• Physical set up
• Polar alignment
• Drift alignment
• Daytime observing set up

Physical Set Up:

1. Orient tripod / wedge to true north. Set tripod legs at lowest setting. Bolt wedge snug to tripod. Use compass to sight along altitude bolt from 10 ft south looking north. Compass should be readable wrt magnetic deviation for area (18 degrees E for Oregon). Standing too close allows magnetic properties of the tripod to mess things up.
   
2. Level the tripod. Built in bubble level is fine for my scope. Be careful to not over tighten the knobs for the telescoping legs. Also, keep tripod as short as possible for stability.
   
3. Mount telescope onto wedge. First check all wedge / tripod bolts: is it stable, will it hold? Lift scope with axis locks unlocked. (Don't break back.) Allow OTA to flop onto shoulder while carrying to and fitting on wedge. Tighten all three bolts that hold scope to wedge! (I've actually forgotten this twice!)
   
4. Attach goodies. (accessories and cables). Make sure power switch is off, and attach power cable last. If this is a PC driven run, then attach PC cables now (no hot plugging later). Reseat all cables a couple of times to keep contacts fresh.  Don't forget the DEC cable inside the west fork (if left alone for a long time it can become intermittent according to some MAPUG'ers).
   
5. Balance. This is crucial. In summery, I balance in 3D (2D DEC plus RA). To get more precision in balancing DEC, use the RA bearings for the out of balance telltale since they have less stiction. (See here for balance equipment description)
   1. remove main dust cover from corrector plate (its very heavy). If the sun is still out, watch out!
   2. set and lock DEC to +90° and move RA such that fork is horizontal and unlocked then balance in RA with Velcro ankle weight on east (non-motorized) fork. A small amount out of balance towards the East is OK to pre-load sidereal tracking.
   3. leave DEC locked at +90° and rotate in RA till the forks are vertical. Adjust 2D weight for least weight farthest out on spindle using unlocked RA for telltale.
   4. set and lock DEC to 0° while leaving RA alone (unlocked, forks vertical). OTA should be horizontal E/W now. Slide spindle along OTA until balanced about RA in this configuration.
   5. unlock RA and DEC and place OTA in many positions checking for balance. It should be perfect.
      
6. Align spotting scope(s). Use some far away object or early bright star or planet.
   
7. Power up and initialize.
   • set slew speed to 4.  ACP can do this.
   • check / set scope concept of time (Run "lxtime.exe" or use ACP to send computer time to scope)
   • check / set scope concept of observing location (Lat. / Long.) ACP can do this.

Polar Alignment:

To reduce DEC drive reversals consider leaving a slight polar misalignment in place so that the target always drifts the same direction. So far, I have never done this, but it could be good for a long guided exposures.

1. Get scope setting circles near 0 RA and +90° DEC by hand and / or keypad.
2. Make sure RA and DEC locks are tight.
3. Make final DEC adjustment towards south to take up gear lash.
4. Trigger polar align sequence with keypad and follow displayed instructions. (At end scope will be pointing to non-Polaris alignment star).
5. GOTO a star a "long way away" from Polaris in RA and DEC, center with keypad and sync. If this star has a Meade star number, remember it (it's the easiest way to go back).
   • Polaris is at 2h 28m
   • Deneb (Star 232, SAO 49941 at the head of Cygnus) is at 20h 41m
   • Muscida (Star ???, SAO 14573 in Ursa Major) is at 8h 30m
6. GOTO star 19 (Polaris) and adjust to center using wedge. (Don't bother with going only halfway, since star is 90° away from Polaris, there should be no coupling).
7. repeat 5 and  6 several times.

I think that while the above procedure seems to work pretty well, there are still errors built in. The following list is in order of import:

• Scope flexure probably means that exact centering of Polaris is guaranteed to misalign the polar axis.
• DEC setting circle reading accuracy will translate directly into polar misalignment (at least prior to iteration above). 1 degree would translate to a pointing error of 1 degree in some areas of the sky. Even the 35mm Panoptic eyepiece only sees 47'.
• The positioning of the stock Meade diagonal is a bit sloppy. The displacement of optical center seems like it would drive polar misalignment. And it will be different each time the diagonal is moved.
• Like most SCT telescopes there is a slight image shift during focusing. This displacement of the optical center seems like it would drive polar misalignment.
• RA setting circle error is reduced by a factor of 77 (cos(Polaris declination)) so that even a 5 minutes (75') error will only show up as ~1'. For reference the Ring Nebula is 2.5'.
• East / west leveling will add to RA circle errors, and also be reduced by 77X. North / South leveling is completely taken out by the altitude adjustment so doesn't contribute to any alignment error.

The good news is that drift align will be insensitive to all these effects.

Drift Align:

When really precise alignment is required (improved pointing, longer unguided exposures, less field rotation in longer guide scope guided exposures) it is claimed that "drift alignment" can't be beat. And it can be done on any equatorial mounted telescope. (I do not yet know how far out LX200 Polar Align leaves things). The most serious drift align notes can be found here.

1. Set-up / definitions / expectations:
   • the wedge should be level.
   • basic alignment should already be done
   • use at least a 200X illuminated eyepiece (for the 12" 200 this is 15mm or less).
   • align the diagonal and reticule so that DEC is up / down, and RA is right / left along the cross hairs. Up in FOV is North, left in FOV is West
   • guide corrections in RA will be OK, but are not required, only DEC drift matters.
   • west azimuth knob on wedge turned CW moves polar axis west
   • altitude knob on wedge tuned CW moves polar axis down
     
2. Center up a star near the meridian / celestial equator and let the scope track.
   • meridian star drifting up, move the star right with azimuth knob. (i.e. for star drifting North, move the polar axis east by turning the west AZ knob CCW)
   • re-center the star with the keypad.
   • repeat until there is no DEC drift for 5 minutes (star stays inside parallel reticule lines).
     
3. Center up a star on the celestial equator within 15°-20° of the horizon and let the scope track.
   • western star - if the star drifts up, adjust the altitude knob to move the star up. (i.e. for star drifting North, move the polar axis up by turning the Alt knob CCW)
   • eastern star - if the star drifts up, adjust the altitude knob to move the star down. (i.e. for star drifting North, move the polar axis down by turning the Alt knob CW)
   • re-center the star with the keypad.
   • repeat until there is no DEC drift for 5 minutes (star stays inside parallel reticule lines).
     
4. If step 3 caused major change (several degrees, how many eyepiece fields?), then repeat steps 2.  There is some coupling of the two axis since the horizon star is not actually on the horizon.

Daytime Observing Set Up:

Alignment

At power up the LX200 sets RA equal to the Sidereal time (the meridian). Then the scope hunts west to find the worm index. RA is adjusted during the hunt. Therefore, the LX200 will a be pointing further west by up to 8 minutes (the worm period) but it will keep track of where it is.