Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product NexStar HC Celestron
Go to page of 53
I I N N S S T T R R U U C C T T I I O O N N M M A A N N U U A A L L.
ii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 4 W AR NING ......................................................................................
iii P OLAR A LIGNMENT ( WITH OPTIONAL W EDGE ) ......................................................................................... 29 Photography with the N exStar 4 ...............................................................................
4 Congra tulations on y our purchase of the Celestr on Nex Star! The N exSta r ushers in a w hole new ge neration of com puter autom ated tec hnology . Simple and f riendly to use, the NexS tar is up and r unning af ter locating just tw o alignm ent stars.
5 2 6 1 3 Attach the included accessories (eyepiece and Star Pointer finderscope) and rem ove the front lens cover. Turn-on the Star Pointer by rotating the dial on the side. (F or instructi ons on alig ning t he Star Pointer see the Assembly section of the ma nual).
6 Input the necessary date and ti me inform at ion as instructed by the ha nd control. Press ENTER after each e ntry. The NexStar w ill also ask for tim e zon e and location inform ati on. Use the UP and Dow n scroll button s to select from the various o ptions, p ressing ENTER after each selection.
7 1 Optical Tube 6 Focuser Knob 2 Liqui d Cry stal Dis play 7 Straig ht Through Photographic Adapter 3 Hand Control 8 Flip M irror Control 4 ON/OFF Switch 9 Eyepiece 5 Battery Compa rtm ent 10 Star Po.
8 The Nex Star 4 com es com pletely pre-assembled and c an be operational in a m atter of minute s. The Nex Star is conveniently packaged in on e reusable sh ipp ing carto n th at con tains al l of th.
9 The Hand Control The ha nd control is loca ted on the side of the fork arm and c an be rem oved and use d rem otely or used while atta ched to the fork . The ha nd control atta ches to the fork arm by r esting on tw o posts, located on the bottom of the ha nd control cra dle, and a clip ins ide the f ork arm.
10 The Star Pointer Fi nderscope The St ar P oin ter i s the q uickest an d easiest way to po int you r telescop e exactly at a desired obj ect in t he sky.
11 3. With both ey es open, look thr ough the g lass w indow at the alignm ent star. 4. If the Sta r Pointer is perfec tly a ligned, y ou will see the red L ED dot overlap the alignm ent star. If the Sta r Pointer is not aligned, ta ke notice of w h ere the re d dot is relative to the bright star .
12 The Nex S tar 4 HC telescope is a precision scientific instrume nt that will a llow y ou to enjoy view ing numerous obje cts in the night sky — planets, ne bulae, sta r cluste rs, ga laxie s and m ore.
13 4. Star Ke y: Gives the user access to the utility functions of the hand co ntrol, such as changing the d irection o f the arrow keys and backlash compensat ion . 5. Hand Control Sl ew Rat e Indica tor Li ght s: Disp lays the speed at which the telescope will move when each direction button is pres sed.
14 3. Use the UP and Dow n arrow k ey s to speed up or slow down the initial speed of the altitude motors w hen the arrow buttons are press ed. 4. Press the STAR key on the hand c ontrol aga in to activ ate the direction buttons agai n.
15 The NexStar GT has a removable hand contro ller built into the side of the fork arm designed to give you instant access to all the func tions the NexStar has to of fer.
16 Messier – Complete list of all Messier objects. NGC – Complete list of all the deep-sky obje cts in the Revised New Gene ral Catalog . Caldwell – A c ombination of the best NG C and IC objec ts. Planets - All 8 plane ts in our Solar Sy stem plus the Sun and moon.
17 with all accessori es (eyepiece and St ar Po inter) att ached an d lens co ver removed as describ ed in the Assembly section of the ma nual. 1. Once t he NexStar i s powered o n , P ress ENTER to begin alignm ent. 2. Use the Up and Dow n scroll key s to select AutoAlign if it is not already displayed , and pre ss ENT ER.
18 In order to accurately center th e alig nment star in the eyep iece, it ma y be necessary to decrea se the slew rate of the motors for fine ce ntering. This is done by pre ssing the RATE key ( 11) o n th e hand controller the n selec ting the number that corre sponds to the s peed you de sire.
19 1. Press the INFO Key . This w ill give y ou usef ul inform ation about the selec ted object s u ch as R.A . and declination, m agnitude and most im portantly , altitude abov e the horizon. (If a sta r alignm ent has not yet be en perform ed, the altitude w ill not be displayed).
20 The ha nd control has a "double button" f eatur e that a llows y ou to instantly speed up the m otors without having to choose a speed rate . To use this fea ture, si mply press the ar row button tha t corre sponds to the dire ction that y ou want to m ove the telesc ope.
21 Sidereal T his rate compensate s for the rota tion of the ea rth by moving the telesc ope at the sam e rate as the r otation of the earth, but in the opposite directio n. When t he t elescope i s pol ar aligned , thi s can be acco mplished by m oving the tele scope in Right A scens ion only .
22 Goto Alt-Az - Allow s you to enter a specif ic altitude and azim uth position and slew to it. To store a se t of coordinate s (R.A./Dec ) perm anently into the NexStar data base, sav e it as a User Defined Obj ect as desc ribed a bove.
23 ALT- AZ EQ NO RTH EQ SO UTH OF F TRACKI NG M ODE SID EREAL SO LAR LU N AR KIN G TRACKI NG RATE G ET ALT- AZ GE T R A - D E C G OTO A LT- AZ GO TO R A- D E C GOT O S K Y OB J E C T GOT O L A N D OB .
24 Fig 6-2a - Ac tual im age orientati on as seen w ith the unaided eye Fig 6-2b - Reversed from left to right, as view ed through the eyepiece Figure 6-1 A A c c u u t t a a w w a a y y v v i i e e w.
25 Figure 6-3 The em blem on the end of the focus k nob shows the correct rotational direction for focusing the NexStar . F F o o c c u u s s i i n n g g The N exStar 's f o cusing m echanism controls the prim ary mirror w hich is mounted on a ri ng that slides bac k and forth on the pr ima ry baf fle tube.
26 G G e e n n e e r r a a l l O O b b s s e e r r v v i i n n g g H H i i n n t t s s When working with any opti cal inst rument, th ere are a few things to remem ber to en sure you get t he best possib le image. • Nev er look through w indow gla ss.
27 Up to this point, this m anual covere d the assem bly and basic operation of your Nex Star telesc ope. Howeve r, to understand y our telescope m ore thoroughly , y ou need to know a little about the night s ky . This section deal s w ith observ ational as tronomy in g eneral and include s informa tion on the night sk y and polar a lignm ent.
28 M M o o t t i i o o n n o o f f t t h h e e S S t t a a r r s s The daily motion of the Sun across the sk y is f amiliar to ev en the m ost casual obse rver. T h is daily trek is not the Sun mov ing as early astronome rs thought, but the result of the Earth's rotation.
29 P P o o l l a a r r A A l l i i g g n n m m e e n n t t ( ( w w i i t t h h o o p p t t i i o o n n a a l l W W e e d d g g e e ) ) Even though the NexStar can precise ly track a ce lestial objec t.
30 3. Once com p lete the Nex Star will a utomatica lly slew to the f irst alignment star. If the star that is chosen is in the north, it m ay be below the horizon. If so, abort the s lew by pressi ng any of the arrow direction buttons before the telescope tu be comes into cont act with the base.
31 Finding the Nor th Celesti al Pol e In each h emisphere, th ere is a po int in the sky ar ound which all the other stars appe ar to rotate . Thes e points are called the cel estial pole s and a re nam ed for the he mis phere in w hich they reside. For exa mple, in the nor thern he misphere all stars m ove around the north c elestia l pole.
32 With y our telescope s et up, y ou are ready to use it for obse rving. This s ection cov ers visual obser ving hints for both solar sy stem a nd deep sky objec ts as w ell as g eneral obser ving conditions w hich will aff ect your ability to observe.
33 O O b b s s e e r r v v i i n n g g t t h h e e S S u u n n Althoug h over looked by many amate ur astr onome rs, sola r observ ation is both rew arding a nd fun. Howeve r, b ecause the Sun is so brigh t, sp ecial precau tion s must be taken when ob serving o ur star so as not to damage your eyes or your telescope.
34 Seeing Seeing conditions refe rs to the sta b ility of the atmosphe re and direc tly a ffects the am ount of fine de tail see n in extende d objects . The a ir in our at mosphe re acts as a lens which be nds and distorts incom ing light ray s. The am ount of bending depends on air density.
35 While your NexSta r telescope requires little mainte nance, there are a f ew things to rem ember that w ill ensure your telesc ope perf orms at its be st.
36 You will find that add itional accessories en hance your viewing pleasure an d expand th e usefulness of your telescope. Fo r ease of reference, all th e accessories are list ed in al phab etical o rder. Adapter, AC (# 18770) – Allow s DC (battery ) powere d telesc opes to be c onverted for us e w ith 120 volt AC powe r.
37 Eyepiece Filt ers - To enhanc e y our visual obse rva tions of s olar sy stem objects, Cele stron of fers a w ide range of colored filters that thread into the 1-1/4" oculars.
38 Tripod, NexStar - A stable tr ipod is a m ust for serious as tronomic al observ ing and photography. T his steel f ield tripod (#93497) f olds dow n to a com pact 8"x 28". It is equipped with a built on we dge tilt plat e f or quick equatoria l use and astrophotog raphy.
39 Appendix A - Technica l Specifica tions O O O p p p t t t i i i c c c a a a l l l S S S p p p e e e c c c i i i f f f i i i c c c a a a t t t i i i o o o n n n Design Mak sut ov-Ca ssegrai n Cat ad.
40 A A p p p p e e n n d d i i x x B B - - G G l l o o s s s s a a r r y y o o f f T T e e r r m m s s A - Absolute ma gnitude The appare nt ma gnitude that a star would hav e if it we re obse rved f rom a sta ndard distance of 10 parse cs, or 32.6 lig ht-ye ars.
41 F - Focal len gth The distan ce between a len s (or mirror) and the po int at which th e image of an object at infin ity is brought to f ocus. T he foc al leng th divided by the aperture of the mirror or lens is te rme d the focal ratio.
42 Resolut ion The minimum detectab le angl e an op tical system can detect . Because o f diffraction, there is a l imit to the m inimum angle, resolution.
43 A A p p p p e e n n d d i i x x C C – – M M a a p p s s o o f f T T i i m m e e Z Z o o n n e e s s.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
CELESTRON ONE YEAR WARRANTY A. Celestron Internat ional (CI) warrants th is telescop e to be free from defects in materia ls and workman shi p for one year. CI will repair or repl ace such pr oduct or part thereo f which, upon inspe ction by CI , is found to be defe ctive in m ater ials or wo rkmanship.
Celestron International 2835 Colum bia Street Torrance, CA 90503 Tel. (310) 328-9560 Fax. (310) 212- 5835 W e b s i te a t h t t p / / www. c e l e st r o n. c o m Copy right 2000 Cel estron Intern ational All ri ghts reserved. (Products or inst ructions m ay chan ge with out notice or obligation.
11-00 This document contains useful inform ation about your NexStar 4 telescope that may not have been included in your instruction manual at the tim e of printing. Listed below is inform ation regarding the utility features described under the hand control section of the manual.
An important point after buying a device Celestron NexStar HC (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought Celestron NexStar HC yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data Celestron NexStar HC - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, Celestron NexStar HC you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get Celestron NexStar HC will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of Celestron NexStar HC, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime Celestron NexStar HC.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Celestron NexStar HC. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Celestron NexStar HC along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
