- tripod - hand controller - something to make the tripod sturdier and eye pieces - level for the telescope - counterweight - holder for hand controllers - serial cable for auto gliding - spiral cable - car adapter to power mount - counter weight bar - mount
1) Align the telescope with the sky using the two-star alignment method. 2) Align to at least one calibration star on the opposite side of the meridian. 3) Select a suitable bright star from the NexStar hand control's database. 4) Press the align button. Select "Polar Align" and then "Align Mount" from the list. 5) The telescope will then re-slew to the alignment star and ask you to center it in the eyepiece in order to "sync" on one star. 6) The telescope will slew to the position that the star should be if it were accurately polar-aligned 7) Use the mount's altitude and azimuths adjustments to the center the star in the eyepiece . 8) Press the align button 9) If necessary, update the telescope's star alignment.
One of the main things my group and I plan to capture is Orion's Nebula. Orion's Nebula which is just south of a well known constellation Orion's Belt on the celestial equator around 800 to 1,000 light years away from the earth. Orion's Belt is made up Mintaka (on the west) , Alnilam (in the middle) and Alnitak (on the right). At around 8pm we should be able to spot the three main stars that make up his belt at 20N. To find Orion's Nebula we would enter the coordinates RA 5h 35m 17s, but the nebula is usually visible to the naked eye.
Camera
The camera we are using is a DSLR because it has better image quality, better sensitivity to light and the ability to use different lenses. Also, it has better shutter and focus speed.