Meade 4504 Instruction Manual download pdf (Page 41)

page 41

Using Setting Circles

The setting circles of the Polar aligned equatorial mount can be used to locate faint

celestial objects not easily found by direct visual observation. To use the setting cir-

cles, follow this procedure:

• Use a star chart or star atlas, and look up the celestial coordinates, Right

Ascension and Declination (R.A. and Dec), of an easy-to-find bright star that is

within the general vicinity of the faint object you wish to locate.

• Center the determined bright star in the telescope’s field of view.

• Manually turn the R.A. setting circle (15, Fig. 2a) to read the R.A. of the object now

in the telescope’s eyepiece.

• The setting circles are now calibrated (the Dec setting circle (9, Fig. 2a) is factory

calibrated). To locate a nearby faint object using the setting circles, determine the

faint object’s celestial coordinates from a star chart and move the telescope in

R.A. and Dec until the setting circles read the R.A. and Dec of the object you are

attempting to locate. If the above procedure has been carefully performed, the

faint object will now be in the field of a low power eyepiece.

• The R.A. setting circle must be manually re-calibrated on the current R. A. of a star

every time the telescope is set up, and reset to the centered object’s R.A.

coordinate before moving to a new R.A. coordinate setting. The R.A. setting circle

has two sets of numbers. The inner set is for Southern hemisphere use while the

outer set (the set closest to the R.A. gear) is for use by observers located North

of the Earth’s equator (e.g., in North America and Europe).

Two-Star Polar Alignment

Besides One-Star Polar Alignment which was covered earlier in this manual (see

"ALIGNING YOUR TELESCOPE USING STARFINDER," page 20), another type of

alignment, Two-Star Polar Alignment, is also available.

Two-Star Polar Alignment requires some knowledge of the night sky. Starfinder pro-

vides a database of bright stars and two stars from this database are chosen by the

observer for alignment. The rest of the alignment procedure is identical to One-Star

Polar Alignment.

1. Perform steps 1 through 4 as described in the "ALIGN YOUR TELESCOPE

USING STARFINDER," page 20.

2 . Starfinder displays a database of stars for the observer to choose from. Use the

Scroll keys to scroll to a star that you wish to align upon. Select a star that you can

easily locate in the night sky.

3. Press ENTER. The telescope slews to the star for alignment. Use the Arrow keys

to move the telescope until the star is visible and centered in the eyepiece.

4. Press ENTER. Repeat the procedure for the second alignment star. The telescope

is aligned and you are now ready to use Starfinder's GO TO capabilities for a night

of observing.

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Meade 4504 Instruction Manual Page 41