Celestron CGX-L 1100 EdgeHD 11″ SCT with EdgeHD High Definition Optics 12076

Description

To accurately polar align your scope, first do a reasonably-accurate mechanical alignment of the mount on the celestial pole by eye. To make this initial alignment quick and easy, there’s a latitude scale and fine adjustment controls in both altitude and azimuth. Next, use the mount’s standard two-star alignment method to align your scope on the sky. Select a suitable bright star from the NexStar hand control’s data base and slew your telescope to the star. A star near the meridian and close to the celestial equator will give the most accurate alignment results. Then, press the Align button on the hand control and select Polar Align: Align Mount from the hand control menu. Your telescope will re-slew to the alignment star and ask you to center it in the eyepiece in order to “Sync” on the star. After you sync on the star, your telescope will automatically slew to the position that the star should be at if your mount was accurately polar aligned. Use the mount’s altitude and azimuth adjustment knobs to place the star in the center of the eyepiece and press the Align button. That’s all there is to it! Your CGX-L mount is now accurately aligned on the celestial pole.

Although the telescope’s tracking may be very good after alignment, pointing accuracy may need to be improved (particularly if you are trying to located small objects on a CCD chip), depending on how close your initial mechanical alignment was on the pole, and by much the mount had to be moved during polar alignment. If that’s the case, you can easily update your telescope’s star alignment in a minute or two if necessary.

Once polar aligned, several different sky alignment methods are built into the NexStar computer to line up the scope on the celestial sphere, allowing you to choose a level of computer accuracy in automatically finding objects with which you are comfortable. These include 2-Star Align, Solar System Align, Last Alignment, Quick Align, and 1-Star Align,

With just a standard hand control alignment, the CGX-L computer has the ability to center a star in your telescope’s eyepiece or on a CCD chip to within 5 arc minutes. Using the NexStar computer’s advanced pointing features (such as Calibration Stars, Sync, and Precise Go-To) further improves the pointing accuracy to as low as 1 arc minute in the desired region of the sky. The high precision pointing subroutine (Precise Go-To) in the computer lets you point accurately at objects that you want to photograph that are too dim to be seen though the scope. Other software features include: database filter limits, a mount hibernate mode, and user-defined slew limits.

GPS compatible: In addition, the NexStar computer hand control is GPS-compatible (using an optional inexpensive CN16 GPS module) for full GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite accuracy. Once the scope is approximately polar aligned, the 16-channel CN16 GPS system uses signals from government satellites to calculate the scope’s location on earth with an accuracy measured in meters. The system also calculates the current time based on the split second accuracy of the GPS time signals. After the CN16 quickly completes these calculations and enters the information into the computer control for you automatically, the computer then orients the scope with the sky, slews to a pair of guide stars, asks you to confirm that the stars are in the center of the field (and center them if they’re not precisely aligned), and then starts finding and tracking over 40,000 objects for you at your command. With the CGX-L go-to mount and the CN16, orienting the scope in time and space on earth and aligning your telescope on the sky becomes almost as easy a task as simply turning on your CGX-L mount.

Two-year warranty: All Celestron go-to telescopes have a two-year warranty, double that of competitive go-to scopes.

Tech Details:

Supplied Accessories:

• Starbright XLT fully multicoated Fastar-compatible EdgeHD high definition 11″ f/10 optics
• Go-to fully computerized CGE Pro German equatorial mount with two 22 lb. counterweights
• Heavy duty adjustable height metal tripod
• 40,000+ object computer hand control
• PPEC (Permanent Periodic Error Compensation)
• RS-232 port for connection to a PC
• NexRemote remote telescope control software with RS-232 cable
• CCD autoguider port
• 9 x 50mm finderscope
• 2″ star diagonal with 1.25″ adapter
• 2″ 23mm Axiom 82 field eyepiece (122x)
• 12V DC car battery cord
• Dust covers.