Instruction Manual StarNavigator NG Series Telescopes with AudioStar® MEADE.
WARNING! ® Never use a Meade StarNavigator NG™ Telescope to look at the Sun! Looking at or near the Sun will cause instant and irreversible damage to your eye. Eye damage is often painless, so there is no warning to the observer that damage has occurred until it is too late. Do not point the telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through the telescope or viewfinder as it is moving. Children should always have adult supervision while observing.
CONTENTS Battery Safety Instructions • Always purchase the correct size (8 x 1.5V AA, 15A/15AC ANSI, LR6 IEC), (2 x ANSI/ NEDA-5004LC, IEC-CR2032) and grade of battery most suitable for the intended use. • Replace all batteries of a set at the same time. • Clean the battery contacts and also those of the device prior to battery installation. • Ensure the batteries are installed correctly with regard to polarity (+ and -).
QUICK-START GUIDE 4&5 1 4. 1. Open the tripod: Remove the tripod from the giftbox and stand vertically. Gently pull the legs apart to a fully open position. Attach the accessory tray to the tripod by threading the center bolt into the tray until firm. Attach and balance the optical tube: Tighten the DEC lock knob so that it holds the optical tube loosely. Slide the tube back and forth until you find a position where the tube remains horizontal (i.e., without tipping up and down).
b. Insert the eyepiece: Remove the supplied 26mm eyepiece from its container and place it in the erect-image prism (refractor models only; see Fig. 5a) or directly into the eyepiece holder (reflector models only; see Fig. 5b). Tighten the thumbscrews to a firm feel only. Remove the dust cover from the end of optical tube assembly. Use the focus knobs to bring objects into focus.
REFRACTING TELESCOPE FEATURES E F 19 Fig. 1d (Inset): Compass/Bubble Level. Fig. 1b (Inset): (E) Altitude Setting Circle; (F) Altitude Lock. 21 20 18 22 Fig. 1e (Inset): Tripod Assembly. 1. Focus Knob 2. Eyepiece Holder Thumbscrew 3. Eyepiece Holder 4. 90° Erect-Image Prism 5. Eyepiece 6. Focus Lock Knob 7. Red Dot Viewfinder 8. Red Dot Viewfinder Alignment Screw 9. Dovetail Receiver 11 (not visible) 9 Altitude Setting Circle and Lock 11. Optical Tube (OTA) 12.
REFRACTING TELESCOPE FEATURES Take the time to become acquainted with your refracting telescope and all of these controls before attempting observations through the telescope. Refer to Figure 1a. 1. Focus Knob: Moves the telescope’s focus drawtube in a finely-controlled motion to achieve precise image focus. Rotate the focus knob clockwise to focus on distant objects, and counterclockwise to focus on nearby objects. 2. Eyepiece Holder Thumbscrew: Tightens the eyepiece in place.
C. ON Switch: Press to turn the Computer Control Panel and AudioStar ON or OFF. Note: Always remove the batteries if they are not to be used for a long period of time. D. Auxiliary (AUX) Port: Provides connection for current and future Meade accessories. See OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES, page 39. E. 12 Volt Power Port: Provides connection for the 07584 Meade Universal 12 volt AC Adapter. 16. Azimuth Setting Circle: Displays Azimuth (horizontal) coordinates. 17. Tripod Base with Mounting Knob.
REFLECTING TELESCOPE FEATURES E F 19 Fig. 2d (Inset): Compass/Bubble Level. Fig. 2b (Inset): (E) Altitude Setting Circle; (F) Altitude Lock. 1. Focus Knob 2. Eyepiece Holder Thumbscrew 3. Eyepiece Holder 4. Primary Mirror Collimation Adjustment Srews 5. Eyepiece 6. Focus Lock Knob 7. Red Dot Viewfinder 8. Red Dot Viewfinder Alignment Screw 9. Dovetail Receiver 10. Altitude Setting Circle and Lock 11. Optical Tube (OTA) 12. Secondary Mirror Collimation Adjustment Screws 13.
REFLECTING TELESCOPE FEATURES Take the time to become acquainted with your reflecting telescope and all of these controls before attempting observations through the telescope. Refer to Figure 2a. 1. Focus Knob: Moves the telescope’s focus drawtube in a finely-controlled motion to achieve precise image focus. Rotate the focus knob clockwise to focus on distant objects, and counterclockwise to focus on nearby objects. 2. Eyepiece Holder Thumbscrew: Tightens the eyepiece in place.
C. ON Switch: Press to turn the Computer Control Panel and AudioStar ON or OFF. Note: Always remove the batteries if they are not to be used for a long period of time. D. Auxiliary (AUX) Port: Provides connection for current and future Meade accessories. See OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES, page 39. E. 12 Volt Power Port: Provides connection for the 07584 Meade Universal 12 Volt AC Adapter. 16. Azimuth Setting Circle: Displays Azimuth (horizontal) coordinates. 17. Tripod Base with Mounting Knob.
AUDIOSTAR FEATURES Tour the Cosmos with Just the Push of a Button Control your StarNavigator NG Series system with the standard-equipment AudioStar. Nearly all functions of the telescope are accomplished with just a few pushes of AudioStar’s buttons. Some of the major features of AudioStar are: • • • • • • • Automatically move the telescope to any of over 30,000 objects stored in the database or manually enter the astronomical coordinates of any celestial object.
k digits. The Down Arrow key starts with the letter “A” and the Up Arrow key starts with the digit “9.” The Left and Right Arrow keys are used to move the blinking cursor left and right across the LCD display. • Alt/Az Alignment:Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move the telescope vertically up and down. The Left Arrow key rotates the telescope horizontally counterclockwise, while the Right Arrow key rotates it clockwise.
GETTING STARTED DEFINITION: Throughout this manual, you will notice the term “Alt/Az.” Alt/Az (short for altazimuth) just means that your telescope moves up and down and from side to side. Alt/Az is one of many methods used by amateur astronomers to locate celestial objects. Packing List Getting the telescope ready for first observations requires only a few minutes. When first opening the packing box, note carefully the parts listed on your giftbox.
12. Insert eight AA-size batteries into the battery holder, oriented as shown on the diagram on the battery slots of the battery holder. Connect the 9v connector plug to the battery holder. Carefully replace the battery holder back into the battery compartment. Replace the cover. CAUTION: Use care to install batteries as indicated by the battery compartment. Follow battery manufacturer’s precautions. Do not install batteries backwards or mix new and used batteries. Do not mix battery types.
3 7. 4 8. 1 2 Fig. 10: Attach the diagonal prism (1), tighten prism thumbscrews (2), insert the eyepiece (3), tighten eyepiece thumbscrews (4) (Refractor models). 1 2 3 (Fig.9b ) place the finder scope onto the base and use the two screws to tighten the finder scope in place. Turn the knob at the front of the finder scope to the right to turn the red dot viewfinder on (by changing the knob’s position, you can change the intensity of the red dot.
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. Fig. 14: 26mm and 9.7mm eyepieces. NEVER point the telescope directly at or near the Sun at any time! Observing the Sun, even for the smallest fraction of a second, will result in instant and irreversible eye damage, as well as physical damage to the telescope itself. 1.
ON position. Important Note for Reflecting Telescope Owners: When you look through your telescope’s eyepiece, the image might look strange at first. If you have a reflecting telescope, objects will appear upside down and reversed left-for-right. This will not make a difference when observing astronomical objects, and in fact, all Reflecting telescopes present inverted images There is no means of correcting the image. This is normal. 4.
NOTE: Do not look through the telescope’s eyepiece or viewfinder while it is rapidly moving. Children should always have adult supervision while observing. TIP: When a message is scrolling across the display, press and hold the Up scrolling key to increase the scrolling speed or press and hold the Down scrolling key to decrease the scrolling speed.
Pointer to 0° on the Altitude Setting Circle North 5. 6. Fig. 16: Alt/Az Home Position. 7. the city and state or country of your observing location). Press Up to select the zip code option or down to enter the city and state. Note: The location settings (country/state/province and city, or zip code) are only asked for the first time you turn on the control panel. If you wish to change this setting later on, use the Site menu. See SITE, pages 30, for more information. a.
IMPORTANT NOTE: AudioStar requests the Zip Code or Country/ State, City, and Telescope Model information only the first time AudioStar is activated. If you wish to change this information, use the “Site” and “Telescope Model” options in the Setup menu. See pages 28 for more information. IMPORTANT NOTE: While performing the automatic tracking procedure, only use the Arrow keys to move the telescope. Once the telescope has been set in the Alt/Az home position, do not loosen the telescope locks (10F, Fig.
Two-Star Alt/Az Alignment Two-Star Alignment requires some knowledge of the night sky. Two-Star Alignment is identical to Easy: Align (see EASY (TWO-STAR) ALIGN, Pg. 21), except AudioStar displays a database of bright stars and two stars are chosen by the user from this database for alignment. It is recommended that you choose stars with which the user is familiar from this database when first trying out this method or the One-Star Alignment method.
2. 3. Press the Scroll Down key twice. “Select Item: Guided Tour” displays. Press ENTER. “Guided Tour: Tonight’s Best” displays. Press ENTER. NOTE: If you wish to try out other Guided Tours, press the Scroll Down key to scroll through other tour choices. When the tour you wish to select displays, press ENTER. 4. “Tonight’s Best: Searching...” displays. After calculating, “Tonight’s Best: Jupiter” displays. NOTE: Different objects may be displayed on a tour list on any given night. 5. 6.
TIP: When multiple choices are available within a menu option, the option that is currently selected is usually displayed first and highlighted by a right pointing arrow (>). each press of the MODE key moves up a level, until the top level, “Select Item,” is reached. Once in the Select Item level, press MODE to return to the topmost level, “Select Item: Object.
MENUS AND MENU OPTIONS Object Menu Almost all observing with AudioStar is performed using the Object menu category. (NOTE: Exceptions include Guided Tour and Landmark Survey.) See GO TO SATURN, page 22, for an example of observing using the Object menu. Also see TAKE A GUIDED TOUR, page 22. Many AudioStar menu categories contain databases. An AudioStar database is a list of viewable objects, such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae and so forth.
Fig. 22: The Complete AudioStar Menu Structure. Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversible damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through the telescope as it is moving.
database includes: Sunrise and Sunset calculates the time that the Sun rises or sets on the current date. Find rise and set times for other dates by entering a new date into the “Setup: Date” menu. See DATE, page 29. Moonrise and Moonset calculates the time that the Moon rises or sets on the current date. Find rise and set times for other dates by entering a new date into the “Setup: Date” menu. See DATE, page 29.
which AudioStar is connected. Field of View: Scroll through a list of available eyepieces. When an eyepiece is selected, the field of view is calculated. • Magnification: Scroll through a list of available eyepieces. When an eyepiece is selected, the magnification is calculated. • Suggest: AudioStar calculates and suggests the best eyepiece for viewing, based on the telescope and the object being viewed. Brightness Adj: Adjusts the brightness of the display using the Scroll keys. When complete, press ENTER.
align the telescope (see EASY ALIGN, page 21). However, there are numerous other features available within the Setup menu, including: Date changes the date used by AudioStar. This function is useful to check events in the past or future. For example, set the Date menu for a day three months in the future. Then check the “Select Item: Event” menu for the Sunset time on that date. See EVENT MENU, page 25. Time changes the time entered into AudioStar.
centered in the eyepiece. If “Terrestrial” is selected, the tracking motor is turned off. To learn how to track an object automatically, see page 19. Site provides access to several options including: • Select: Displays the currently selected observing site. Use the Scroll keys to cycle through all available sites (see ADD below). Press ENTER when the site you wish to select displays. Use this option when you move to a different geographic location.
Helpful Hints about Getting Started Attend a Star Party A fun way to learn more about astronomy is to join an astronomy club. Check your local newspaper, school, library, internet, or telescope dealer to find out if there’s a club in your area. At club meetings, you will meet other astronomy enthusiasts with whom you will be able to share your discoveries.
ADVANCED AUDIOSTAR FEATURES Before trying out the examples in this section, familiarize yourself with the basic operations of AudioStar described earlier in this manual. The following examples assume that you have a basic knowledge of AudioStar and understand how to scroll to a desired menu or menu option, and how to enter numbers and text. It also assumes that you have initialized AudioStar and have placed the telescope in the “Home” position (when appropriate).
How to Create Your Own Guided Tour When a Guided Tour is selected, AudioStar slews your telescope to a predetermined list of objects and displays information about each object, such as type of object, constellation location, R.A. and Dec coordinates, and so forth. AudioStar contains a few Guided Tours which are programmed at the factory. But it is also possible for an observer to create a custom Guided Tour. A tour is basically an ASCII text file that contains a list of directions and descriptions.
Writing Your Own Guided Tour Using the list of commands listed above, a custom tour can be created. Placing the word AUTO SELECT before any of the command lines activates Automatic Mode and, when selected, AudioStar automatically searches and finds the designated object. The following is a list of command lines, complete with keywords and necessary strings: TITLE Title must be the first keyword in your tour after any comment lines and must be 15 characters or less.
COMET “name” Enter COMET and then the name of the desired comet in quotes. AudioStar displays information about the comet from its database. For example: COMET: “Halley” LUNAR ECLIPSE If LUNAR ECLIPSE is part of the tour, AudioStar checks its database every time the tour is activated to see if a lunar eclipse is visible that evening. If no eclipse is visible, this option is skipped and the tour proceeds on the the next object.
students to observe six objects, four of which AudioStar automatically slews to in a tour. The students would have to manually slew to the last two objects. He would then place AUTO SLEW ON before his first required object and AUTO SLEW OFF after the fourth object. #END To end a tour, type the command #END on a separate line at the very end of the tour.
2. Display the “Landmark: Select” menu option. Press ENTER. 3. Use the Scroll keys to scroll through the list of objects you have previously entered. When the desired object displays, press ENTER to select the object. Use the Scroll keys to scroll through location information about the object, if desired. Press GO TO to slew the telescope to the landmark. 4. Press MODE to exit.
Browse This menu allows you to search the database for objects with certain parameters, much like a search engine. “Edit Parameters” lets you set various parameters for the search, and “Start Search” activates the search. A typical search might be performed as follows: 1. Select “Browse” from the Object menu. Press ENTER. “Browse: Start Search” displays. 2. Press one of the Scroll Keys and “Browse: Edit Parameters” displays. Press ENTER. 3. “Edit Parameters: Largest (mins)” displays.
OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES A wide assortment of professional Meade accessories is available for the StarNavigator NG Series Telescopes. The premium quality of these accessories is well-suited to the quality of the instrument itself. Consult Meade.com for complete details on these and other accessories. • Series 4000 Super Plössl (SP) Eyepieces: Yields high-resolution imaging with all StarNavigator NG telescope models. A useful selection includes the SP 15mm and SP 12.4mm eyepieces.
CARING FOR YOUR TELESCOPE Your StarNavigator NG telescope is a precision optical instrument designed to yield a lifetime of rewarding observations. Given the care and respect due any precision instrument, your telescope will rarely, if ever, require factory servicing. Maintenance guidelines include: a.
4 3 1 2 5 6 Fig. 23. 3 2 2 1 2 3 Fig. 25. Fig. 24. 1 2 2 3 4 5 Fig. 26. 1 Fig. 27. 1 1 2 2 Fig. 28. 4 3 Fig. 29. 3 Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversible damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through the telescope as it is moving.
thread inward one of the adjustment/lock knobs (1, Fig. 24) while unthreading another of these knobs. Only make adjustments to two knobs at a time until the secondary mirror appears as in Fig. 28. 3. Secondary mirror-holder adjustments: If the secondary mirror (1, Fig. 28) is centered in the focuser drawtube (2, Fig. 28), but the primary mirror is only partially visible in the reflection (3, Fig. 28), the three “+” (Phillips head) secondary mirror-tilt screws (2, Fig.
SPECIFICATIONS STARNAVIGATOR NG 90 Optical design.............................................................. Refractor Clear aperture............................................................. 90mm Focal length................................................................. 900mm Focal ratio ................................................................. f/10 Resolving power.......................................................... 1.3 arc secs Max power..............................................
STARNAVIGATOR NG 90MAK Optical design.............................................................. Maksutov-Cassegrain Clear aperture............................................................. 90mm Focal length................................................................. 1250mm Focal ratio ................................................................. f/13.9 Resolving power.......................................................... 1.3 arc secs Max power.............................................
APPENDIX A Celestial Coordinates It is helpful to understand how to locate celestial objects as they move across the sky. +90 Dec. Star De clin 1 17 18 19 16 15 14 13 12 atio A celestial coordinate system was created that maps an imaginary sphere surrounding the Earth upon which all stars appear to be placed. This mapping system is similar to the system of latitude and longitude on Earth surface maps.
APPENDIX B Using AudioStar to Find Objects Not in the Database TIP: Entering R.A. and Dec. Coordinates of an object without using the menus: If you do not wish to navigate through the menus, a more direct way to enter coordinates is to press and hold MODE for two seconds or more. R.A. and Dec. coordinates display. Press GO TO. “Object Position” and a set of coordinates displays. Enter the R.A. and Dec.
APPENDIX C Observing Satellites In this procedure, you will prepare your telescope to observe a satellite pass. 1. Go to the “Object: Satellite” menu option and press ENTER. 2. Use the Scroll keys to scroll through the list of satellites. 3. Select a satellite from the list and press ENTER. 4. “Calculating....” and then “Tracking...” displays. If the satellite is going to make a pass, “Located” displays. 5.
APPENDIX D Training the Drive Train the telescope motors using AudioStar. Perform this procedure if you are experiencing any pointing accuracy problems. Fig. 32 depicts the complete Drive Training procedure. NOTE: Use a terrestrial object, such as a telephone pole or lamp post, to train the drive. Complete this exercise once every 3 to 6 months to maintain the highest level of telescope pointing accuracy. 2 Verify that AUDIOSTAR INITIALIZATION is complete. Press MODE until Select Item is displayed.
APPENDIX E Red Dot - Replacing the Battery Replace the red dot Viewfinder’s battery with a CR2032 lithium battery. The battery is located inside the body of the red dot viewfinder. You can push out the battery tray with a coin or fingernail and then slide it out. Replace the internal clock’s battery with a CR2032 lithium battery. This battery is located in the battery compartment.
BASIC ASTRONOMY In the early 17th century Italian Scientist Galileo, using a telescope smaller than your StarNavigator NG model, turned it skyward instead of looking at the distant trees and mountains. What he saw, and what he realized about what he saw, has forever changed the way mankind thinks about the universe.
Planets Planets change positions in the sky as they orbit around the Sun. To locate the planets on a given day or month, consult a monthly astronomy magazine, such as Sky and Telescope or Astronomy. You can also consult AudioStar for information about planets. Scroll to the “Object: Solar System” menu and scroll through the lists of planets. When a planet you are interested in displays, press ENTER.
MEADE LIMITED WARRANTY Every Meade telescope, spotting scope, and telescope accessory is warranted by Meade Instruments Corporation (“Meade”) to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of ONE YEAR from the date of original purchase in the U.S.A. and Canada. Meade will repair or replace a product, or part thereof, found by Meade to be defective, provided the defective part is returned to Meade, freight-prepaid, with proof of purchase.
