User manual MEADE LX200-ACF

[. . . ] Instruction Manual 8", 10", 12", 14", 16" LX200 R Advanced Ritchey-Chrétien Telescopes with GPS and AutoStar II Hand Controller ® ® (800) 626-3233 www. meade. com CONTENTS WARNING! Never use a Meade LX200 R 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 holder. [. . . ] This procedure allows you to check on how much memory is still available. Navigate to the "Setup: Statistics" menu option and press ENTER. This is the amount of memory that is still available to the user. Identify This procedure allows you to use AutoStar II to identify objects you have found in the night sky using the Arrow keys. If the object is not in AutoStar II's database, AutoStar II displays information about an object in its database that is closest to the one you queried about. Important Note: For this function to operate properly, you must first initialize and align AutoStar II. If you physically move the telescope after initialization, this function will fail to operate properly. - 35 - In this procedure, you will center an object you wish to have identified by AutoStar II in the telescope eyepiece and use the "Identify" menu to find out information about the object or the nearest object to it in the AutoStar II database. Center the object you wish to have identified in the telescope's eyepiece. When AutoStar II finishes calculating, the name of the closest object displays. AutoStar II displays some or all of the following information about the object with each press of a Scroll key: Example: Messier 107, NGC6171, Orion Nebula, etc Globular Cluster, Nebula, Black Hole, etc. 3 2' "This Globular Cluster is 10, 000 light years away. . . . " Displayed information: Catalog or common name of object Type of object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Size Scrolling message Browse This menu allows you to search the libraries for objects with certain parameters, much like a search engine. "Edit Parameters" lets you set various parameters for the search, and "Start Search" activates the search. Press one of the Scroll Keys and "Browse: Edit Parameters" displays. Enter the value for the smallest size of an object that AutoStar II will search for in the database. Continue with "Brightest, " Faintest, " and "Minimum Elevation, " using the procedure described in steps 3 and 4. After "Minimum Elevation, " "Object Type" displays. If you do not wish to have "Black Holes" in your search, press ENTER and the "+" changes to a "­. " Press the Scroll Down key to scroll to the next item. Continue to scroll through the list and press ENTER if you wish to change the "+" to a "­" or vice-versa. After you have scrolled to the last item on the "Object Type" list, press MODE twice and the Scroll Down key once. AutoStar II searches the database and displays the first object that matches the search parameters you have entered. Press MODE repeatedly to leave this menu. 5. 6. 7. 8. - 36 - Important Note: If you disable the automatic alignment/GPS function and then use the alternate alignments described in this section, you will be prompted to enter the Time, Date, and Daylight Savings status. Alternate Alt/Az Alignments If you would rather set up your telescope without using automatic alignment, AutoStar II offers alternative alignment methods for both alt/az and equatorial mounting. During the One-Star and Two-Star alt/az alignment procedures, you will (unlike the Automatic and Easy alignment procedures) manually place the telescope in the home position. The procedures for equatorial (polar) alignment are discussed in APPENDIX A, page 52; the three alternative alt/az alignment methods are discussed below. Easy (Two-Star) Alignment In this method, AutoStar II automatically sets the home position, and also automatically picks two stars from its libraries for alignment. [. . . ] Instead, he believed that Saturn had "ears. " Saturn's rings are composed of billions of ice particles ranging in size from a speck of dust to the size of a house. The major division in Saturn's rings, called the Cassini Division, is occasionally visible through the LX200R. Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons can also be seen as a bright, star-like object near the planet. Deep-Sky Objects Star charts can be used to locate constellations, individual stars and deep-sky objects. [. . . ]