User manual MEADE 80EQ-AR

[. . . ] Meade80EQ-AR 4/28/06 9:55 AM Page 1 www. meade. com MEADE INSTRUCTION MANUAL 80mm | 3. 1" Equatorial Refracting Telescope 80EQ-AR Meade80EQ-AR · Optical tube · Aluminum tripod with an accessory tray · Two 1. 25" eyepieces: MA25mm (28X), MH9mm (78X) · Red dot viewfinder with bracket · Telescope mount · Hardware used in the assembly: 4/28/06 9:55 AM Page 3 The tube has a focal length of 900mm, and its reflective mirror has a diameter of 114mm. The lens diameter is one of the most important pieces of information about the telescope. The size of the primary mirror determines how much detail you will be able to see in your telescope. The focal length information will help later on to calculate magnification. INTRODUCTION Your telescope is an excellent beginner's instrument, and is designed to observe objects in the sky. [. . . ] These are nights that are excellent for lunar observation. called a solar system. Our Sun, by the way, is a single, yellow dwarf star. It is average as far as stars go and is a middle aged star. Beyond the planets are clouds of comets, icy planetoids and other debris left over from the birth of our sun. Recently astronomers have found large objects in this area and they may increase the number of planets in our solar system. Venus is seen before dawn or after sunset, because it is close to the Sun. You can The four planets closest to the Sun are rocky and are called the inner planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars comprise the inner planets. Venus and Mars can be easily seen in your telescope. Meade80EQ-AR observe Venus going through crescent phases. But you cannot see any surface detail on Venus because it has a very thick atmosphere of gas. 4/28/06 9:55 AM When Mars is close to the Earth, you can see some details on Mars, and sometimes even Mars' polar caps. But quite often, Mars is further away and just appears as a red dot with some dark lines crisscrossing it. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto comprise the outer planets. These planets, except for Pluto, are made mostly of gases and are sometimes called gas giants. If they had grown much bigger, they may have become stars. Pluto is made mostly of ice. Page 13 Fig. 8 Any small telescope can see the four Galilean moons of Jupiter (Fig. 8), plus a few others, but how many moons does Jupiter actually have?Nor are we sure how many Saturn has either. At last count, Jupiter had over 60 moons, and held a small lead over Saturn. Most of these moons are very small and can only be seen with very large telescopes. Jupiter is quite interesting to observe. You can see bands across the face of Jupiter. The more time you spend observing these bands, the more details you will be able to see. One of the most fascinating sights of Jupiter are its moons. [. . . ] Change tissues often. CAUTION: Do not use scented or lotioned tissues or damage could result to the optics. DO NOT use a commercial photographic lens cleaner. aluminized mirrors, in particular, should be cleaned only when absolutely necessary. In all cases avoid touching any mirror surface. A little dust on the surface of a mirror or lens causes negligible loss of performance and should not be considered reason to clean the surface. [. . . ]