Celestron CGEM 1100 Instruction Manual Download Page 66

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Summary of Contents for CGEM 1100

Page 1: ...C CG GE EM M S Se er ri ie es s INSTRUCTION MANUAL C CG GE EM M 8 80 00 0 C CG GE EM M 9 92 25 5 C CG GE EM M 1 11 10 00 0 ...

Page 2: ...in Altitude 14 Adjusting the Mount in Azimuth 15 Powering the Telescope 15 HAND CONTROL 16 Hand Control Operation 17 Alignment Procedures 17 Startup Procedure 18 Two Star Align 19 East West Filtering 19 Quick Align 20 Last Alignment 21 Re Alignment 21 Object Catalog 21 Selecting an Object 21 Slewing to an Object 22 Finding Planets 22 Tour Mode 22 Constellation Tour 22 Direction Buttons 23 Rate But...

Page 3: ...LESTIAL OBSERVING 40 Observing the Moon 40 Lunar Observing Hints 40 Observing the Planets 40 Observing the Sun 40 Solar Observing Hints 41 Observing Deep Sky Objects 41 Seeing Conditions 41 Transparency 41 Sky Illumination 41 Seeing 41 ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY 43 Short Exposure Prime Focus Photography 43 Eyepiece Projection 44 Long Exposure Prime Focus Photography 46 Periodic Error Correction PEC 47 Using...

Page 4: ...ry Schmidt Cassegrain optical system to give amateur astronomers the most sophisticated and easy to use telescopes available on the market today Take time to read through this manual before embarking on your journey through the Universe It may take a few observing sessions to become familiar with your telescope so you should keep this manual handy until you have fully mastered your telescope s ope...

Page 5: ...l Mount 9 Counterweight Bar 4 Latitude Adjustment Knob 10 Azimuth Adjustment Knob 5 Hand Control 11 Dovetail Mounting Bar 6 Tripod 12 Schmidt Corrector Lens CONTROL PANEL C Hand Control Port A On Off Switch D Aux Port B 12v Input Jack E Autoguider Port Figure 2 2 CGEM CGEM 1100 Shown 1 12 2 3 4 5 6 7 11 8 9 A C E D B 10 ...

Page 6: ... respective boxes and place on a flat clear work area A large floor space is ideal When setting up your Celestron telescope you must start with the tripod and work up from there These instructions are laid out in the order each task must be performed S Se et tt ti in ng g u up p t th he e T Tr ri ip po od d The CGEM tripod comes with an all metal center leg brace accessory tray to give rock solid ...

Page 7: ...head On one side of the tripod head there is a metal alignment peg for aligning the mount This side of the tripod will face north when setting up for an astronomical observing session To attach the equatorial head 1 Locate the azimuth adjustment screws on the equatorial mount 2 Retract the screws so they do not extend into the azimuth housing on the mount Do NOT remove the screws since they are ne...

Page 8: ...ecurely in place you are ready to attach the counterweight Since the fully assembled telescope can be quite heavy position the mount so that the polar axis is pointing towards north before the tube assembly and counterweights are attached This will make the polar alignment procedure much easier I In ns st ta al ll li in ng g t th he e C Co ou un nt te er rw we ei ig gh ht t Depending on which tele...

Page 9: ... of the telescope tube Before you attach the optical tube make sure that the declination and right ascension clutch knobs are tight see Figure 2 13 and the counterweight s are securely installed This will ensure that the mount does not move suddenly while attaching the telescope To mount the telescope tube 1 Loosen the mounting screw on the side of the telescope mounting platform This allows you t...

Page 10: ... visual back 3 Tighten the set screw on the visual back to hold the star diagonal in place If you wish to change the orientation of the star diagonal loosen the set screw on the visual back until the star diagonal rotates freely Rotate the diagonal to the desired position and tighten the set screw I In ns st ta al ll li in ng g t th he e E Ey ye ep pi ie ec ce e The eyepiece or ocular is an optica...

Page 11: ... 3 Slide the rubber O ring over the back of the finder it will NOT fit over the objective end of the finder It may need to be stretched a little Once on the main body of the finder slide it up about one inch from the end of the finder 4 Rotate the finder until one cross hair is parallel to the R A axis and the other is parallel to the DEC axis 5 Slide the eyepiece end of the finder into the front ...

Page 12: ...the finder bracket 4 Hand tighten the two alignment thumb screws until they make contact with the finderscope Aligning the Finderscope The finderscope is adjusted using two adjustment screws located on the top and on the right when looking though the finder of the finder bracket and a spring loaded pivot screw located on the left side of the bracket This allows you to turn the top adjustment screw...

Page 13: ...e properly balanced around the polar axis Proper balancing is crucial for accurate tracking To balance the mount 1 Verify that the telescope is securely attached to the telescope mounting platform 2 Loosen the R A lock lever and position the telescope off to one side of the mount The counterweight bar will extend horizontally on the opposite side of the mount 3 Release the telescope GRADUALLY to s...

Page 14: ...nobs on the telescope mounting platform to hold the telescope in place Like R A balance these are general balance instructions and will reduce undue stress on the mount When taking astrophotographs this balance process should be done for the specific area at which the telescope is pointing A Ad dj ju us st ti in ng g t th he e M Mo ou un nt t In order for a motor drive to track accurately the tele...

Page 15: ...ning the other The screw that holds the equatorial mount to the tripod may have to be loosened slightly Keep in mind that adjusting the mount is done during the polar alignment process only Once polar aligned the mount must NOT be moved Pointing the telescope is done by moving the mount in right ascension and declination as described earlier in this manual P Po ow we er ri in ng g t th he e T Te e...

Page 16: ...individual components of the computerized hand controller 1 Liquid Crystal Display LCD Window Has a dual line 16 character display screen that is backlit for comfortable viewing of telescope information and scrolling text 2 Align Instructs the telescope to use a selected star or object as an alignment position 3 Direction Keys Allows complete control of the telescope in any direction Use the direc...

Page 17: ...llows you to select any of the telescope s functions and accept entered parameters 8 Undo Undo will take you out of the current menu and display the previous level of the menu path Press Undo repeatedly to get back to a main menu or use it to erase data entered by mistake 9 Menu Displays the many setup and utilities functions such as tracking rates and user defined objects and many others 10 Scrol...

Page 18: ...formation will be displayed Location The hand control will display a list of cities to choose from Choose the city from the database that is closest to your current observing site The city you choose will be remembered in the hand controls memory so that it will be automatically displayed the next time an alignment is done Alternatively if you know the exact longitude and latitude of your observin...

Page 19: ...mprove the pointing accuracy of your telescope by compensating for subtle opto mechanical misalignments between the telescope optics and the mount Therefore it is usually a good idea to add at least one additional calibration star to improve the telescope s all sky pointing accuracy 5 Press ENTER to select a calibration star Select a star the same way you did with the first two alignments stars an...

Page 20: ...control do the following 1 Press the UNDO button until the display reads CGEM Ready 2 Press the MENU button and use the Up and Down keys to select the Utilities menu Press ENTER 3 Use the UP and Down keys to select Sun Menu and press ENTER 4 Press ENTER again to allow the Sun to appear on the hand control display The Sun can be removed from the display by using the same procedure as above To impro...

Page 21: ...roved pointing accuracy To replace an existing alignment star with a new alignment star 1 Select the desired star or object from the database and slew to it 2 Carefully center the object in the eyepiece 3 Once centered press the UNDO button until you are at the main menu 4 With CGEM Ready displayed press the ALIGN key on the hand control to select Alignment Stars from the list of options 5 The dis...

Page 22: ...on the hand control The hand control will display all solar system objects that are above the horizon Use the Up and Down keys to select the planet that you wish to observe Press INFO to access information on the displayed planet Press ENTER to slew to the displayed planet Tour Mode The telescopes include a tour feature which automatically allows the user to choose from a list of interesting objec...

Page 23: ... speed rate To use this feature simply press the arrow button that corresponds to the direction that you want to move the telescope While holding that button down press the opposite directional button This will increase the slew rate to the maximum slew rate The direction that a star moves in the eyepiece when a direction is pressed will change depending on which side of the Meridian the telescope...

Page 24: ...r defined objects stored in the database scroll down to either GoTo Sky Obj or Goto Land Obj and enter the number of the object you wish to select and press ENTER The telescope will automatically retrieve and display the coordinates before slewing to the object Save Sky Object Your telescope stores celestial objects to its database by saving its right ascension and declination in the sky This way ...

Page 25: ... search Note Some of the databases contain thousands of objects and can therefore take several minutes to return the closest objects Precise GoTo The telescope has a precise goto function that can assist in finding extremely faint objects and centering objects closer to the center of the field of view for astrophotography and CCD imaging Precise Goto automatically searches out the closest bright s...

Page 26: ...he horizon is partially obscured you can set your minimum altitude limit to read 20º This will make sure that the hand control only displays objects that are higher in altitude than 20º If you want to explore the entire object database set the maximum altitude limit to 90º and the minimum limit to 90º This will display every object in the database lists regardless of whether it is visible in the s...

Page 27: ...w The Meridian feature allows for four choices Favor Current Allows the mount to favor whatever side of the mount that it is currently on when slewing to objects close to the Meridian For example if you RA slew limits are set to allow the mount to track 10 degrees past the meridian then the telescope will continue to stay on its current side of the Meridian when slewing to objects that are as far ...

Page 28: ...evel to 20º below level see figure 3 4 To set the RA Slew limit select the following RA East Limit Enter a number between 40º to 20º to define the slew limit when the tube is on the east side of the mount RA West Limit Enter a number between 40º to 20º to define the slew limit when the tube is on the west side of the mount Disable Limits This disables any pre defined values that have been entered ...

Page 29: ...ting Version Selecting this option will allow you to see the current version number of the hand control and motor control The first set of numbers indicate the hand control software version For the motor control the hand control will display two sets of numbers the first numbers are for azimuth and the second set are for altitude Get Axis Position Displays the relative altitude and azimuth for the...

Page 30: ...GPS accessory see Optional Accessories section of the manual you will need to turn the GPS on the first time you use the accessory If you want to use the telescope s database to find the coordinates of a celestial object for a future or past dates you would need to turn the GPS off in order to manually enter a time other than the present Turn On Off RTC Allows you to turn off the telescopes intern...

Page 31: ...CROLLING MENU MOUNT SETTINGS R A LIMITS SET MOUNT POSITION TURN ON OFF GPS PEC USER OBJECTS IDENTIFY GOTO RA DEC GET RA DEC PRECISE GOTO GOTO SKY OBJECT SAVE SKY OBJECT SAVE DB OBJECT ENTER RA DEC GOTO LAND OBJECT SAVE LAND OBJECT TURN ON OFF RTC ALIGN SELECT LOCATION ENTER DATE MM DD YY TIME ZONE DLS ST ENTER TIME SET TO INDEX TWO STAR ALIGN SOLAR SYSTEM ALIGN LAST ALIGNMENT QUICK ALIGN ONE STAR ...

Page 32: ...table The Schmidt Cassegrain system consists of a zero power corrector plate a spherical primary mirror and a secondary mirror Once light rays enter the optical system they travel the length of the optical tube three times The optics of the Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes have Starbright coatings enhanced multi layer coatings on the primary and secondary mirrors for increased reflectivity and a full...

Page 33: ...f the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece used In equation format the formula looks like this Focal Length of Telescope mm Magnification Focal Length of Eyepiece mm Let s say for example you are using the 40mm Plossl eyepiece To determine the magnification you simply divide the focal length of your telescope the C8 S for example has a focal length of 2032mm by the focal length of the eye...

Page 34: ... cases you may actually see a double image Never look across or over objects that are producing heat waves This includes asphalt parking lots on hot summer days or building rooftops Hazy skies fog and mist can also make it difficult to focus when viewing terrestrially The amount of detail seen under these conditions is greatly reduced Also when photographing under these conditions the processed fi...

Page 35: ... declination are named for their angular distance above and below the celestial equator The lines are broken down into degrees minutes of arc and seconds of arc Declination readings south of the equator carry a minus sign in front of the coordinate and those north of the celestial equator are either blank i e no designation or preceded by a plus sign The celestial equivalent of longitude is called...

Page 36: ...never set You will never see the stars complete one circle because the sunlight during the day washes out the starlight However part of this circular motion of stars in this region of the sky can be seen by setting up a camera on a tripod and opening the shutter for a couple hours The processed film will reveal semicircles that revolve around the pole This description of stellar motions also appli...

Page 37: ...ointing due north Use a landmark that you know faces north 2 Level the tripod There is a bubble level built into the mount for this purpose 3 Adjust the mount in altitude until the latitude indicator points to your latitude Moving the mount affects the angle the polar axis is pointing For specific information on adjusting the equatorial mount please see the section Adjusting the Mount This method ...

Page 38: ...tar in the finderscope and press Enter 5 Then center the star in the eyepiece and Press Align 6 Repeat the process on a second alignment star For additional all sky pointing accuracy it s a good idea to align on at least one additional calibration stat located on the opposite side of the Meridian To add calibration stars 1 Slew the telescope to a bright star on the opposite of the Meridian from yo...

Page 39: ...pole it is parallel to the Earth s rotational axis Many methods of polar alignment require that you know how to find the celestial pole by identifying stars in the area For those in the northern hemisphere finding the celestial pole is not too difficult Fortunately we have a naked eye star less than a degree away This star Polaris is the end star in the handle of the Little Dipper Since the Little...

Page 40: ...can see Venus go through its lunar like phases Mars can reveal a host of surface detail and one if not both of its polar caps You will be able to see the cloud belts of Jupiter and the great Red Spot if it is visible at the time you are observing In addition you will also be able to see the moons of Jupiter as they orbit the giant planet Saturn with its beautiful rings is easily visible at moderat...

Page 41: ...zy skies absorb more light than clear skies making fainter objects harder to see and reducing contrast on brighter objects Aerosols ejected into the upper atmosphere from volcanic eruptions also affect transparency Ideal conditions are when the night sky is inky black Sky Illumination General sky brightening caused by the Moon aurorae natural airglow and light pollution greatly affect transparency...

Page 42: ... directly affect image quality These drawings represent a point source i e star under bad seeing conditions left to excellent conditions right Most often seeing conditions produce images that lie some where between these two extremes ...

Page 43: ...when operating in the time exposure mode Olympus Nikon Minolta Pentax Canon and others have made such camera bodies The camera must have interchangeable lenses so you can attach it to the telescope and so you can use a variety of lenses for piggyback photography If you can t find a new camera you can purchase a used camera body that is not 100 percent functional The light meter for example does no...

Page 44: ... intensity and to increase contrast Keep accurate records of your exposures This information is useful if you want to repeat your results or if you want to submit some of your photos to various astronomy magazines for possible publication This technique is also used for photographing the Sun with the proper solar filter Eyepiece Projection This form of celestial photography is designed for objects...

Page 45: ... the exposure 1 Find and center the desired target in the viewfinder of your camera 2 Turn the focus knob until the image is as sharp as possible 3 Place the black card over the front of the telescope 4 Release the shutter using a cable release 5 Wait for the vibration caused by releasing the shutter to diminish Also wait for a moment of good seeing 6 Remove the black card from in front of the tel...

Page 46: ...era to the Radial Guider Other equipment needs include a guiding eyepiece Unlike other forms of astrophotography which allows for fairly loose guiding prime focus requires meticulous guiding for long periods To accomplish this you need a guiding ocular with an illuminated reticle to monitor your guide star For this purpose Celestron offers the Micro Guide Eyepiece 94171 Here is a brief summary of ...

Page 47: ...ross hairs so that one is parallel to the declination while the other is parallel to the R A axis 3 Center the guide star on the illuminated cross hairs focus the telescope and study the periodic movement 4 Before actually recording the periodic error take a few minutes to practice guiding Set the hand control slew rate to an appropriate guide rate rate 1 5x rate 2 1x and practice centering the gu...

Page 48: ...ve is running Always take exposures of various lengths to determine the best exposure time Terrestrial Photography Your telescope makes an excellent telephoto lens for terrestrial land photography Terrestrial photography is best done will the telescope in Alt Az configuration and the tracking drive turned off To turn the tracking drive off press the MENU 9 button on the hand control and scroll dow...

Page 49: ...he F goes down or gets faster the exposure times needed decreases the field of view increases but the image scale of the object gets smaller What is the difference between f 6 3 and f 10 F 6 3 has about 2 3 the focal length of f 10 That makes the exposure time needed about 2 5 times shorter than at f 10 the field of view 50 larger compared to that of f 10 see Table below Telescope Model Standard C...

Page 50: ...by pointing the telescope at the ground until the dew has evaporated If moisture condenses on the inside of the corrector remove the accessories from the rear cell of the telescope Place the telescope in a dust free environment and point it down This will remove the moisture from the telescope tube To minimize the need to clean your telescope replace all lens covers once you have finished using it...

Page 51: ...ot to touch the corrector plate pointing towards the collimation screws The shadow of your finger should be visible when looking into the eyepiece Rotate your finger around the tube edge until its shadow is seen closest to the narrowest portion of the rings i e the same direction in which the central shadow is skewed 3 Locate the collimation screw closest to where your finger is positioned This wi...

Page 52: ...at steps 2 through 6 as described above for the new direction Perfect collimation will yield a star image very symmetrical just inside and outside of focus In addition perfect collimation delivers the optimal optical performance specifications that your telescope is built to achieve If seeing i e air steadiness is turbulent collimation is difficult to judge Wait until a better night if it is turbu...

Page 53: ...llowing focal lengths 4mm 6mm 9mm 12 5mm 15mm 20mm 25mm 32mm and 40mm X Cel This 6 element design allows each X Cel Eyepiece to have 20mm of eye relief 55 field of view and more than 25mm of lens aperture even with the 2 3mm In order to maintain razor sharp color corrected images across its 55 field of view extra low dispersion glass is used for the most highly curved optical elements The excellen...

Page 54: ... thus increasing contrast between various objects This is used primarily for terrestrial lunar and planetary observing Polar Axis Finderscope 94224 This useful accessory speeds accurate polar alignment by providing a means of visually aligning your German equatorial mount with Polaris and true north As a result you can spend more time observing and less time setting up The finderscope has an easy ...

Page 55: ...o the rear cell of your telescope All other accessories both visual and photographic with the exception of Barlow lenses thread onto the skylight filter The light loss caused by this filter is minimal Solar Filter The Baader AstroSolar filter is a safe and durable filter that covers the front opening of the telescope View sunspots and other solar features using this double sided metal coated filte...

Page 56: ... 29 ft 32 ft Optical Coatings Standard Starbright XLT Coating Starbright XLT Coating Starbright XLT Coating Secondary Mirror Obstruction 2 7 3 35 3 75 by Area 11 13 12 by Diameter 34 36 34 Optical tube length 17 inches 22 inches 24 inches Telescope Weight 88 lbs 113 lbs 120 lbs CGEM Mount Additional Specifications Hand Control Double line 16 character Liquid Crystal Display 19 fiber optic backlit ...

Page 57: ...easured from due north between the astronomical meridian the vertical line passing through the center of the sky and the north and south points on the horizon and the vertical line containing the celestial body whose position is to be measured B Binary Stars Binary Double stars are pairs of stars that because of their mutual gravitational attraction orbit around a common Center of Mass If a group ...

Page 58: ... bright at the end of its life cycle O Open Cluster One of the groupings of stars that are concentrated along the plane of the Milky Way Most have an asymmetrical appearance and are loosely assembled They contain from a dozen to many hundreds of stars P Parallax Parallax is the difference in the apparent position of an object against a background when viewed by an observer from two different locat...

Page 59: ...xing Moon The period of the moon s cycle between new and full when its illuminated portion is increasing Z Zenith The point on the Celestial Sphere directly above the observer Zodiac The zodiac is the portion of the Celestial Sphere that lies within 8 degrees on either side of the Ecliptic The apparent paths of the Sun the Moon and the planets with the exception of some portions of the path of Plu...

Page 60: ...nd conflicts with slew limits there will be no action Get Azm Alt Z 12AB 4000 10 characters returned 12AB Azm comma 4000 Alt Get RA Dec E 34AB 12CE Scope must be aligned Cancel Goto M Is Goto in Progress L 0 or 1 0 No 1 Yes 0 is ASCII character zero Is Alignment Complete J 0 or 1 0 No 1 Yes Commands below available on version 1 6 or later HC version V 22 Two bytes representing V2 2 Stop Start Trac...

Page 61: ...Goto Command Through RS232 To The Hand Control note Only valid for motorcontrol version 4 1 or greater 1 Convert the angle position to a 24bit number Example if the desired position is 220 then POSITION_24BIT 220 360 224 10 252 743 2 Separate POSITION_24BIT into three bytes such that POSITION_24BIT PosHigh 65536 PosMed 256 PosLow Exampe PosHigh 156 PosMed 113 PosLow 199 3 Send the following 8 byte...

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Page 70: ...ng or unauthorized repair Further product malfunction or deterioration due to normal wear is not covered by this warranty CELESTRON DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WHETHER OF MERCHANTABILITY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH HEREIN THE SOLE OBLIGATION OF CELESTRON UNDER THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL BE TO REPAIR OR REPLACE THE COVERED PRODUCT IN ACCORDANCE WIT...

Page 71: ...orrance CA 90503 U S A Tel 310 328 9560 Fax 310 212 5835 Web site at http www celestron com Copyright 2008 Celestron All rights reserved Products or instructions may change without notice or obligation Item 11097 INST 10 00 11 08 Rev2 ...

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