Celestron NEXSTAR 4, Instruction Manual

Page 1: ...I IN NS ST TR RU UC CT TI IO ON N M MA AN NU UA AL L ...

Page 2: ...UTTONS 17 Rate Button 17 SETUP PROCEDURES 18 Tracking Mode 18 Tracking Rate 18 View Time Site 18 Sidereal Time 18 Filter Limits 18 Date Time 19 User Defined Objects 19 Get RA DEC 19 Get Alt Az 19 Goto R A Dec 19 Goto Alt Az 19 UTILITY FEATURES 20 Steup Time Site 20 Anti backlash 20 Slew Limits 20 Direction Buttons 20 Light Control 20 Select Model 20 RS 232 20 Hand Control Command Tree 21 TELESCOPE...

Page 3: ...SERVING THE MOON 30 OBSERVING THE PLANETS 30 OBSERVING THE SUN 31 OBSERVING DEEP SKY OBJECTS 31 SEEING CONDITIONS 31 Transparency 31 Sky Illumination 31 Seeing 32 TELESCOPE MAINTENANCE 33 CARE AND CLEANING OF THE OPTICS 33 OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES 34 APPENDIX A TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS 37 APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OF TERMS 38 APPENDIX C MAPS OF TIME ZONES 41 SKY MAPS 43 ...

Page 4: ...ual before embarking on your journey through the Universe It may take a few observing sessions to become familiar with your NexStar so you should keep this manual handy until you have fully mastered your telescope s operation The NexStar hand control has built in instructions to guide you through all the alignment procedures needed to have the telescope up and running in minutes Use this manual in...

Page 5: ...he 12v outlet at the base of the fork arm Remove the NexStar from its packaging and place the base on a sturdy level surface Remove the accessories from their individual boxes The first time the NexStar is powered on the display will read Select Model Use the Up and Down scroll buttons to select your NexStar model from the list and press ENTER When the display reads NexStar Ready press ENTER to Au...

Page 6: ...le for the date and location entered Press INFO to read information about the object displayed Press the DOWN scroll key to display the next object Press ENTER to slew to go to the displayed object The NexStar will automatically pick an alignment star and slew the telescope close to that star Once there the display will ask you to use the arrow buttons to aim the Star Pointer at the star If the st...

Page 7: ...e 6 Focuser Knob 2 Liquid Crystal Display 7 Straight Through Photographic Adapter 3 Hand Control 8 Flip Mirror Control 4 ON OFF Switch 9 Eyepiece 5 Battery Compartment 10 Star Pointer Finderscope 1 2 3 5 10 6 7 8 9 4 ...

Page 8: ... the telescope Before the batteries can be installed the telescope tube should be positioned horizontal to the ground To do this gently rotate the front of the tube upwards until it is level with the ground Powering the NexStar The NexStar can be powered by eight AA batteries not included an optional 12v AC adapter or an optional car battery adapter The battery compartment is located in the center...

Page 9: ...lescope s rear cell The eyepiece fits into the barrel built in to the rear cell To install the eyepiece 1 Loosen the thumbscrew on the eyepiece barrel so it does not obstruct the inner diameter of the barrel 2 Slide the chrome portion of the eyepiece into the eyepiece barrel 3 Tighten the thumbscrew to hold the eyepiece in place To remove the eyepiece loosen the thumbscrew on the star diagonal and...

Page 10: ...escope 3 Tighten the two screws on the side of the mounting track to secure the Star Pointer to the dovetail bracket Star Pointer Operation The star pointer is powered by a long life 3 volt lithium battery CR2032 located underneath the front portion of the Star Pointer Like all finderscopes the Star Pointer must be properly aligned with the main telescope before it can be used This is a simple pro...

Page 11: ...tly over the alignment star If the LED dot is brighter than the alignment star it may make it difficult to see the star Turn the variable brightness control counterclockwise until the red dot is the same brightness as the alignment star This will make it easier to get an accurate alignment The Star Pointer is now ready to be used ...

Page 12: ...t is backlit for comfortable viewing of telescope information and scrolling text 2 Align Instructs the NexStar to use a selected star or object as an alignment position 3 Direction Keys Allows complete control of the NexStar in any direction Use the direction keys to center objects in the StarPointer finderscope and eyepiece 4 Catalog Keys The NexStar has a key on the hand control to allow direct ...

Page 13: ...d d C Co on nt tr ro ol l O Op pe er ra at ti io on n This section describes the basic hand control procedures needed to operate the NexStar These procedures are grouped into three categories Alignment Setup and Utilities The alignment section deals with the initial telescope alignment as well as finding objects in the sky the setup section discusses changing parameters such as tracking mode and t...

Page 14: ... or a list of countries if International locations was selected and press ENTER Choose the closest city to your location from the displayed list and press ENTER Time Enter the current time for your area You can enter either the local time i e 8 00 or you can enter military time i e 20 00 Select PM or AM If military time was entered the hand control will bypass this step Choose between Standard tim...

Page 15: ...ER 4 NexStar then asks you to center in the eyepiece the alignment star you selected Use the direction buttons to slew the telescope to the alignment star and carefully center the star in the eyepiece 5 Once the alignment star is centered in the field of view of the eyepiece press the ALIGN key 2 to accept this position 6 NexStar will then ask you to select and center a second alignment star and p...

Page 16: ...C Ca at ta al lo og g Selecting an Object Now that the telescope is properly aligned you can choose an object from any of the catalogs in the NexStar s extensive database The hand control has a key designated for each of the catalogs in its database There are two ways to select objects from the database scrolling through the named object lists and entering object numbers Pressing the LIST key on t...

Page 17: ...g keys allows you to scroll through object lists or enter catalog numbers and view the information about the object as described above Tour Mode The NexStar includes a tour feature which automatically allows the user to choose from a list of interesting objects based on the date and time in which you are observing The automatic tour will display only those objects that are within your set filter l...

Page 18: ... moves Tracking Rate In addition to being able to move the telescope with the hand control buttons the NexStar will continually track a celestial object as it moves across the night sky The tracking rate can be changed depending on what type of object is being observed Sidereal This rate compensates for the rotation of the earth by moving the telescope at the same rate as the rotation of the earth...

Page 19: ...e Scroll down to the Save Land Obj Save Land Obj Save Land Obj Save Land Obj command and press ENTER The display will ask you to enter a number between 1 25 to identify the object Press ENTER again to save this object to the database Enter R A Dec You can also store a specific set of coordinates for an object just by entering the R A and declination for that object Scroll to the Enter RA Enter RA ...

Page 20: ...ect above the horizon without warning Direction Buttons The direction a star moves in the eyepiece varies depending on the accessories being used This can create confusion when guiding on a star using an off axis guider versus a straight through guide scope To compensate for this the direction of the drive control keys can be changed To reverse the button logic of the hand control press the MENU b...

Page 21: ...nter Time Choose City Choose State United States Choose City Choose Country International CITY DATABASE Enter Time Enter Date Enter Long Lat CUSTOM SITE PO INT TUBE NO RTH LEVEL AUTO ALIGN CENTER STAR 1 SELECT STAR 1 CENTER STAR 2 SELECT STAR 2 LEVEL TUBE TW O STAR ALIGNM ENT SELECT LOCATION ENTER TIME ENTER DATE PO INT TUBE NO RTH LEVEL QUICK ALIGN ALIGNMENT NAM ED STAR NAM ED O BJECT ASTERISM S ...

Page 22: ...aking them extremely portable The Maksutov Cassegrain system consists of a corrector plate a spherical primary mirror and a secondary mirror spot Once light rays enter the optical system they travel the length of the optical tube three times The optics of the NexStar have enhanced multi layer coatings on the primary and secondary mirrors for increased reflectivity and a multi coated corrector for ...

Page 23: ...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 the NexStar has a focal length of 1300mm by the focal length of the eyepiece 25mm Dividing 1300 by 25 yields a magnification of 52...

Page 24: ...ever look across or over objects that are producing heat waves This includes asphalt parking lots on hot summer days or building rooftops Hazy skies fog and mist can also make it difficult to focus when viewing terrestrially The amount of detail seen under these conditions is greatly reduced Also when photographing under these conditions the processed film may come out a little grainier than norma...

Page 25: ...nation or DEC for short Lines of declination are named for their angular distance above and below the celestial equator The lines are broken down into degrees minutes of arc and seconds of arc Declination readings south of the equator carry a minus sign in front of the coordinate and those north of the celestial equator are either blank i e no designation or preceded by a plus sign The celestial e...

Page 26: ... never rise and never set You will never see the stars complete one circle because the sunlight during the day washes out the starlight However part of this circular motion of stars in this region of the sky can be seen by setting up a camera on a tripod and opening the shutter for a couple hours The processed film will reveal semicircles that revolve around the pole This description of stellar mo...

Page 27: ...ere the North Star is The polar axis is the axis around which the telescope rotates when moved in right ascension This axis points the same direction even when the telescope moves in right ascension and declination A Al li ig gn ni in ng g t th he e N Ne ex xS St ta ar r 4 4 o on n a a W We ed dg ge e In order to do a star alignment while using the NexStar on an equatorial wedge it will be necessa...

Page 28: ...g g a a C Ca am me er ra a t to o t th he e N Ne ex xS St ta ar r The NexStar 4 has a special adaptor port located on the back of the rear cell to connect a 35mm camera body Attaching a camera to the NexStar requires the use of the optional T adapter 93635 A and a T ring specific to the brand of camera being used To attach the photographic accessories 1 Remove the screw on cover from the photo ada...

Page 29: ...rn hemisphere are not as fortunate as those in the northern hemisphere The stars around the south celestial pole are not nearly as bright as those around the north The closest star that is relatively bright is Sigma Octantis This star is just within naked eye limit magnitude 5 5 and lies about 59 arc minutes from the pole The north celestial pole is the point in the northern hemisphere around whic...

Page 30: ...ntrast and bring out detail on the lunar surface use filters A yellow filter works well at improving contrast while a neutral density or polarizing filter will reduce overall surface brightness and glare O Ob bs se er rv vi in ng g t th he e P Pl la an ne et ts s Other fascinating targets include the five naked eye planets You can see Venus go through its lunar like phases Mars can reveal a host o...

Page 31: ...e And because of their low surface brightness they should be observed from a dark sky location Light pollution around large urban areas washes out most nebulae making them difficult if not impossible to observe Light Pollution Reduction filters help reduce the background sky brightness thus increasing contrast S Se ee ei in ng g C Co on nd di it ti io on ns s Viewing conditions affect what you can...

Page 32: ...sturbances vary from time to time and place to place The size of the air parcels compared to your aperture determines the seeing quality Under good seeing conditions fine detail is visible on the brighter planets like Jupiter and Mars and stars are pinpoint images Under poor seeing conditions images are blurred and stars appear as blobs The conditions described here apply to both visual and photog...

Page 33: ...ol mixed with distilled water The solution should be 60 isopropyl alcohol and 40 distilled water Or liquid dish soap diluted with water a couple of drops per one quart of water can be used Occasionally you may experience dew build up on the corrector plate of your telescope during an observing session If you want to continue observing the dew must be removed either with a hair dryer on low setting...

Page 34: ...t features a 10 000 object database 75 color images horizontal projection custom sky chart printing zoom capability and more A fun useful and educational product PC format Eyepieces Like telescopes eyepieces come in a variety of designs Each design has its own advantages and disadvantages For the 1 1 4 barrel diameter there are four different eyepiece designs available Super Modified Achromatic SM...

Page 35: ...e The clear aperture is 21mm and the transmission is about 18 Planisphere 93720 A simple and inexpensive tool for all levels of observers from naked eye viewers to users of highly sophisticated telescopes The Celestron Planisphere makes it easy to locate stars for observing and is a great planet finder as well A map of the night sky oriented by month and day rotates within a depiction of the 24 ho...

Page 36: ...aphy It has a metal center brace and accessory tray for added stability Vibration Suppression Pads 93503 These pads rest between the ground and tripod feet of your telescope They reduce the amplitude and vibration time of your telescope when shaken by the wind or an accidental bump This accessory is a must for long exposure prime focus photography A full description of all Celestron accessories ca...

Page 37: ...hes Weight of Telescope 11 Lbs E E El lle e ec c ct t tr r ro o on n ni iic c c S S Sp p pe e ec c ci iif f fi iic c ca a at t ti iio o on n ns s s Input Voltage Maximum Minimum 12 V DC Nominal 18 V DC Max 8 V DC Min Batteries Required 8 AA Alkaline Power Supply Requirements 12 VDC 750 mA Tip positive M M Me e ec c ch h ha a an n ni iic c ca a al ll S S Sp p pe e ec c ci iif f fi iic c ca a at t t...

Page 38: ...and excites atoms and molecules in a planet s upper atmosphere Azimuth The angular distance of an object eastwards along the horizon measured from due north between the astronomical meridian the vertical line passing through the center of the sky and the north and south points on the horizon and the vertical line containing the celestial body whose position is to be measured B Binary Stars Binary ...

Page 39: ...ers to any celestial object that has a cloudy appearance North Celestial Pole The point in the Northern hemisphere around which all the stars appear to rotate This is caused by the fact that the Earth is rotating on an axis that passes through the North and South celestial poles The star Polaris lies less than a degree from this point and is therefore referred to as the Pole Star Nova Although Lat...

Page 40: ...over time due to either inherent properties of the star or something eclipsing or obscuring the brightness of the star W Waning Moon The period of the moon s cycle between full and new when its illuminated portion is decreasing Waxing Moon The period of the moon s cycle between new and full when its illuminated portion is increasing Z Zenith The point on the Celestial Sphere directly above the obs...

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Page 49: ...rized repair Further product malfunction or deterioration due to normal wear is not covered by this warranty CI DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WHETHER OF MERCHANTABILITY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH HEREIN THE SOLE OBLIGATION OF CI UNDER THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL BE TO REPAIR OR REPLACE THE COVERED PRODUCT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS SET FORTH HEREI...

Page 50: ...ts reserved Products or instructions may change without notice or obligation This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rule Operation is subject to the following two conditions 1 This device may not cause harmful interference and 2 This device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operations 11041 I Printed in China 10 00 11 01 ...