MEADE INFINITY 76 USER’S GUIDE
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
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.
INTRODUCTION
Your telescope is an excellent beginner’s instrument and is designed to ob-
serve objects in the night sky and also on land. It can be your personal win-
dow on the universe or allow you to intimately study the behavior of nesting
birds on a distant hillside. The telescope is shipped with the following parts:
ASSEMBLY
The tripod is the basic support for your telescope and comes pre-assem-
bled from the factory; except for the accessory tray. In order to use the
scope a small amount of assembly is required. Follow the below steps to
assemble the telescope.
Note: Number in brackets, e.g., (3), refer to the item numbers in Fig. A.
1. To setup the tripod, spread the legs out evenly and place on solid
ground. Loosen the leg lock knobs and extend the inner legs to de-
sired height. Do this for each leg until the top of the tripod is approxi-
mately level. Re-lock the leg lock knob.
2. Attach the accessory tray to the tripod by threading it into the center
nut between the tripod legs.
ATTACHING THE OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLY (OTA)
1. Remove the two lock knobs (2) from the optical tube mount.
2. Slide the Slow-motion control rod (8) into the slow-motion control lock
knob hole (9).
3. Place the optical tube (1) between the forks of the mount, oriented as
shown.
4. Thread a lock knobs (2) through each of the holes in the forks of the
mount and tighten to a firm feel.
ATTACHING THE RED-DOT FINDER
A viewfinder (4) has a wider field of view, which makes it easier to locate
objects. The viewfinder has a red dot to make it easier to line up more pre
-
cisely with a target.
1. Note the two thumbscrews threaded onto two bolts (see Fig. C) on the
optical tube. Remove the thumbscrews from the tube.
2.
Line up the two holes on the viewfinder bracket over the two bolts.
Slide the bracket over the bolts. See Fig. C.
3.
Replace the thumbscrews onto the bolts and tighten to a firm feel.
REMOVING THE DUST COVERS
1. Remove dust covers(6) at the front of the scope by pulling the cover
away from the telescope.
2. Remove the dustcover from the focuser by pulling it out of the focuser
drawtube.
INSERTING THE EYEPIECE
1. Slide the 20mm eyepiece (4) into focuser drawtube.
2. Tighten thumbscrew to hold the eyepiece in place.
ALIGNING THE RED-DOT FINDER
Perform the first part of this procedure during the daytime and the last step
at night.
1.
Point the telescope at an easy- to-find land object such as the top of a
telephone pole or a distant mountain or tower. Look through the eye-
piece and turn the focuser knob (3) until the image is sharply focused.
Center the object precisely in the eyepiece’s field of view.
2.
Turn on the red-dot viewfinder by rotating the large knob under the
viewfinder lens clockwise (see Fig. C). Turn the knob to adjust the
intensity of the red dot as desired.
3.
Look through the viewfinder. Turn one or both of the viewfinder’s align
-
ment screws (see Fig. C) until the red-dot is precisely over the same
object as you centered in the eyepiece.
4. Check this alignment at night on a celestial object, such as the Moon
or a bright star, and use the viewfinder’s alignment screws to make
any necessary refinements.
5.
When finished, turn off the viewfinder by turning the large knob under
the viewfinder lens counter- clockwise until it clicks.
MOVING THE TELESCOPE
Your telescope is alt-azimuth mounted. Alt-azimuth is just a complicated
way of saying that your telescope moves up and down and from side to
side. Other telescopes may be mounted in different ways.
1. Slightly loosen both of the star-shaped vertical control knobs (2) and
slow-motion rod lock knob (9). Loosening these knobs allow you to
move the telescope up and down.
2. Slightly loosen the horizontal lock knob (10). Loosening this lock al-
lows the telescope to be moved from side to side.
3. Once an object is found, re-tighten the control knobs. You can then
turn the slow motion control knurled knob(8) to make smooth and pre-
cise movements as you can follow (or “track”) an object vertically as it
moves in the eyepiece.
4. To use the slow motion control feature (8) aim the telescope at an
object and tighten the control knobs (2,9). Then lock the altitude lock
knob (2) and rotate the slow motion control (8) to follow the target in
the vertical direction.
A NOTE ABOUT THE TELESCOPE
The Meade 76mm reflecting telescope uses mirrors to achieve focus and
is designed primarily for night-sky viewing where image orientation is not
important. However when looking at daytime objects often image orienta-
tion is important. For daytime terrestrial use, Meade has included a 20mm
erect-image eyepiece for correcting the image orientation. Please note the
included 9mm eyepiece does not have this feature and objects will not be
correctly orientated. This is normal. When locating objects always start with
the 20mm erect-image eyepiece as it has a larger viewing field.
1.
Optical Tube Assem-
bly (OTA)
2.
Vertical Motion Lock
Knob
3.
Focusing Knob
4.
Red-dot Viewfinder
5.
Eyepiece
6.
Front Dust Cap
7.
Secondary Mirror
Alignment Screws
8.
Slow-Motion Control
Rod
9.
Slow-Motion Control
Lock Knob
10. Horizontal motion
lock knob
11. Tripod leg locks
12. Accessory tray
13. Tripod legs
14. Primary Mirror Align-
ment Screws
•
76mm Optical tube
•
Red Dot finder
•
Yoke-style mount
•
Software disk
•
Aluminum tripod with ac-
cessory tray
•
Two 1.25” Eyepieces:
20mm Erect-Image, H9mm
•
Cell phone holder
•
Carry bag
•
Instruction sheet
Figure A
(not shown)
(not shown)
Lock
knob
Slide
rod
through
hole
Place
tube
between
forks
Lock
knob
Lock
knob
Figure B
Figure D
Figure C
Adjustment
knobs
Thumbscrew
Mounting
knobs
On/Off
