10
Altitude and Azimuth (Aiming the Telescope)
The Observer 60 altazimuth mount permits motion along two
axes: altitude (up/down) and azimuth (left/right). See Figure 5.
Moving the telescope up/down and right/left is the “natural” way
people aim objects and this makes pointing the telescope intu-
itive and easy.
To move the telescope in the azimuth direction, loosen the
azimuth lock knob, take hold of the telescope by the “yoke”, and
gently rotate the telescope to the desired position. Then re-tight-
en the azimuth lock knob. To move the telescope in the altitude
direction, loosen the altitude lock knob, take hold of the end of
the optical tube and move the tube up or down to the desired
position. Then re-tighten the altitude lock knob.
Note about the Altitude Micro-Motion Rod and Thumbwheel
Since making fine adjustments to the altitude of the telescope
can be tricky, the Observer 60 comes with an altitude micro-
motion rod and thumbwheel. By turning the thumbwheel, the
telescope will move very slightly either up or down, depending on
which direction you turn the thumbwheel. Since there is a limit to
how far the thumbwheel can turn in either direction, if you need
to make any large altitude movements to the telescope it is best
to simply loosen the altitude lock knob and move the scope by
hand.
Focusing the Telescope
With the 25mm Kellner eyepiece inserted into the 90° mirror star
diagonal and secured with the thumbscrews, aim the optical tube
so the front (open) end is pointing in the general direction of an
object at least 1/4-mile away. Now, with your fingers, slowly rotate
one of the focus wheels until the object comes into sharp focus.
Go a little bit beyond sharp focus until the image starts to blur
again, then reverse the rotation of the knob, just to make sure
you’ve hit the exact focus point.
Do You Wear Eyeglasses?
If you wear eyeglasses, you may be able to keep them on
while you observe. In order to do this, your eyepiece must
have enough “eye relief” to allow you to see the entire field
of view with glasses on. You can try looking through the
eyepiece first with your glasses on and then with them off,
to see if the glasses restrict the view to only a portion of
the full field. If the glasses do restrict the field of view, you
may be able to observe with your glasses off by just refo-
cusing the telescope to your unaided vision.
If your eyes are astigmatic, images will probably appear
best with glasses on. This is because a telescope’s
focuser can accommodate for nearsightedness or far-
sightedness, but not astigmatism. If you have to wear your
glasses while observing and cannot see the entire field of
view, you may want to purchase additional eyepieces that
have longer eye relief.
Figure 5
The Observer 60 has two axes of motion: altitude and
azimuth.
Azimuth
Altitude
Short
eye relief
restricts
the field
of view
for
eyeglass
wearers.
Long eye
relief allows
full field
of view to
be seen with
or without
eyeglasses.
5. Getting Started
Now that your Observer 60 is assembled, you’re ready to begin observing. This section will instruct you on using your telescope
effectively.
