Meade DS-114AT Observing by Moving the Telescope Manually, Terrestrial Observing

Too Much Power?

Can you ever have too much power? If the type of power you’re referring to is eyepiece magnification, yes, you can! The most com- mon mistake of the beginning observer is to “overpower” a telescope by using high magni- fications which the telescope’s aperture and atmospheric conditions cannot reasonably support. Keep in mind that a smaller, but bright and well-resolved image is far superior to one that is larger, but dim and poorly resolved (see below). Powers above 200X should be employed only under the steadiest atmospheric conditions.

Autostar can calculate the best eyepiece for you to use. Try out the “Eyepiece Calc” fea- ture in the Utilities menu.

Most observers should have three or four additional eyepieces to achieve the full range of reasonable magnifications possible with the DS-114AT telescopes. See “OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES,” page 31.

Fig. 17a & 17b: Jupiter; example of too much magnification.

NEVER point the telescope directly at

or near the Sun at any time! Observing the Sun, even for the smallest fraction of a second, will result in instant and irre- versible eye damage, as well as physical damage to the tele- scope itself.

Fig. 16: Autostar's Arrow keys.

OBSERVING

Observing by Moving the Telescope Manually

If you wish to observe a distant land object, such as a mountain top or a bird, you can observe by merely pointing the telescope and looking through the eyepiece.

1.Loosen the telescope’s Az lock (19, Fig. 1) and Alt lock (22, Fig. 1).

2.Move your telescope to point at distant street signs, mountains, trees, and other structures. Use your viewfinder to help site-in on an object.

3.Center the object in the viewfinder’s crosshairs and then in the telescope eyepiece. When the object is centered in your eyepiece, remember to re-tighten the Az and Alt locks.

4.Practice focusing objects with the focus knob (1, Fig. 1).

5.Once you get a feel for how your telescope moves and focuses, try to view something more challenging, like a bird or a distant moving train.

You can also observe stars and objects in the night sky using this method, but note that objects begin to slowly drift across the eyepiece field. This motion is caused by the rotation of the Earth. As you become familiar with the Autostar handbox operation, you can counteract the drift using the automatic tracking feature in the Autostar Setup menu (see TRACKING AN OBJECT AUTO- MATICALLY, page 14), or by using Autostar's GO TO capabilities (seeGO TO SATURN, page 19).

Terrestrial Observing

DS-114AT telescopes are excellent high-resolution, terrestrial (land) telescopes. Viewing ter- restrial objects requires looking along the Earth's surface through heat waves. These heat waves often cause degradation of image quality. Lower power eyepieces, such as

a 25mm eyepiece, magnify these heat waves less than higher power eyepieces.

Therefore, lower power eyepieces provide a steadier, higher quality image. If the image is fuzzy or ill-defined, reduce to a lower power eyepiece, where the heat waves do not have such an effect on image quality. Observing in early morning hours, before the ground has built up internal heat, pro- duces better viewing conditions than during late afternoon hours.

Observing Using Autostar's

Arrow Keys

You may observe land and astronomical objects using Autostar's Arrow keys to move the telescope.

1. Tighten the Alt lock (22, Fig. 1) and Az lock (19, Fig. 1).

2. Verify that Autostar is properly connect- ed to your telescope.

3. Plug the battery pack into the 12V port.

The Autostar screen is activated and a copyright message displays briefly, fol- lowed by a short beep. Then Autostar takes a few moments to start up the system.

4.A message displays that warns not to

look at the Sun. At the end of this mes- sage, press the key prompted by Autostar to signify that the message has been read and understood.

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