Do You Wear Eyeglasses?
If you wear eyeglasses, you may be able to keep them on while you observe. In order to do this, your eyepiece must have enough “eye relief” to allow you to see the entire field of view with glasses on.You can try this by looking through the eyepiece first with your glasses on and then with them off, and see if the glasses restrict the view to only a portion of the full field. If the glasses do restrict the field of view, you may be able to observe with your glasses off by just refocusing the telescope.
If your eyes are astigmatic, however, images will probably appear better with glasses on. This is because a telescope’s focuser can accommodate for nearsightedness or farsightedness, but not astigmatism. If you have to wear your glasses while observing and cannot see the entire field of view, you may want to consider purchasing special eyepieces that have
Operating the EZ Finder II Reflex Sight
The EZ Finder II reflex sight (Figure 5) makes pointing your tele- scope almost as easy as pointing your finger! It’s a
on the reflex sight’s body and power knob are lined up, the EZ Finder II is turned off.
Aligning the EZ Finder II Reflex Sight
When the EZ Finder II is properly aligned with the telescope, an object that is centered on the reflex sight’s red dot should also appear in the center of the field of view of the telescope’s eye- piece. Alignment of the EZ Finder II is easiest during daylight, before observing at night. Aim the telescope at a distant object such as a telephone pole or roof chimney and center it in the tele- scope’s eyepiece. The object should be at least 1/4 mile away. Now, with the EZ Finder turned on, look though the EZ Finder II. The object will appear in the field of view near the red dot.
Note: The image in the telescope will appear
Power Knob
Azimuth adjustment Knob
Battery casing
Mounting bracket
Altitude adjustment Knob
Figure 5. The EZ Finder II reflex sight.
The EZ Finder II works by projecting a tiny red dot (it’s not a laser beam) onto a lens mounted in the front of the unit. When you look through the EZ Finder II, the red dot will appear to float in space, helping you locate even the faintest of deep- sky objects. The red dot is produced by a
Turn the power knob clockwise until you hear the “click” indicating power has been turned on. Look through the rear of the reflex sight with both eyes open to see the red dot. Position your eye at a comfortable distance from the rear of the sight. The intensity of the dot is adjusted by turning the power knob. For best results when stargazing, use the dimmest possible setting that allows you to see the dot without difficulty. Typically a dimmer setting is used under dark skies and a brighter setting is used under light- polluted skies or daylight.
At the end of your observing session, be sure to turn the power knob counterclockwise until it clicks off. When the white dots
View through telescope
Figure 6. The view through a reflector telescope is rotated 180°
Without moving the telescope, use the reflex sight’s azimuth (left/ right) and altitude (up/down) adjustment knobs to position the red dot on the object in the eyepiece.
When the red dot is centered on the distant object, check to make sure the object is still centered in the telescope’s field of view. If not,
The reflex sight’s alignment should be checked before every observing session. Choose any bright star or planet, center the object in the telescope’s eyepiece, then adjust the knobs until the object is centered on the red dot of the EZ Finder II.
5.Setting Up and Using the Equatorial Mount
When you look at the night sky, you no doubt have noticed the stars appear to move slowly from east to west over time. That apparent motion is caused by the Earth’s rotation (from west to east). An equatorial mount (Figure 1b) is designed to compen- sate for that motion, allowing you to easily “track” the movement
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