Some Observing Tips - Meade 114EQ-AR Instruction Manual

sights you see in your telescope. Start
a notebook and write down the
observations you make each night.
Note the time and the date.
Use a compass to make a circle, or
trace around the lid of a jar. Draw what you
see in your eyepiece inside the circle. The
best exercise for drawing is to observe the
moons of Jupiter every night or so. Try to
make Jupiter and the moons approximately
the same size as they look in your eyepiece.
You will see that the moons are in a different
position every night. As you get better at
drawing, try more challenging sights, like a
crater system on the moon or even a nebula.
Go your library or check out the internet for
more information about astronomy. Learn
about the basics: light years, orbits, star
colors, how stars and planets are formed,
red shift, the big bang, what are the different
kinds of nebula, what are comets, asteroids
and meteors and what is a black hole. The
more you learn about astronomy, the more
fun, and the more rewarding your telescope
Meade114EQ_AR 4/13/06 4:08 PM
will become.
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SOME OBSERVING TIPS

Eyepieces: Always begin your observations
using the 25mm low-power eyepiece. The
25mm eyepiece delivers a bright, wide field
of view and is the best to use for most
viewing conditions. Use the high-power 9mm
eyepiece to view details when observing the
Moon and planets. If the image become
fuzzy, switch back down to a lower power.
Changing eyepieces changes the power or
magnification of your telescope.
By the way, you might have noticed
something strange when you looked through
your eyepiece. The image is upside down and
reversed. That means reading words can be
a problem. But it has no affect on
astronomical objects.
Optional Accessory Barlow lens: You can
also change magnification by using a Barlow
lens. The Barlow lens doubles the power of
your telescope (See Fig. 10).
Meade offers a complete line of eyepieces
for your telescope. Most astronomers have
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four or five low-power and high power
eyepieces to view different objects and to
cope with different viewing conditions.
Objects move in the eyepiece: If you are
observing an astronomical object (the Moon,
a planet, star, etc.) you will notice that the
object will begin to move slowly through the
telescopic field of view. This movement is
caused by the rotation of the Earth and
makes an object move through the tele-
scope's field of view. To keep astronomical
objects centered in the field, simply move
the telescope on one or both of its axes—
vertically and/or horizontally as needed—try
using the telescopes coarse and fine
adjustment controls. At higher powers,
astronomical objects will seem to move
through the field of view of the eyepiece
more rapidly.
eyepiece
barlow
Fig. 10