Meade 114EQ-AR instruction manual Star Charts

Meade114EQAR 3/28/07 9:52 AM Page 15

Moon and planets. If the image become fuzzy, switch back down to a lower power. Changing eyepieces changes the power or magnification of your telescope.

By the way, you might have noticed something strange when you looked through your eyepiece. The image is upside down and reversed. That means reading words can be a problem. But it has no affect on astronomical objects.

Optional Accessory Barlow lens: You can also change magnification by using a Barlow lens. The Barlow lens doubles the power of your telescope (See Fig. 10).

Meade offers a complete line of eyepieces for your telescope. Most astronomers have four or five low-power and high power eyepieces to view different objects and to cope with different viewing conditions.

Objects move in the eyepiece: If you are observing an astronomical object (the Moon, a planet, star, etc.) you will notice that the object will begin to move slowly through the telescopic field of view. This movement is caused by the rotation of the Earth and makes an object move through the tele-

scope’s field of view. To keep astronomical objects centered in the field, simply move the telescope on one or both of its axes— vertically and/or horizontally as needed—try using the telescopes coarse and fine adjustment controls. At higher powers, astronomical objects will seem to move through the field of view of the eyepiece more rapidly.

Place the object to be viewed at the edge of the field and, without touching the telescope, watch it drift through the field to the other side before repositioning the telescope so that the object to be viewed is again placed at the edge of the field, ready to be further observed.

Vibrations: Avoid touching the eyepiece while observing through the telescope. Vibrations resulting from such contact will cause the image to move. Avoid observing sites where vibrations cause image movement (for example, near railroad tracks). Viewing from the upper floors of a building may also cause image movement.

Let your eyes “dark-adapt:” Allow five or ten minutes for your eyes to become “dark

adapted” before observing. Use a red- filtered flashlight to protect your night

vision when reading star maps, or 13 inspecting the telescope. Do not use

use a regular flash-light or turn on other lights when observing with a group of other astronomers. You can make your own red filtered flashlight by taping red cellophane over a flashlight lens.

Viewing through windows: Avoid setting up the telescope inside a room and observing through an opened or closed window pane. Images may appear blurred or distorted due to temperature differences between inside

STAR CHARTS

Star charts and planispheres are useful for a variety of reasons. In particular, they are a great aid in planning a night of celestial viewing.

A wide variety of star charts are available in books, in magazines, on the internet and on CD Roms. Meade offers AutoStar SuiteTM software. Contact your local Meade dealer or Meade’s Customer Service department for more information.

Astronomy and Sky and Telescope magazines print star charts each month for up-to-the-minute maps of the heavens.

Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversable damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through the telescope as it is moving.