"Phil Edmonds" wrote in message
om...

I've had a look at the Celestron & Meade manuals. But the manuals seem
to suggest you can do "quick two-star alignment and go" with the
equatorially-mounted GOTO systems. How can this be? If the polar axis
isn't aligned properly it shouldn't be able to track at all?

An altazimuth mount is merely a badly misaligned equatorial mount (maybe 40
degrees off the pole). The same mathematics will correct for a small
alignment error when you're in equatorial mode but inaccurately set up. The
mount tracks on both axes.

Note that the classic LX200 (non-GPS) does not do this; it has to be
perfectly polar-aligned to work well in equatorial mode.

Do these computerized equatorial mounts adjust in declination as well
as RA? What happens if you have the mount pointing in completely the
wrong direction, then do a 2-star alignment and tell it to take it
from there? I'm a bit confused!

It should work. Two star positions tell it the position of the whole
celestial sphere. It may think it's upside down and on the other side of
the earth, but it will still know where the stars are.

I'd be particularly interested to hear from any users of the Celestron
CGE mount!

Haven't tried that one -- sorry.

For more on how computerized telescopes work, see my book.


--
Clear skies,

Michael Covington -- www.covingtoninnovations.com
Author, Astrophotography for the Amateur
and (new) How to Use a Computerized Telescope