Meade 60AZ-AR manual

POL ARIS INSTRUCTION MANUAL 60mm | 2.4" Altazimuth Refracting T elescope 60AZ-AR www .meade.com Polaris 60 AZ - AR 3/10/06 11:48 AM Page 1[...]

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1 INTRODUCTION Y our telesc ope is an e xc ell ent beginner’ s instrument, and is designed to observe objects in the sky and also on land. It can be your personal window on the univ erse or allows y ou to intimatel y study the behavior of nesting bir ds on a dist ant hillside. The tel escope is shipped with the f ollo wing parts: • Optical tube[...]

FIGURE 1 Figur e 1 : Polaris 60AZ-AR Altazimuth Refr acting T elesc ope Inset A : Acc essory T ray Mounting Bolt Hole Inset B : T ripod Leg Inset C : Viewfinder Assembly 1. Eyepiece 2. Red dot veiwfinder (see Inset C) 3. Red dot viewfinder alignment scr ews (see Inset C) 4. Optical tube assembl y 5. V ertical lock knobs 6. Horizontal lock knob 7. T[...]

Fig. 3 Fig. 2 ASSEMBLE YOUR TRIPOD The tripod is the basic support for y our tel escope. Its height may be adjus ted so that you can view c omf ortabl y . N N o o t t e e : : N N u u m m b b e e r r i i n n b b r r a a c c k k e e t t s s , , e e . . g g . . , , ( ( 3 3 ) ) , , r r e e f f e e r r t t o o F F i i g g . . 1 1 . . 1. Make sur e that [...]

Fig. 4 1. Note the two thumbscr ews (25) thr eaded onto two bolts on the optical tube. Remove the thumbscr e ws fr om the tube. 2. Line up the two hol es on the r ed dot viewfinder brack et over the tw o bolts. Slide the brack et over the bolts. See Fig. 1, inset C . 3. Replace the thumbscr ews ont o the bolts and tight en t o a firm f eel. A TT A [...]

3. Check this alignment at night on a cel estial object, such as the Moon or a bright star, and use the r ed dot viewfinder’ s alignment screws to mak e any neces sary refinements. TO MO VE THE TELESCOPE Y our telesc ope is altazimuth mounted. Altazimuth is just a c omplicated way of saying that y our tel escope moves up and down and fr om side t[...]

OBSERVING Observe during the daytime : T ry out your tel escope during the daytime at first. It is easier t o learn ho w it operates and how t o observe when it is light. Pick out an easy object to observe : A distant mountain, a lar ge tree, a lighthouse or skyscraper mak e excell ent tar gets. Point the optical tube so it lines up with your objec[...]

observation of lunar f eatur es. Spend several nights observing the Moon. Some nights, the Moon is so bright that it makes other objects in the sky difficult to see. These ar e nights that ar e excell ent for lunar observation. Observe the Solar System : Aft er observing the Moon, you ar e ready t o step up to the next l evel of observation, the pl[...]

Any small tel escope can see the four Galilean moons of Jupit er ( Fig. 5 ), plus a few other s, but how many moons does Jupiter actuall y have? No one knows for sur e! Nor are we sur e how many Saturn has either . At last count, Jupiter had o ver 60 moons, and held a small lead o ver Saturn. Most of these moons ar e very small and can only be seen[...]

spiral (lik e our galaxy, the Milky Way) and other galaxies look mor e like a lar ge football and ar e called elliptical galaxies. Ther e are many galaxies that ar e irregularl y shaped and ar e thought to have been pulled apart because they pas sed too close to—or ev en thr ough—a larger galaxy . Y ou may be able to see the Andr omeda galaxy a[...]

Fig. 6 By the way, you might have notic ed something strange when y ou look ed thr ough your eyepiece. Although the image is right-side up, it is r eversed. That means r eading words can be a pr oblem. But it has no affect on astr onomical objects. If you wish to have a fully c orrected image, check out Meade’ s optional Er ecting Prism in the Op[...]

Let your ey es “dark-adapt:” Allow fiv e or ten minutes f or your eyes to bec ome “dark adapted” befor e observing. Use a red- filter ed flashlight to prot ect your night vision when r eading star maps, or inspecting the tel escope. Do not use use a regular flash- light or turn on other lights when observing with a gr oup of other astronome[...]

The foc al ratio helps determine how fast the photographic speed of a tel escope is. The low er the focal ratio number, the f aster the exposur e. f/5 is fast er than f/10. The fas ter the ratio, the f aster e xposure time is needed when a camera is hook ed up to the tel escope. Y our telesc ope has slower foc al ratio at f/11.7. Sometimes, astr on[...]

Eyepiece’ s magnification x 2 = Magnification with a 2X Barl ow lens Y our 25mm low-pow er eyepiece magnifies an object 28 times. Multiply 28 by 2 and y ou get 56 times magnification with your Barl ow . It’ s worth repeating: Keep in mind that a bright, clear, but small er image is more inter esting than a larger, dimmer, fuzzy one. Using too h[...]

MEADE CONSUMER SOLUTIONS If you have a ques tion conc erning your tel escope, call Meade Instruments Consumer Solutions Department at (800) 626-3233. Consumer Solutions hours ar e 8:00A M to 5:00P M , Pacific Time, Monday thr ough F riday . Write or call the Meade Consumer Solutions Department first, bef ore r eturning the tel escope to the factory[...]

OBSERVER: OBJEC T NAME: DA TE & TIME OBSERVED: CONSTELLA TION: EYEPIECE SIZE: SEEING CONDITIONS: EXCELLENT GOOD POOR NO TES: DRAWING OF IMA GE OBSERV A TION LOG Polaris 60 AZ - AR 3/10/06 11:48 AM Page 17[...]

OBSERVER: OBJEC T NAME: DA TE & TIME OBSERVED: CONSTELLA TION: EYEPIECE SIZE: SEEING CONDITIONS: EXCELLENT GOOD POOR NO TES: DRAWING OF IMA GE OBSERV A TION LOG Polaris 60 AZ - AR 3/10/06 11:48 AM Page 18[...]

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www .meade.com Meade Instr uments Corporation 6001 Oak Canyon, Ir vine, Califor nia 926 18 1-800 626-3233 Polaris 60 AZ - AR 3/10/06 11:48 AM Page 20[...]