Meade LNT Instruction Manual download pdf (Page 16)

OBSERVING

Observing By Moving the Telescope Manually

If you wish to observe a distant land object, such as a mountain top or a bird, you can observe

by merely pointing the telescope and looking through the eyepiece.

1. Loosen the telescope’s R.A. lock (

9, Fig. 1) and Dec lock (6, Fig. 1).

2. Move your telescope to observe distant street signs, mountains, trees, and other

structures. Use SmartFinder and/or the viewfinder to to help site-in on an object.

3. Center the object with SmartFinder’s red dot and then in the telescope eyepiece. When the

object is

centered in your eyepiece, remember to re-tighten the R.A. and Dec locks.

4. Practice focusing objects with the focus knob (

8, Fig. 1).

5. Once you get a feel for how your telescope moves and focuses, try to view something more

challenging, like a bird or a distant moving train.

NOTE: Viewing conditions vary widely from night-to-night and site-to-site.

Turbulence in the air, even on an apparently clear night, can distort images. Low-

power eyepieces, such as the Super Plössl 26mm supplied with your telescope, are

better suited to resolving images in poor viewing conditions.

You can also observe stars and objects in the night sky using this method, but note that objects

begin to slowly drift across the eyepiece field. This motion is caused by the rotation of the Earth.

As you become familiar with the AutoStar handbox operation, you can counteract the drift using

the automatic tracking feature in the AutoStar Setup menu (see "TO TRACK AN OBJECT

AUTOMATICALLY," page 18), or by using AutoStar's GO TO capabilities (see "GO TO

SATURN," page 20).

Terrestrial Observing

The LX90 ia an excellent high-resolution, terrestrial (land) telescopes. Viewing terrestrial

objects requires looking along the Earth's surface through heat waves. These heat waves often

cause degradation of image quality. Lower power eyepieces, like the Super Plössl 26mm

eyepiece, magnify these heat waves less than higher power eyepieces. Therefore, lower power

eyepieces provide a steadier, higher quality image. If the image is fuzzy or ill-defined, reduce

to a lower power eyepiece, where the heat waves do not have such an effect on image quality.

Observing in early morning hours, before the ground has built up internal heat, produces

better viewing conditions than during late afternoon hours.

Observing Using AutoStar's Arrow Keys

You may observe land and astronomical objects using AutoStar's Arrow keys to move the

telescope.

Tighten the Dec and R.A.

loc

ks (

6 and 9,

Fig.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Objects appear

upside-down and

reversed left-for-right

when observed in the

eyepiece when insert-

ed directly into the

(straight-through) eye-

piece holder – with the

diagonal prism in

place, images will be

right-side-up, but

reversed left-for-right.

This image inversion is

of no consequence

when observing

astronomical objects

and, in fact, all astro-

nomical telescopes

yield inverted images.

During terrestrial

observing, where a

fully-correctly-oriented

image (right-side-up

and correct left-for-

right) is desirable, an

optional #928 45°

Erecting Prism is

available. See

“OPTIONAL

ACCESSORIES,” page

41.

Too Much Power?

Can you ever have too much power? If the type of power you’re referring to is

eyepiece magnification, yes, you can! The most common mistake of the

beginning observer is to “overpower” a telescope by using high magnifications

which the telescope and atmospher

ic conditions cannot reasonably support.

Keep in mind that a smaller, but bright and well-resolved image is far superior to

one that is larger, but dim and poorly resolved (see Figs. 8a and 8b). Powers

abo

e 400X should be emplo

ed only under the steadiest atmospheric

conditions

AutoStar can calculate the best eyepiece for you to use. Try out the “Eyepiece

Calc” feature in the Utilities menu.

Most observers should have three or four additional eyepieces to achieve the full

range of reasonable magnifications possible with the

LX90 telescopes. See

OPTIONAL A

CCESSORIES

, page 41.

LX90 TIPS

Fig. 8a & 8b: Jupiter:

Examples of the right

amount of magnification and

too much magnification.

1 2 ... 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ... 59 60

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Meade LNT Instruction Manual Page 16

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