4/21/11 4:03 PM Page 1 www.meade.com 20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd MEADE INSTRUCTION MANUAL 60mm | 2.
0225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd 4/21/11 4:03 PM 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 viewfinder as it is moving. Children should always have adult supervision while observing.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd 4/21/11 4:03 PM 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 allow you to intimately study the behavior of nesting birds on a distant hillside. The telescope is shipped with the following parts: • Optical tube • Steel tube tripod with an accessory tray • Two 1.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd FIGURE 1 2 1. Eyepiece 2. Red dot viewfinder (see Inset A) 3. Red dot viewfinder alignment screws (see Inset A) 4. Optical tube assembly 5. Vertical slow motion control 6. Base/tripod head 7. Tripod legs 8. Leg brace supports (See Inset C) 9. Leg brace (See Inset C) 10. Tripod leg nuts and bolts 11. Optical tube lock knobs 12. Horizontal slow motion control (See Inset B) 13. Diagonal mirror 14. Objective lens cell 15. Focuser drawtube 16. Telescope mount 17.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd 4/21/11 4:03 PM Page 5 Figure 2: Carry Bag Opened with Telescope Inside Inset D Durable carry bag FIGURE 2 3 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd ASSEMBLE YOUR TRIPOD 4 The tripod is the basic support for your telescope and is shipped with the tripod head and legs unattached. Note: Number in brackets, eg., [3], refer to Fig. 1. 1. Attach the 3 steel tripod legs [7] to the tripod head [6] with the 3 leg locks [20] facing inward. Three 1-11/16” long bolts are provided for this purpose. Once the tripod head and legs are connected, spread the tripod legs evenly apart. (SEE FIG. 3). Fig. 3 2.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd viewing position. 1. Slide the diagonal mirror (13) into the focuser drawtube(15). 2. Tighten the drawtube thumbscrew to hold the diagonal mirror securely. 3. Slide the MH 25mm eyepiece (1) into diagonal mirror (13). 4. Tighten the diagonal mirror thumbscrew to hold the eyepiece securely. BALANCING THE OPTICAL TUBE The telescope is designed with a bracket that will allow the user to balance the optical tube.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd TO MOVE THE TELESCOPE telescope is altazimuth mounted. 6 Your 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. To move the telescope to an object, simply move the telescope tube in the horizontal and/or vertical plane until it is centered in the red dot viewfinder. The object will now be in the eyepiece of the telescope. 2.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd 10. You many now close and place the small accessory storage bag into the carry bag main compartment. You can also place your instruction book inside so that it will be easy to reference during you next observing session. 11. Zip the bag closed. If you have not done so, attach the shoulder strap (30). Your carry bag is now ready for storage. You will enjoy your telescope even more as you learn more about it.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd Focus: Look through the eyepiece and practice focusing on the object you 8 have chosen. Try out the slow motion adjustment controls: Practice using the slow motion controls (5,12) to move the telescope. These can come in very handy, especially when you wish to move the telescope in very small (fine control) steps.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd Venus is seen before dawn or after sunset, because it is close to the Sun. You can observe Venus going through crescent phases. But you cannot see any surface detail on Venus because it has a very thick atmosphere of gas. When Mars is close to the Earth, you can see some details on Mars, and sometimes even Mars’ polar caps. But quite often, Mars is further away and just appears as a red dot with some dark lines crisscrossing it.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd 10 a black opening in the rings, known as the Cassini band. Saturn is not the only planet that has rings, but it is the only set of rings that can be seen with a small telescope. Jupiter’s rings cannot be seen from Earth at all—the Voyager spacecraft discovered the ring after it passed Jupiter and looked back at it. It turns out, only with the sunlight shining through them, can the rings be seen. Uranus and Neptune also have faint rings.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd a notebook and write down the observations you make each night. Note the time and the date. Use a compass to make a circle, or trace around the lid of a jar. Draw what you see in your eyepiece inside the circle. The best exercise for drawing is to observe the moons of Jupiter every night or so. Try to make Jupiter and the moons approximately the same size as they look in your eyepiece. You will see that the moons are in a different position every night.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd 12 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.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd objects are easiest to see under dark skies. But it is still possible to observe even in a city. Surf the Web and visit your local library: The internet contains a huge amount of astronomical information, both for children and adults. Check out astronomy books from your library. Look for star charts—these are available on a monthly basis in Astronomy and Sky and Telescope magazines.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd 14 mounting configurations are available for other telescopes, such as equatorial mounting. USE THE SPECIFICATIONS TO CALCULATE THE MAGNIFICATION OF YOUR EYEPIECE The power of a telescope is how much it magnifies objects. Your 25mm eyepiece magnifies an object 28 times. Your 9mm eyepiece magnifies objects 78 times. But if you obtain other eyepieces, you can calculate how much magnification they have with your telescope.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd ADJUSTING THE HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL TENSION OF THE OPTICAL TUBE If the horizontal and/or vertical movement of the optical tube seems to be too loose or too tight, you can adjust the amount of tension in the movement of the optical tube to suit your own preference.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd MEADE CONSUMER SOLUTIONS If you have a question concerning your 16 telescope, call Meade Instruments Consumer Solutions Department at (800) 626-3233. Consumer Solutions Departmant hours are 7:00AM to 5:00PM, Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. Call the Meade Consumer Solutions Department first, before returning the telescope to the factory, giving full particulars as to the nature of the problem, as well as your name, address, and daytime telephone number.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.
225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.
20225_TerraStar60 InstrctnMnl 042111.qxd 4/21/11 4:03 PM Page 24 1-800 626-3233 www.meade.com ©2011 Meade Instruments Corp. All rights reserved. Specifications subject to change without notice. Images depicted may not be representative of the images seen or captured through this product.
