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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 1
MEADE INSTRUCTION MANUAL
114mm | 4.5" Equatorial Reflecting Telescope
114EQ-ASTR
www.meade.com
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 2 WARNING! ® Never use a Meade 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. Do not point the telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through ™ the telescope or SmartFinder as it is moving. Children should always have adult supervision while observing.
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 3 INTRODUCTION Your telescope is an excellent beginner’s Setting up your telescope involves these 1 instrument, and is designed to observe simple steps: objects in the sky. It can be your personal • Assemble your tripod window on the universe . • Attach the accessory tray • Attach the red dot viewfinder The telescope is shipped with the following • Attach the eyepiece parts: • Attach the counterweight • Optical tube • Prepare mount • Aluminum tripod with an
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 4 Figure 1: Mead 114EQ-ASTR Equatorial Reflecting Telescope Inset A FIGURE 1 Inset A: Accessory Tray 2 Inset B: Red Dot Viewfinder Assembly Inset C: Tripod Leg 1. Tripod legs 22. Red dot viewfinder 2. Equatorial Mount 23. Telescope front dust cover 3. Right ascension control cable (not shown) 4. Declination control cable 24. Leg brace (see Inset A) Inset B 5. Counterweight 25. Right Ascension setting circle 6. Counterweight shaft 26. Declination setting ci
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 5 4. Thread a wingnut over the bolt and hand- ASSEMBLE YOUR TRIPOD Fig. 4 tighten to a firm feel. The tripod is the basic support for your 3 5. Attach the remaining two legs to the telescope. Its height may be adjusted so that mount in the same manner. you can view comfortably. N No ot te e: : N Nu um mb be er r i in n b br ra ac ck ke et ts s, , e e. .g g. ., , ( (3 3) ), , r re ef fe er r 6. Spread the legs out evenly apart. t to o F Fi ig g. . 1
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 6 Fig. 5 to make it easier to line up more the shaft. T Th hi is s s sa af fe et ty y f fe ea at tu ur re e p pr re ev ve en nt ts s t th he e precisely with a target. c co ou un nt te er rw we ei ig gh ht t f fr ro om m a ac cc ci id de en nt tl ly y s sl li ip pp pi in ng g. . 4 1. Note the two thumbscrews (16, (not shown) Fig. 4) thread onto two bolts on the ATTACH THE OPTICAL TUBE TO THE optical tube. Remove the thumbscrews MOUNT from the tube. 1
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 7 bright star, and use the viewfinder’s BALANCING THE TELESCOPE SUN WARNING alignment screws to make any In order for the telescope to move smoothly NEVER USE YOUR necessary refinements. 5 on its mechanical axes, it must first be TELESCOPE TO LOOK AT THE SUN! balanced as follows: UNDERSTANDING CELESTIAL MOVEMENTS LOOKING AT OR NEAR THE SUN WILL CAUSE 1. Loosen the right ascension lock (20, Fig. AND COORDINATES INSTANT AND IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE TO 5). The te
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n o i t a n i l c e D Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 8 Los Angeles, California, by its latitude the system of latitude and longitude on UNDERSTANDING HOW CELESTIAL (+34°) and longitude (118°). Similarly, you Earth surface maps. OBJECTS MOVE 6 can locate the Ring Nebula (also known as Due to the Earth's rotation, celestial In mapping the surface of the Earth, lines "M57") by its Right Ascension (18hr) and its bodies appear to move from East to of longitude are drawn between the North
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 9 Fig. 7 with their celestial coordinates of Right this level of pointing accuracy, the Ascension and Declination. telescope can track accurately by slowly turning the telescope's R.A. 7 LINING UP WITH THE CELESTIAL POLE flexible cable control and keep objects Little Dipper Polaris in the telescopic field of view for perhaps 20 Objects in the sky appear to revolve around to 30 minutes. the celestial pole. (Actually, celestial objects are essentially "fixed"
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 10 centered in the telescope's viewfinder sights in the universe are, but that’s OK. Just with-mounting may be rotated in a eyepiece, then re-tighten the latitude lock. point and observe at first. horizontal direction. Rotate the 8 telescope until it points due North. Use 4. If the above steps (1-3) were performed You will enjoy your telescope even more as a compass or locate Polaris, the North with reasonable accuracy, your telescope is you learn more abo
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 11 or skyscraper make excellent targets. Point Moon is a crescent. No shadows are can see the object. It will be easier to locate the optical tube so it lines up with your seen during a full Moon, making it an object using the red dot viewfinder rather object. Objects will appear upside down and appear flat and uninteresting. 9 than locating with the eyepiece. Line up the backwards in this model telescope. object using the viewfinders red dot. Look for diff
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 12 Fig. 8 When Mars is close to the Earth, you can see Use a neutral density filter (often called some details on Mars, and sometimes even a “moon filter”) when observing the 10 Mars’ polar caps. But quite often, Mars is Moon. Neutral density filters are further away and just appears as a red dot available from Meade as an optional with some dark lines crisscrossing it. accessory and enhance contrast to improve your observation of lunar features. Jupiter, S
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 13 One of the most fascinating sights of Jupiter The first thing you will notice is that not may not see many features on the surface of are its moons. The four largest moons are all stars are the same colors. See if you Saturn, its ring structure will steal your called the Galilean moons, after the can find blue, orange, yellow, white and 11 breath away. You will probably be able to see astronomer Galileo, who observed them for red stars. The color of star
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 14 You will also be able to see some nebulas Fig. 9 grouping of stars, containing millions with your scope. Nebula means cloud. Most or even billions of stars. Some galaxies barlow 12 nebulas are clouds of gas. The two easiest to form a spiral (like our galaxy, the Milky see in the Northern Hemisphere are the Way) and other galaxies look more like eyepiece Orion nebula during the winter and the a large football and are called elliptical Triffid nebula durin
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 15 fun, and the more rewarding your telescope four or five low-power and high power Vibrations: Avoid touching the will become. eyepieces to view different objects and to eyepiece while observing through the 13 cope with different viewing conditions. telescope. Vibrations resulting from SOME OBSERVING TIPS such contact will cause the image to Objects move in the eyepiece: If you are move. Avoid observing sites where vibrations Eyepieces: Always begin you
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 16 telescope. Do not use use a regular Dress Warm: Even on summer nights, the SPECIFICATIONS flash-light or turn on other lights when air can feel cool or cold as the night wears Optical tube focal length . . 1000mm 14 observing with a group of other on. It is important to dress warm or to have Primary mirror diameter . 114mm (4.5") astronomers. You can make your own a sweater, jacket, gloves, etc., nearby. red filtered flashlight by taping red Focal ratio
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 17 exposure. f/5 is faster than f/10. The faster Look at the specifications. You will see that It’s worth repeating: Keep in mind that the ratio, the faster exposure time is the focal length of your scope is 1000mm. a bright, clear, but smaller image is 15 needed when a camera is hooked up to the Let’s say that you have obtained a 13mm more interesting than a larger, telescope. Your telescope has slower focal eyepiece. You can tell that what the focal dimm
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 18 should not be considered optical performance. In any case this Fig. 10 reason to clean the surface. alignment procedure is simple, and 16 When lens or mirror requires only a few minutes the very first cleaning does become time the telescope is used. Take the time necessary, use a camel's hair to familiarize yourself with the following Monture Miroir Diagonal Miroir Primaire brush or compressed air Diagonale collimation procedure, so That you will gentl
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 19 Fig. 12 the reflection of the diagonal mirror as Fig. 13 Fig. 14 possible. Once you are at the best 1 position, thread in the 3 Phillips-head 17 1 3 2 2 3 diagonal tilt screws to lock the rotational position. Then, if necessary, make 2 adjustments to these 3 Phillips-head screws to refine the tilt-angle of the 3 4 diagonal mirror until the entire primary 2 5 mirror can be seen centered within the Diagonal Mirror Misalignment Correct Collimation diagonal
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Meade114EQASTR 3/28/07 9:33 AM Page 20 (second or third magnitude) star, then • Using the flexible cable controls move appear centered within the drawtube center the star image in the telescope's the telescope until the star image is at (3, Fig. 15), but the reflection of your 18 field-of-view. With the star centered follow the edge of the field-of-view in the eye and the reflection of the diagonal the method below: eyepiece, as in Fig. 16B. mirror (4, Fig. 15) appear off center, you will nee
