3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 1 www.meade.com Tel70AZAR_5 MEADE INSTRUCTION MANUAL 70mm | 2.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 2 WARNING! Never use a Meade® Telescope to look at the Sun! Looking at or near the Sun will cause instant and irreversible damage to your eye. Eye damage is often painless, so there is no warning to the observer that damage has occurred until it is too late. Do not point the telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through the telescope or SmartFinder™ as it is moving. Children should always have adult supervision while observing.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 3 INTRODUCTION Your telescope is an excellent beginner’s instrument, and is designed to observe objects in the sky and also on land. It can be your personal window on the universe or allows you to intimately study the behavior of nesting birds on a distant hillside. The telescope is shipped with the following parts: • Optical tube • Aluminum tripod with an accessory tray • Two 1.
Tel70AZAR_5 2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 5 Fig. 2 ASSEMBLE YOUR TRIPOD The tripod is the basic support for your telescope. Its height may be adjusted so that you can view comfortably. Note: Number in brackets, e.g., (3), refer to Fig. 1. 1. Make sure that as you attach the legs (7) to the mount that the leg braces (9) are facing inward. 2. Line up the holes at the top of one of the legs with the holes in the mount (10). See Fig. 2. 3. Thread one of the 2-inch bolts through the holes. 4.
Tel70AZAR_5 4 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 6 4. Thread a lock knob (5) through each of the holes in the forks of the mount and tighten to a firm feel. ATTACH THE RED DOT VIEWFINDER An eyepiece (1) has a narrow field of view. A viewfinder (2) has a wider field of view, which makes it easier to locate objects. The red dot viewfinder has a red dot to make it easier to line up more precisely with a target. 1. Note the two thumbscrews (25) threaded onto two bolts on the optical tube.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 7 TO MOVE THE TELESCOPE Your telescope is altazimuth mounted. Altazimuth is just a complicated way of saying that your telescope moves up and down and from side to side. Other telescopes may be mounted in different ways. 1. Slightly loosen one of the star-shaped altitude control knobs (5). Loosening this knob allows you to move the telescope up and down. 2. Slightly loosen the horizontal lock knob (6).
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 8 OBSERVING 6 Observe during the daytime: Try out your telescope during the daytime at first. It is easier to learn how it operates and how to observe when it is light. Pick out an easy object to observe: A distant mountain, a large tree, a lighthouse or skyscraper make excellent targets. Point the optical tube so it lines up with your object.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 9 Meade as an optional accessory and enhance contrast to improve your observation of lunar features. 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 are nights that are excellent for lunar observation. Observe the Solar System: After observing the Moon, you are ready to step up to the next level of observation, the planets.
Tel70AZAR_5 8 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 10 behind Jupiter’s giant disk. Drawing the positions of the moons each night is an excellent exercise for novice astronomers. Any small telescope can see the four Galilean moons of Jupiter (Fig. 5), plus a few others, but how many moons does Jupiter actually have? No one knows for sure! Nor are we sure how many Saturn has either. At last count, Jupiter had over 60 moons, and held a small lead over Saturn.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 11 different colors? Does one seem brighter than the other? Almost all the stars you can see in the sky are part of our galaxy. A galaxy is a large grouping of stars, containing millions or even billions of stars. Some galaxies form a spiral (like our galaxy, the Milky Way) and other galaxies look more like a large football and are called elliptical galaxies.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 12 using the 25mm low-power eyepiece. The 25mm eyepiece delivers a bright, 10 wide field of view and is the best to use for most viewing conditions. Use the high-power 9mm eyepiece to view details when observing the 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.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 13 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.
Tel70AZAR_5 12 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 14 Astronomy and Sky and Telescope magazines. HAVE A GOOD TIME, ASTRONOMY IS FUN! SPECIFICATIONS Optical tube focal length 700mm Objective lens diameter 70mm(2.8") Focal ratio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . f/10 Mounting type. . . . . . . . . . . Altazimuth What do the specifications mean? Optical tube focal length is simply a measurement of the length of the optical tube.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 15 Let’s say that you have obtained a 13mm eyepiece. You can tell that what the focal length of your eyepiece is as it is always printed on the side of an eyepiece. Divide: 700 ÷ 13, which equals 53.8. Round this off to the nearest whole number and your new eyepiece magnifies objects 54 times. interesting than a larger, dimmer, fuzzy one. Using too high a power eyepiece is one of the most common mistakes made by new astronomers.
Tel70AZAR_5 14 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 16 during terrestrial observing #126 Barlow lens (1.25 0.0.) doubles the magnification of any eyepiece. Additional Eyepieces (1.25" barrel diameter): For higher or lower magnifications with the telescopes that accommodate 1.25" eyepieces, Meade Series 4000 Super Plössl eyepieces, available in a wide variety of sizes, provide a high level of image resolution and color correction at an economical price.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 17 provided the defective part is returned to Meade, freight-prepaid, with proof of purchase. This warranty applies to the original purchaser only and is nontransferable. Meade products purchased outside North America are not included in this warranty, but are covered under separate warranties issued by Meade international distributors. breach of this warranty.
Tel70AZAR_5 3/28/07 10:09 AM Page 18 OBSERVATION LOG OBSERVER: OBJECT NAME: DATE & TIME OBSERVED: CONSTELLATION: EYEPIECE SIZE: SEEING CONDITIONS: EXCELLENT GOOD POOR NOTES: DRAWING OF IMAGE
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