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1.
Select Hibernate from the Utility Menu.
2.
Move the telescope to a desire position and press
ENTER.
3.
Power off the telescope. Remember to never move your
telescope manually while in Hibernate mode.
Once the telescope is powered on again the display will read
Wake Up. After pressing Enter you have the option of scrolling
through the time/site information to confirm the current setting.
Press ENTER to wake up the telescope.
Pressing UNDO at the Wake Up screen allows you to explore
many of the features of the hand control without waking the
telescope up from hibernate mode. To wake up the telescope
after UNDO has been pressed, select Hibernate from the Utility
menu and press ENTER. Do not use the direction buttons to
move the telescope while in hibernate mode.
sun Menu
For safety purposes the Sun will not be displayed as a database
object unless it is first enabled. To enable the Sun, go to the
Sun Menu and press ENTER. The Sun will now be displayed
in the Planets catalog as can be used as an alignment object
when using the Solar System Alignment method. To remove
the Sun from displaying on the hand control, once again select
the Sun Menu from the Utilities Menu and press ENTER.
scrolling Menu
This menus allows you to change the rate of speed that the text
scrolls across the hand control display.
• Press the Up (number 6) button to increase the speed of
the text.
• Press the Down (number 9) button to decrease the
speed of the text.
telescope Basics
A telescope is an instrument that collects and focuses light.
The nature of the optical design determines how the light is
focused. Some telescopes, known as refractors, use lens-
es. Other telescopes, known as reflectors, use mirrors. The
StarSeeker 80mm telescope is a refractor telescope that uses
an objective lens to collect light. The StarSeeker 114mm and
130mm are reflecting telescopes with a primary and second-
ary mirror to gather and focus light.
Focusing
Once you have found an object in the telescope, turn the
focusing knob until the image is sharp. To achieve a truly sharp
focus, never look through glass windows or across objects
that produce heat waves, such as asphalt parking lots.
For astronomical viewing, out of focus star images are very
diffuse, making them difficult to see. If you turn the focus knob
too quickly, you can go right through focus without seeing the
image. To avoid this problem, your first astronomical target
should be a bright object (like the Moon or a planet) so that the
image is visible even when out of focus. It can even be helpful
to practice during the day on an object at least a mile away.
Reversed from left to right, as
viewed with a star diagonal
image orientation
The image orientation of any telescope changes depending
on how the eyepiece is inserted into the telescope. A refrac-
tor used with a star diagonal, for astronomical viewing, will
show an image that is right side up, but left-right reversed.
Refractors can be used for terrestrial observation and show
the image right side up and non-reversed. When observing
through a reflector (114mm and 130mm models) the image
will appear upside down and backwards.
calculating Magnification
You can change the power of your telescope just by changing
the eyepiece (ocular). To determine the magnification of your
telescope, simply divide the focal length of the telescope by
the focal length of the eyepiece used. In equation format, the
formula looks like this:
Focal Length of Telescope (mm)
Magnification =
Focal Length of Eyepiece (mm)
Let's say, for example, you are using the 25mm eyepiece. To
determine the magnification you simply divide the focal length
of your telescope (for example, the StarSeeker 130mm has
a focal length of 650mm) by the focal length of the eyepiece,
25mm. Dividing 650 by 25 yields a magnification of 26 power.
Although the power is variable, each instrument under aver-
age skies has a limit to the highest useful magnification. The
general rule is 2x per millimeter of aperture. For example,
the StarSeeker 80mm is so named for its objective diameter.
80mm x2 = 160. 160x is as high of a magnification one can
achieve under ideal seeing conditions. Although this is the
maximum useful magnification, most observing will yield best
results at lower powers.
Determining Field of View
Determining the field of view is important if you want to get
an idea of the angular size of the object you are observing. To
calculate the actual field of view, divide the apparent field of
the eyepiece (supplied by the eyepiece manufacturer) by the
magnification. In equation format, the formula looks like this:
Apparent Field of Eyepiece
True Field =
As you can see, before determining the field of view, you must
calculate the magnification. Using the example in the previous
section, we can determine the field of view using the same
25mm eyepiece. The 25mm eyepiece has an apparent field of
view of 56°. Divide the 56° by the magnification, which is 26
power. This yields an actual field of view of 2.2°.
Inverted image as viewed
with the eyepiece directly in
telescope
Magnification
17
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