14
Looking at or near the
Sun
will cause
irreversable
damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the
Sun. Do not look through the telescope as it is moving.
OBSERVING
Observing by Moving the Telescope Manually
If you wish to observe a distant land object, such as a mountain top or a bird, you can observe
by merely pointing the telescope and looking through the eyepiece.
1.
Loosen the telescope’s tripod base lock knob (
26, Fig. 1
) and Altitude lock (
6, Fig. 1
), so
that the telescope can move freely.
2.
Point your telescope at distant street signs, mountains, trees, and other structures. Use
your red dot viewfinder to help site-in on an object.
3.
Center the object using the red dot viewfinder and then in the telescope eyepiece. When
the object is centered in your eyepiece, re-tighten the base and Altitude locks.
4.
Practice focusing objects with the focus knob (
1, Fig. 1
).
5.
Once you get a feel for how your telescope moves and focuses, try to view something
more challenging, like a bird or a distant moving train.
You can also observe stars and objects in the night sky using this method, but note that objects
begin to slowly drift across the eyepiece field. This motion is caused by the rotation of the Earth.
As you become familiar with the Autostar handbox operation, you can counteract the drift using
the automatic tracking feature in the Autostar Setup menu (see
TO TRACK AN OBJECT AUTO-
MATICALLY
, page 15), or by using Autostar's GO TO capabilities (see
GO TO SATURN
, page 19).
Terrestrial Observing
DS-2000 refracting telescopes are excellent high-resolution, terrestrial (land) telescopes
(reflecting telescopes are designed primarily for astronomical observations). Viewing terrestri-
al objects requires looking along the Earth's surface through heat waves. These heat waves
often cause degradation of image quality. Lower power eyepieces, such as a 25mm eyepiece,
magnify these heat waves less than higher power eyepieces. Therefore, lower power eye-
pieces provide a steadier, higher quality image. If the image is fuzzy or ill-defined, reduce to a
lower power eyepiece, where the heat waves do not have such an effect on image quality.
Observing in early morning hours, before the ground has built up internal heat, produces bet-
ter viewing conditions than during late afternoon hours.
Observing Using Autostar's Arrow Keys
You may observe land and astronomical objects using Autostar's Arrow keys to move the tele-
scope.
1.
Tighten the Altitude lock (
10, Fig. 1
) and tripod base lock knob (
26, Fig. 1
).
2.
Make sure the telescope power switch is in the OFF position. Plug Autostar into the HBX
port of the Control Panel.
3.
Flip the telescope power switch to the ON position.
Autostar is activated and a copyright message displays briefly, followed by a short beep.
Then Autostar takes a few moments to start up the system.
4.
A message displays that warns not to look at the Sun. At the end of this message, press
the key prompted by Autostar to signify that the message has been read and understood.
5.
The Arrow keys are now activated. Press the Arrow keys (
5, Fig. 2
) to slew (move) the
telescope up, down, right, or left.
6.
Press the SPEED/? key (
8, Fig. 2
) to change the telescope’s slew speed. Each time you
press this key, the speed will change. See
SLEW SPEEDS
, page 15, for more information.
7.
Use the red dot viewfinder (
7, Fig. 1
) to locate an object and practice using the Autostar’s
Arrow keys to center the object in the telescope eyepiece's field of view.
8.
Use the telescope’s focus knob (
1, Fig. 1
) to bring the object into focus.
Important Note:
When
you look through your
telescope’s eyepiece,
the image might look
strange at first.
If you have a
refracting
telescope
, objects will
appear right-side-up, but
reversed left-for-right.
This will not make a
difference when
observing astronomical
objects, and in fact, all
astronomical telescopes
present inverted images.
During terrestrial
observing, when a
corrected image (right-
side up and correct left-
for-right) is desirable, an
optional Meade 45°
Erecting Prism is
available. See
OPTIONAL
ACCESSORIES,
page 28,
or consult the Meade
Telescope Catalog.
No means of correcting
the image is available for
reflecting telescopes
—
the image will appear
upside down and
reversed left-for-right.
