User manual MEADE ETX-125PE QUICK START

[. . . ] Instruction Manual ETX Premier Edition Telescope Series AutoStar® -- LNTTM -- SmartFinderTM ® TM CONTENTS WARNING! Never use a Meade ETX PE 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. Children should always have adult supervision while observing. ® ® Caution: Use care to install batteries in the orientation indicated by illustration in the battery slots of the battery compartment. [. . . ] With "User Object: Add" displayed, press the Scroll Up key once. The name of the object and the Right Ascension and Declination coordinates display. Press GO TO and the telescope slews to the object. Observing Satellites In this procedure, you will prepare your telescope to observe a satellite pass. Navigate to the "Object: Satellite" menu option and press ENTER. Use the Scroll keys to scroll through the list of satellites. 30 3. "Calculating. . . . " and then "Tracking. . . " displays. If the satellite is going to make a pass, "Located" displays. Use the Scroll keys to display data about the pass: aos ­ acquisition of signal and los ­ loss of signal. If you subtract the aos from the los, you can calculate how long the satellite will be visible. Press ENTER and AutoStar automatically sets the alarm to sound a minute before the satellite's scheduled appearance. When the alarm goes off, return to the Satellite menu and press a Scroll key until the desired satellite is on the top line of the display. Note: If the scheduled appearance position of the satellite is obstructed (i. e. , by a building, tree or hill), press ENTER and AutoStar starts to move the telescope along the expected satellite track. When the track clears the obstruction, press ENTER again to pause the telescope, then continue with this procedure. With about 20 seconds left on the countdown timer, start watching through the telescope SmartFinder for the satellite to enter the field of view. Use the AutoStar Arrow keys to center the object in the SmartFinder, then look through the eyepiece to view the object. Satellite orbits change and new satellites (including the Space Shuttle) are launched. Visit the Meade web site (www. meade. com) approximately once a month to get updated information and instructions on how to download this data to AutoStar. If orbital parameters are more than one month old, the satellite pass may not happen at the time predicted by AutoStar. Downloading requires the optional #505 AstroFinderTM Software and Cable Connector Kit. Most satellites are in low orbit, travelling at approximately 17, 500 mph. When visible, they move quickly across the sky and are only in the field of view for a few minutes, requiring AutoStar to slew the telescope rapidly. Viewing in the middle of the night can be problematic because the satellite may pass overhead, but not be visible as it is in the Earth's shadow. 9. How to Create Your Own Guided Tour Note: Meade's AutoStar Suite provides an easy way for an observer to create their own Guided Tour. See PHOTOGRAPHY WITH MEADE'S AUTOSTAR SUITE, When a Guided Tour is selected, AutoStar slews your telescope to a predetermined list of objects and displays information about each object, such as type of object, constellation location, R. A. [. . . ] Deep-Sky Objects You can use star charts to locate constellations, individual stars and deep-sky objects. Examples of various deep-sky objects are given below: Stars are large gaseous objects that are illuminated by nuclear fusion in their core. Because of their vast distances from our solar system, all stars appear as pinpoints of light, regardless of the size of the telescope used. Nebulae are vast interstellar clouds of gas and dust where stars are formed. [. . . ]