Lx200 classic and the transit

[Chris.B]

I did a forum search but no real joy.
I'd like to set up LX200 for tracking and viewing the tranist next week.
Does anyone know the best way to do it?
I will not be setting up the scope till morning, possible at the local school. I can enter a site but then still need to do a one star align. A bit tricky in the day. Once that is done goto 902 will track Venus.

Any ideas, or suggestions?

[bojan]

Do it the night before, then clearly mark the places were the legs of the tripod were...
That should be good enough (you will have to do some corrections during the event anyway).
Or, use position of Sun or Venus for one-star alignment (if this is accepted by mount controller - I am only guessing it may work..)

[AndrewJ]

Even simpler "quick setup" method.
Take more care than usual levelling the base.
Ensure everythingis safely covered/filtered BEFORE starting the align.
Start the scope and do a one star align but just accept that the star is centred when asked. The scope will now start tracking.
"Goto" the sun by whatever means you like and then just leave it tracking.
Using Aldebaran as an align star will actually get you very close to begin with, so once you hit OK to align, you can manually slew to the sun.
Tried it this morning with my ETX-125 and it works well.

Andrew

[Chris.B]

Thanks I'll see if I can try it this weekend.
It's not looking good for Wednesday in Melbourne, but here's hoping.

regards
Chris B