24
motion; this ensures optimal performance. The motion should
be ideal – not too stiff, not too loose. You will want to be able
to “track” the motion of celestial objects while viewing them by
making small movements of the telescope without experienc-
ing jerking (too much tension) or overshooting of the desired
position (too little tension).
Focusing the Telescope
The XX14i comes standard with a 2" dual-speed Crayford
focuser
(Figure 33).
The large 2" format focuser allows use
of 2" or 1.25" eyepieces and the Crayford design prevents
imaging shifting while focusing. The focuser has coarse focus
knobs and a fine focus knob (11:1) for precise focusing.
With the 35mm Deep View eyepiece in the focuser and
secured with the thumb screws, move the telescope so the
front end is pointing in the general direction of an object at
least 1/4-mile away. Now, with your fingers, slowly rotate one
of the coarse focus knobs until the object comes into sharp
focus. Go a little bit beyond sharp focus until the image just
starts to blur again, then reverse the rotation of the knob, just
to make sure you’re close to the focus point.
Now, use the fine focus knob to achieve precise focus. Eleven
turns of the fine focus knob is equivalent to one turn of the
coarse focus knobs, so much finer adjustment is possible
than with just the coarse focus knobs alone. You’ll find this is
a great convenience, especially when attempting to focus at
high magnifications.
If you have trouble focusing, rotate the coarse focusing knob
so the drawtube is inward as far as it will go. Now look through
the eyepiece while slowly rotating the focusing knob in the
opposite direction. You should soon see the point at which
focus is reached.
The thumb screw on the bottom of the body of the focuser
(Figure 33)
will lock the focuser drawtube in place once the
telescope is properly focused. Before focusing, remember to
first loosen this thumb screw.
If you find the drawtube tension when focusing is either too
tight (i.e., focus knob is difficult to turn) or too loose (i.e.,
drawtube moves by itself under the weight of the eyepiece),
you can adjust it by tightening or loosening the drawtube ten-
sioning set screw on the focuser, which is located just below
the focus lock thumb screw
(Figure 33).
Adjust this set screw
with the included 2.5mm hex key. Do not loosen the set screw
too much as there must be some tension to keep the draw-
tube secure within the focuser. The other set screw below the
drawtube tensioning set screw does not affect drawtube ten-
sion and should not be adjusted.
Viewing with Eyeglasses
If you wear eyeglasses, you may be able to keep them on while
you observe, if your eyepieces have enough eye relief to allow
you to see the whole field of view. You can try this by looking
through the eyepiece first with your glasses on and then with
them off, and see if the glasses restrict the view to only a
portion of the full field. If they do, you can easily observe with
your glasses off by just refocusing the telescope as needed.
If you suffer from severe astigmatism, however, you may find
images noticeably sharper with your glasses on.
aligning the Finder Scope
Your SkyQuest XX14i comes with a high-quality, large-aper-
ture 9x50 achromatic crosshair finder scope as standard
equipment
(Figure 43).
This greatly aids in finding alignment
stars and objects to view in the night sky. The finder scope
must be accurately aligned with the telescope for proper use.
The finder scope uses a spring-loaded bracket which makes
alignment very easy. As you turn either of the thumb screws,
the spring in the bracket’s tensioner moves in-and-out to keep
the finder scope secure in its bracket.
To align the finder scope, first aim the main telescope in the
general direction of an object at least 1/4-mile away — the top
of a telephone pole, a chimney, etc. Position that object in the
center of the telescope’s eyepiece.
Note: The image in the finder scope and the telescope will ap-
pear rotated 180°. This is normal for finder scopes and reflec-
tor telescopes
(Figure 44).
Finder scope
Finder scope bracket
Nylon alignment
thumbscrews (x2)
Focus lock ring
Figure 43.
The 9x50 finder scope and dovetail bracket.
Tensioner
Naked-eye view
View through finder scope and telescope
Figure 44.
The view through a straight finder scope (and a
reflector telescope) is rotated 180°.
