. You can do this with ground objects like a very distant blinking tower light for instance or use a bright star(Polaris is good because it won't drift on you while you're adjusting). You'll do this with the mount turned off(not tracking). First mount the finder to the telescope if it isn't already. Then place an eyepiece(20mm or so will be good, don't try it with a 4mm or 10mm, that's too much magnification) in the scope focuser like you would for viewing. Next point the scope at the distant object and look trough the eyepiece(not the finder) until you see the object, and center it in the eyepiece field of view. Tighten things down so it can't move. Now adjust the finder scope with the adjustment screws until the distant object is centered in the finder just like it was in the eyepiece. Once you've got the object centered in biot the eyepiece and the finder scope you now have an accurate way of pointing the scope, much like a rifle with a scope.

2) Set up scope/tripod in a place with a clear view of the northern sky, and as much of the rest of the sky as possible too.

3) Level the tripod/mount. Use a small bubble level or carpenter's level if the tripod does not have one built in. Being level allow the mount motors/gears to operate with minimal stress.

4) Locate Polaris(north star). It's the top and brightest star on the handle of the Little Dipper. If you use a compass to find north that will point you toward Magnetic North which is just west of true north. If needed you can use a compass to find magnetic north and then look several degrees to the east of that spot and you will see Polaris about 30 degrees up from the horizon.

5) Point the scope so that Polaris is centered in the eyepiece of the scope and double check the finder scope to be sure it is centered as well(should be unless it was bumped).

6) Now follow the prompted procedure of the hand controller. You'll have to select a star so it helps to know the brightest stars in the sky at the time you are setting up. The brighter they are the easier they are to see and you'll want to choose stars the scope will have a clear shot at, no trees or houses in the way for example. Once the mount motors to the star you select, look through the finder scope(nice wide view to help find the star) and using the hand control motor the scope to move the star to the center of the field of view. Look in the scope eyepiece and make sure it's centered and push the button on the hand controller that say OK or whatever to indicate you have it centered. The hand control should then ask you to select a 2nd star. Repeat the same process you did with the first star and hit OK and it should say alignment complete or something like that. Now you should be able to select objects from the controller and accurately motor to the object.

It all seems complicated at first but after doing this a few times you'll get faster at it and hopefully more accurate too. Hope this helps.

[DisrupTer911]

the handheld, as far as I can tell, doesn't prompt for longitude or lattiude coordinates.

The bushnell website says to make sure you know your Lat. & Long. coordinates but I don't know where to input it.

Also, everytime I move the telescope, say from backyard to local park, i'll have to recalibrate it for my location right? going through the same procedure and choosing the closest city right?

[Nighthound]

the handheld, as far as I can tell, doesn't prompt for longitude or lattiude coordinates.

The bushnell website says to make sure you know your Lat. & Long. coordinates but I don't know where to input it.

Also, everytime I move the telescope, say from backyard to local park, i'll have to recalibrate it for my location right? going through the same procedure and choosing the closest city right?

Interesting. Without the coordinates the mount can't accurately locate things. The alignment of a GoTo scope requires as much accurate info as possible be input to help the mount figure out where you are on the planet and at what time and date you are aligning. Choosing and centering the two stars in the process helps the mount finalize or map the sky from the aforementioned input info.

Does it ask for a city? If so, then it's using that for a "approximate" locator. Crude approach but it might get you close enough unless you're a long ways from the cities listed.

Going from the backyard to the front or even 30-45 minutes drive away will have very little change in longitude and latitude so no need to make adjustments. If you travel farther than that it will begin to need adjustment.

[DisrupTer911]

it goes by City, I choose New York City, which is about 20-25 miles away, which makes it the closest city listed in the programmer.

[chris.bailey]

Looking at the manual there is nowhere to input long and Lat so it is reliant on City as an approximation and then a two star alignment routine. It suggests that even that is not needed and a rough point at North and two star align is sufficient. i do find that a bit hard to believe though!