CCD Imaging Primer
	Imaging Made Easy and Fun!

Pointing can be a problem with the LX-200. Sometimes the object you go to will not be on the chip. What to do? Well, you could use up the whole night blindly searching for it, or you could utilize the following techniques for getting objects on-chip all the time:

1. Use the LX-200 High Precision Pointing (HPP) feature
2. Do a series of short slews rather than one long slew
3. Permanently mount your scope on a pier and use modelling software (e.g. MaxPoint or T-Point) or PinPoint software

1. Using High Precision Pointing

This is the Cadbury Secret of LX-200 pointing, but requires manual intervention on your part. With the LX-200 HPP feature activated, any time you try to "Go To" a deep sky object, the LX-200 will pick a bright star near the destination and go to it first. At this point you center the object in the crosshairs of the finderscope (remember to align your finder with the main scope at the beginning of the session). This should be close enough to put the star on the chip; with the increasing chip sizes in the newer cameras, this is becoming easier all the time. Now "Sync" on the star (hold down the Enter key on the LX200 keypad until the scope beeps). Now the LX-200 will do a short slew to go to your chosen deep sky object and it should be "on the chip" every time (unless you centered the wrong star or something has gone seriously wrong).

2. Using Short Slews

As an alternative to using HPP, if you need to move more than about 20 degrees, stop & synch on a few bright stars along the way so you don't get lost! At high declinations pointing errors can be significant on even 10 degree slews, so even shorter hops may be in order here in order to get targets on-chip at the end of each slew. Of course, you can only conveniently sync on the 351 alignment stars programmed into the LX-200, so you really need a star map with these stars marked on it to make this practical. This is where the next topic comes in...

PC Telescope Control

Far easier than using your telescope's keypad is to use PC planetarium software (e.g. ECU, TheSky, DeskTop Universe, etc.) with a serial link to the telescope. Now you can slew to (and sync on) virtually any star in the sky (not just the 351 LX-200 stars) just by clicking on it! In addition, software will tell you things like object altitude/azimuth, rise/set/transit times, and size/orientation. There may even be pictures of the object.

A very inexpensive (around CDN $60) but versatile program with telescope control is Earth Centered Universe. It has telescope & focuser control, and is currently adding ASCOM support (ASCOM allows multiple software programs to control a telescope, focuser, etc. at the same time).

Telescope control was introduced to MaxIm DL/CCD in version 3, and allows you to jump to various deep sky objects, solar system objects, and named stars. Other handy features include nudge controls and single-click object centering!

MaxIm 3 Telescope Controls. The Nudge controls are quite handy.

MaxIm 3 lets you point to a particular object or coordinates, search for objects nearby, and Synch on an object or coordinates.

3. The Ultimate

Having a permanent setup and using T-Point software to model and compensate for your telescope's pointing errors is the most advanced technique for getting truly accurate all-sky on-chip pointing for an LX-200. Another approach to this is the "electronic finderscope" strategy taken by the PinPoint software. It uses star catalogues and advanced pattern matching to figure out where your telescope is actually pointing and then uses that information to make corrections. Of course, both of these approaches cost money and take some time to learn!