In this article you can read how to use TARGET tab in PLAY software to align and point mount to the desired target, and rotate ARCO. In the TARGET tab you can select your target (among Stars, Messier, NGC and IC). You will see the shape of the object you want to point with the blue area that represents the dimension of your sensor based on the Pixel size, Horizontal resolution and Vertical resolution data you find below. The framed Field of View (FoV) is calculated based also on the Focal Length value you previously selected in the OTA options.
In order to align your mount you can follow these steps:
- If you have an equatorially mounted telescope, please verify it’s correctly polar aligned and set in Home position based on your mount specifications (usually the telescope has to be pointed to the Celestial Pole and the counterweight shaft has to be pointed toward the ground). If you are using one of the supported Alt-Azi mounts, please check the tripod is perfectly levelled and then point the telescope toward North (or South if you live in the Southern Hemisphere) and to the horizon.
- Select Stars and then select one of the stars in the list and that you are able to see in the sky. Then press GOTO button. You will see the telescope moving close to the star position. If you’re using one of the supported Alt-Azi mounts, ARCO will automatically start field de-rotation.
- With the NSWE buttons you can move your telescope in order to center the alignment star at the center of your telescope Field of View. You can select a movement speed with the menu at the center of the NSEW buttons (10 = fastest) and then, when the pointed star is at the center of field, you can press SYNC button to sync telescope position to the target.
Now your telescope is aligned to the alignment star. You can now select one of the available Deep-Sky objects in the included PLAY database and press the GOTO button: telescope will slew to the requested object.
You can press STOP button to stop the mount movement, press the ENTER COORD. button to manually type coordinates of the desired object. If the desired object is not in the center of your telescope Field of View, you can again manually move the mount by using the NSWE buttons (and by selecting a speed with the menu at the center of the NSWE buttons), then press SYNC button to sync telescope position to the target.
You can also use ARCO to rotate the camera by moving the slider in the bottom-left part of the window or you can type the requested value on the area and press the GO button to start the rotation movement. The value of rotation angle will update until ARCO will reach the desired position. If you want to stop the rotation movement, you can press the STOP button.
