User manual MEADE 90AZ-ADR REFRACTING TELESCOPE

[. . . ] Instruction Manual Meade 90AZ-ADRB 90mm (3. 5") Altazimuth Refracting Telescope (800) 626-3233 www. meade. com © 2007 WARNING: NEVER USE A MEADE 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 OR ITS VIEWFINDER AT OR NEAR THE SUN. [. . . ] Saturn is not the only planet that has rings, but it is the only set of rings that can be seen with a small telescope. Jupiter's rings cannot be seen from Earth at all--the Voyager spacecraft discovered the ring after it passed Jupiter and looked back at it. It turns out, only with the sunlight shining through them, can the rings be seen. Uranus and Neptune also have faint rings. Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversable damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through the telescope as it is moving. ­7­ Optional color filters help bring out detail and contrast of the planets. Meade offers a line of inexpensive color filters. Beyond the Solar System: Once you have observed our own system of planets, it's time to really travel far from home and look at stars and other objects. You can observe thousands of stars with your telescope. At first, you may think stars are just pinpoints of light and aren't very interesting. There is much information that is revealed in stars. The first thing you will notice is that not all stars are the same colors. See if you can find blue, orange, yellow, white and red stars. The color of stars sometimes can tell you about the age of a star and the temperature that they burn at. Other stars to look for are multiple stars. Very often, you can find double (or binary) stars, stars that are very close together. Almost all the stars you can see in the sky are part of our galaxy. A galaxy is a large grouping of stars, containing millions or even billions of stars. Some galaxies form a spiral (like our galaxy, the Milky Way) and other galaxies look more like a large football and are called elliptical galaxies. There are many galaxies that are irregularly shaped and are thought to have been pulled apart because they passed too close to--or even through--a larger galaxy. You may be able to see the Andromeda galaxy and several others in your telescope. They will appear as small, fuzzy clouds. [. . . ] It's worth repeating: Keep in mind that a bright, clear, but smaller image is more interesting than a larger, dimmer, fuzzy one. Using too high a power eyepiece is one of the most common mistakes made by new astronomers. So don't think that higher magnification is necessarily better--quite often the best view is with lower magnification value! Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversable damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun. [. . . ]