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Celestron C5-S User's Manual

1. 24 A 23 SCOPE Setup Peatutes r r ar coo 25 A D m 25 AN EDak iet c 25 J iller II NR I TET RES RA 25 Ditectiom DUNAS cu qao m ee 26 A 26 PUTO SM cR Dr A 26 7207 19919 2 UM DA Sun A 26 Ci VV eS PARS E um ERE ED NT S 27 bilir A a SE Le 27 C lilii u Ous A Bussa Mes 27 SS u 0 27 Polar 21 A T 28 Sellina aos eee 28 28 28 A A 28 I uyu o 28 A 28 ASTRONOMY BASICS 30 The Celestial Coordinate n 30 me A 31 PINGING Noh estao a teclat 33 Declination Method of Polar Ali time tib colina patio 34 CELESTIAL OBSERVING u 35 OS ET VIS tbe MOOR tete o ep on bep 35 Lunar observing IIS eee rendent uqa ak um ab man tend uen e i 35 Observe thie Planets A 35 Sd A
2. 35 Solar ODS ery ME HINS P a 36 Observa Desp KOBE dedos akuspa asa 36 Sete 36 Tran DAT PT acs 36 Sky TIERE ELO TI ee nee ayu a a a a a 36 vie Un e Mese dac SHOE 36 ASIROPHOTLOCGRATPHY A A tai 38 Short Exposure Prime Focus Photography ao 38 Eyepiece Projecto ha mua t 39 Lone Exposure Prime Foc s y a ku a a um mt eit ebat nu ep E REIN 40 Tertestrial PHotOPTADDS 42 A A 42 42 ECD Imas CR 42 I ee 43 TELESCOPE MAINTENANCE cia E 44 Care and C leanna or the Optics qaa pisi 44 COLIT HO TL ceret b atitem det eiat tu best tke deri UL e us aaa 44 OPTIONAL ACCESSORDES Su uu xn unn ni AI Id NI MI MdL 46 ATTENDIXA TECHNICAESPECIE CA TON Sa 49 APPENDIX B GLOSSARY OP TER MSc doit 50 APPENDIX C LONGITUDES AND LATITUDES sonic tati ee 53 APPENDEXD S
3. Telescope ace s una unn e I5 HAND CONTROL Vass cededcavecedssceatestociddeavecdcssstecduses eceedastecdddesteceevs 16 Hand Control Operation AAA x Ba 17 5 18 Sarp ProCce dUfe osse o A maU LM 18 ur aa TR T M MM as 19 Auto uu s k e 19 ihe e dE TIT TER 20 aa 20 RN M 20 Object Catalog aoi Rt RR EE MEE MEM EE 21 Selecon an as 21 eroticos X O 21 Andas lancia les 21 TOUR MOE 22 Constellation TOU 22 PP OO uka 22 ES UO x saci cane T 22 E D T 23 TAC II VOC G KADIN E S RM CN 23 EAC R isq 23 PA E 23 ESA A 23 bsec beue Eu I Mae MI O 24 COLON 1 24 Sr il
4. J0 J4 3 2 Jl 9 Saturn 16 E PS Table 7 2 Recommended exposure time for photographing planets The exposure times listed here should be used as a starting point Always make exposures that are longer and shorter than the recommended time Also take a few photos at each shutter speed This will ensure that you get a good photo It is not uncommon to go through an entire roll of 36 exposures and have only one good shot NOTE Don t expect to record more detail than you can see visually in the eyepiece at the time you are photographing Once you have mastered the technique experiment with different films different focal length eyepieces and even different filters Long Exposure Prime Focus Photography This 1s the last form of celestial photography to be attempted after others have been mastered It is intended primarily for deep sky objects that 1s objects outside our solar system which includes star clusters nebulae and galaxies While it may seem that high magnification is required for these objects just the opposite is true Most of these objects cover large angular areas and fit nicely into the prime focus field of your telescope The brightness of these objects however requires long exposure times and as a result are rather difficult 40 There are several techniques for this type of photography and the one chosen will determine the standard accessories needed The best method for long expo
5. CELESTRON INSTRUCTION MANUAL C5 S e C8 S 9 C9 25 S borne A se tat cee 4 POSS Yur e 5 RIN 7 Hie Egu orna 8 the Center e nd upa nD Le a au 8 Installino the Co nteryverslit Dar 8 Installing the Counter wel bani 9 Attaching the Hand Control Holders a casa 9 Atlachina the Slow Motion K obsSuuuu abyq 9 Attaching the Optical Tube to 10 Visual BaCk a a Ua e 10 Installine the Star uy bene ied 11 Iristallane INe E saa 11 AMA the FING STS COP sek cde a 11 REMOVAL Lens 12 Movine the Telescope Mantal osse Getestet teneor E a u asas a qaa is 12 Balancins The AE Pee LUE 13 balancine Tbe Mount In DEC unte Qua m la leales 13 A 14 Adjustino the Mount dais 14 Adj suns the Mount AN E RI icm s RM UR 14 Attaching the Declination Cables For GT Models Only 15
6. 92 92 94 94 92 94 95 90 94 93 93 95 90 91 92 93 108 111 105 112 112 112 113 106 104 111 109 109 112 106 114 109 110 111 105 114 112 104 111 2 4 31 8 22 2 22 8 55 8 7 8 52 8 10 8 49 2 25 2 4 2 31 2 51 22 8 31 2 55 2 49 2 28 2 4 2 19 2 3 3 4 2 10 8 49 8 21 34 8 27 34 8 58 8 4 8 4 2 19 8 55 2 10 2 28 2 34 2 45 15 32 4 46 2 13 2 34 8 7 8 10 2 43 2 33 21 21 6 28 2 33 43 2 22 8 31 8 22 2 46 2 25 2 33 31 8 40 2 22 2 33 37 2 4 8 22 2 49 8 46 2 55 8 16 2 27 25 8 10 8 52 2 4 8 19 2 10 8 0 6 LATITUDE degrees 44 42 43 45 47 46 46 46 47 43 46 33 33 33 33 30 31 32 30 31 31 32 32 31 34 34 38 37 37 38 37 39 40 37 35 36 38 40 37 40 38 38 37 38 27 28 8 30 24 28 2 19 2 25 2 40 2 10 8 33 19 8 37 2 23 4 16 2 49 2 13 8 45 36 10 2 19 2 19 8 39 6 46 2 51 15 13 8 16 8 45 7 8 13 2 43 8 48 46 8 40 2 57 36 15 40 2 13 2 7 8 28 8 25 8 33 36 19 8 18 42 30 25 8 55 2 34 2 43 2 39 LONGITUDE degrees NEBRASKA Ainsworth 99 Alliance 102 Beatrice 96 Broken Bow 99 Burwell 99 Chadron 103 Columbus 97 Cozad 100 Falls City 95 Grand Island 98 Hastings 98 Imperial 101 Kearney 99 Lincoln Muni 96 Mccook 100 Mullen 101 Norfolk 97 North Omaha 96 North Platte 100 O neill 98 Offutt AFB 95 Omaha 95 Ord Sharp 98 Scotts
7. which is called azimuth This section simply covers the correct movement of the telescope during the polar alignment process The actual process of polar alignment that is making the telescope s axis of rotation parallel to the Earth s is described later in this manual in the section on Polar Alignment Adjusting the Mount in Altitude To increase the latitude of the polar axis tighten the rear latitude adjustment screw and loosen the front screw if necessary To decrease the latitude of the polar axis tighten the front under the counterweight bar latitude adjustment screw and loosen the rear screw if necessary The latitude adjustment on the CG 5 mount has a range from approximately 30 going up to 60 It is best to always make final adjustments in altitude by moving the mount against gravity 1 e using the rear latitude adjustment screw to raise the mount To do this you should loosen both latitude adjustment screws and manually push the front of the mount down as far as it will go Then tighten the rear adjustment screw to raise the mount to the desired latitude For Advanced GT users it may be helpful to remove the front latitude adjustment screw completely This will allow the mount to reach lower latitudes without the screw coming into contact with R A motor assembly To remove the latitude screw first use the rear screw to raise the mount head all the way up Then remove the front latitude screw completely Now you sh
8. 29 28 32 30 49 2 16 8 28 2 19 8 28 2 34 8 22 2 46 8 40 2 34 2 40 2 43 2 15 40 8 10 8 39 15 6 10 2 16 2 4 2 13 2 18 7 8 15 4 2 28 2 25 2 43 8 58 2 52 8 10 2 49 8 22 2 49 2 31 8 16 2 13 8 46 2 16 2 52 8 10 2 34 2 40 2 31 8 28 2 21 37 2 55 2 43 8 Wurtsmith Ypsilanti MINNESOTA Albert Lea Alexandria Bemidji Muni Brainerd Crw Detroit Laks Duluth Ely Fairmont Fergus Falls Grand Rapids Hibbing Intl Falls Litchfield Mankato Marshall Arpt Minneapolis Park Rapids Pequot Lake Rochester Saint Paul St Cloud Thief River Tofte Warroad Worthington MISSISSIPPI Columbus AFB Golden Trian Greenville Greenwood Gulfport Hattiesburg Jackson Keesler AFB Laurel Mccomb Meridian NAS Meridian Key Natchez Oxford Tupelo MISSOURI Columbia Cape Girardeau Ft Leonard Jefferson City Joplin Kansas City Kirksville Monett Muskogee Poplar Bluff Richards Geb Spickard Springfield St Joseph St Louis Vichy Rolla West Plains Whiteman AFB MONTANA Billings Bozeman Broadus Butte Cut Bank Dillon Drummond Glasgow Glendive Great Falls Harlowton Havre Helena Jordan Kalispell Lewiston Livingston Malmstrom Miles City Missoula Monida Sidney W Yellowston LONGITUDE degrees 83 83 93 95 94 94 95 92 91 94 96 93 92 93 94 93 95 93 95 94 92 93 94 96 90 95 95 88 88 90 90 89 89 90 88 89 90 88 88 91 89 88 92 89
9. 36 34 36 35 34 34 35 35 34 36 36 35 36 36 25 2 19 8 16 8 25 8 4 8 52 8 28 2 21 22 8 43 8 51 19 8 12 10 2 43 8 30 28 8 54 10 8 51 55 2 LONGITUDE degrees min Myrtle Beach 78 55 8 Shaw AFB 80 28 2 Spartanburg 81 57 6 SOUTH DAKOTA Aberdeen 98 25 8 Brookings 96 4 8 Chamberlain 99 19 2 Custer 103 3 6 Ellsworth 103 0 6 Huron 98 13 2 Lemmon 102 10 2 Mitchell 98 1 8 Mobridge 100 25 8 Philip 101 3 6 Pierre 100 16 8 Rapid City 103 4 2 Redig 103 19 2 Sioux Falls 96 43 8 Watertown 97 9 Yankton 97 22 8 TENNESSEE Bristol 82 2 4 Chattanooga 85 1 2 Clarksville 87 25 2 Crossville 85 4 8 Dyersburg 89 24 Jackson 88 55 2 Knoxville 83 58 8 Memphis Intl 90 0 Monteagle 85 30 6 Nashville 86 40 8 Smyrna 86 3 TEXAS Abilene 99 40 8 Alice 98 1 8 Amarillo 101 4 2 Austin 97 4 2 Bergstrom Af 97 40 8 Big Sky 101 28 8 Big Spring 101 27 Brownsville 97 25 8 Brownwood 98 57 6 Carswell AFB 97 25 8 Chase NAS 97 40 2 Childress 100 16 8 College Stn 96 22 2 Corpus Chrst 97 3 Cotulla 99 13 2 Dalhart 102 33 Dallas FW 97 1 8 Del Rio 100 55 2 Dyess AFB 99 51 El Paso 106 2 4 Ellington Af 95 10 2 Fort Worth 97 21 Ft Hood Aaf 97 43 2 Galveston 94 52 2 Gray AFB 97 49 8 Greenville 96 4 2 Guadalupe 104 4 8 Harlingen 97 40 2 Hondo 99 10 2 Houston 95 21 Junction 99 46 2 Kelly AFB 98 34 8 Kerrville 99 4 8 Killeen 97 40 8 Kingsville 97 49 2 Laredo Intl 99 28 2 Laughlin AFB 100 46 8 Longview 94 43 2 Lubbock
10. 8 32x1 2 To install the finderscope 1 Attach the bracket to the optical tube To do this place the curved portion of the bracket with the slot over the two holes in the rear cell The bracket should be oriented so that the rings that hold the finder are over the telescope tube not the rear cell see Fig 2 11 Start threading the screws in by hand and tighten fully with an Allen wrench Finderscope Nylon Adjustment Screw 2 Partially thread in the three nylon tipped thumbscrews that hold the finder in place inside the bracket Tighten the screws until the nylon f CM Finder Bracket heads are flush with the inner diameter of the Be gt bracket ring Do NOT thread them in completely r J Rear Cell or they will interfere with the placement of the finder Having the screws in place when the finder is installed Figure 2 11 will be easier than trying to insert the screws after the finder has been installed 3 Slide the rubber O ring over the back of the finder it will NOT fit over the objective end of the finder It may need to be stretched a little Once on the main body of the finder slide it up about one inch from the end of the finder 4 Rotate the finder until one cross hair is parallel to the R A axis and the other is parallel to the DEC axis 5 Slide the eyepiece end of the finder into the front of the bracket 6 Slightly tighten the three nylon tipped thumbscrews on the front ring of the bracket
11. Counterweight s CONTROLPANEL C Autoguider Port A HandControPort D 12vOutput Jack B DECMotorPort OmOffSwitch 0 0 Q CELESTRON Assembly This section covers the assembly instructions for your Celestron Advanced Series Telescope AST Your AST telescope should be set up indoor the first time so that it is easy to identify the various parts and familiarize yourself with the correct assembly procedure before attempting it outdoor 11071 11072 11025 44026 11045 11046 S css 09 55 127mm 5 Schmidt Cassegrain 235mm 9 25 Schmidt Cassegrain CG 5 Equatorial 5 Equatorial CG 5 Equatorial Software TheSkyl TeeSkyl TheSkyl4s The Celestron Advanced Series telescopes are shipped in two boxes three boxes for GT models In separate boxes are the following e Optical Tube Assembly and Standard Accessories e Equatorial Mount Tripod Hand Control Counterweight s and Counterweight Bar equatorial mount with motors comes in separate box for GT models Remove all the pieces from their respective boxes and place on a flat clear work area A large floor space is ideal When setting up your Celestron telescope you must start with the tripod and work up from there These instructions are laid out in the order each task must be performed Setting up the Tripod The CG 5 tripod comes with an all metal center
12. In each hemisphere there is a point in the sky around which all the other stars appear to rotate These points are called the celestial poles and are named for the hemisphere in which they reside For example in the northern hemisphere all stars move around the north celestial pole When the telescope s polar axis is pointed at the celestial pole it is parallel to the Earth s rotational axis Many methods of polar alignment require that you know how to find the celestial pole by identifying stars in the area For those in the northern hemisphere finding the celestial pole is not too difficult Fortunately we have a naked eye star less than a degree away This star Polaris 1s the end star in the handle of the Little Dipper Since the Little Dipper technically called Ursa Minor is not one of the brightest constellations in the sky it may be difficult to Polaris locate from urban areas If this is the case use the two end stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper North Star the pointer stars Draw an imaginary line through them toward the Little Dipper They point AER to Polaris see Figure 5 5 The position of the Big Dipper changes during the year and throughout the course of the night see Figure 5 4 When the Big Dipper is low in the sky 1 e near the horizon it may be difficult to locate During these times look for Cassiopeia see Figure 5 5 Observers in the southern hemisphere are not as fortunate as those in the northern hemispher
13. The Advanced Series telescopes include 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 limits see Filter Limits in the Setup Procedures section of the manual To activate the Tour mode press the TOUR key 6 on the hand control The hand control will display the best objects to observe that are currently in the sky e see information and data about the displayed object press the INFO key e slew to the object displayed press ENTER e see the next tour object press the Up key Constellation Tour In addition to the Tour Mode your telescope has a Constellation Tour that allows the user to take a tour of all the best objects in each of the 88 constellations Selecting Constellation from the LIST menu will display all the constellation names that are above the user defined horizon filter limits Once a constellation is selected you can choose from any of the database object catalogs to produce a list of all the available objects in that constellation e see information and data about the displayed object press the INFO key e slew to the object displayed press ENTER see the next tour object press the Up key Direction Buttons The hand control has four direction buttons 3 in the center of the hand control which control
14. To replace the contents of any of the user defined objects simply save a new object using one of the existing identification numbers the telescope will replace the previous user defined object with the current one Get RA DEC Displays the right ascension and declination for the current position of the telescope Goto R A Dec Allows you to input a specific R A and declination and slew to it To store a set of coordinates R A Dec permanently into the database save it as a User Defined Object as described above Identify Identify Mode will search any of the telescope s database catalogs or lists and display the name and offset distances to the nearest matching objects This feature can serve two purposes First it can be used to identify an unknown object in the field of view of your eyepiece Additionally Identify Mode can be used to find other celestial objects that are close to the objects you are currently observing For example if your telescope is pointed at the brightest star in the constellation Lyra choosing dentify and then searching the Named Star catalog will no doubt return the star Vega as the star you are observing However by selecting Identify and searching by the Named Object or Messier catalogs the hand control will let you know that the Ring Nebula M57 is approximately 6 from your current position Searching the Double Star catalog will reveal that Epsilon Lyrae is only 1 away from Vega To use the dentify
15. to find the Orion Nebula press the M key and enter 042 Slewing to an Object Once the desired object is displayed on the hand control screen choose from the following options e Press the INFO Key This will give you useful information about the selected object such as R A and declination magnitude size and text information for many of the most popular objects e Press the ENTER Key This will automatically slew the telescope to the coordinates of the object Caution Never slew the telescope when someone is looking into the eyepiece The telescope can move at fast slew speeds and may hit an observer in the eye Object information can be obtained without having to do a star alignment After the telescope is powered on pressing any of the catalog keys allows you to scroll through object lists or enter catalog numbers and view the information about the object as described above Finding Planets Your telescope can locate all 8 of our solar systems planets plus the Moon However the hand control will only display the solar system objects that are above the horizon or within its filter limits To locate the planets press the PLANET key on the hand control The hand control will display all solar system objects that are above the horizon e Use the Up and Down keys to select the planet that you wish to observe e Press INFO to access information on the displayed planet e Press ENTER to slew to the displayed planet 21 Tour Mode
16. 101 49 2 Lufkin 94 45 Marfa 104 1 2 Mcallen 98 13 8 Midland 102 10 8 Mineral WIls 98 4 2 Palacios 96 15 Paris Cox 95 27 Plainview 101 42 6 Port Arthur 94 1 2 Reese AFB 102 3 Rockport 97 1 8 56 LATITUDE degrees 33 33 34 45 44 43 43 44 44 45 43 45 44 44 44 45 43 44 42 36 35 36 35 36 35 35 35 35 36 36 32 27 35 30 30 32 32 25 31 32 28 34 30 27 28 36 32 29 32 31 29 32 31 29 31 33 31 26 29 29 30 29 29 31 27 27 29 32 33 31 30 26 31 32 28 33 34 30 33 28 min 40 8 58 2 55 2 27 18 48 46 2 22 8 55 8 46 2 31 8 22 8 9 6 34 8 55 2 55 2 28 8 37 2 57 1 2 36 49 2 LONGITUDE degrees San Angelo 100 San Antonio 98 Sanderson 102 South Brazos 95 Stephenville 98 Temple 97 Tyler Pounds 95 Victoria 96 Wichita Flls 98 Wink 103 UTAH Blanding 109 Bullfrog Mar 110 Cedar City 113 Delta 112 Eagle Range 113 Green River 110 Hanksville 110 Hill AFB 111 Logan 111 Milford 113 Moab 109 Ogden 112 Price Carbon 110 Provo 111 Roosevelt 110 Saint George 113 Salt Lake Ct 111 Tooele 112 Vernal 109 Wendover 114 VERMONT Burlington 73 Montpelier 72 Newport 72 Rutland 73 St Johnsbury 72 Wilmington 72 VIRGINIA Charlottes 78 Chesapeake 76 Danville 79 Fort Belvoir 77 Fort Eustis 76 Hot Springs 79 Langley AFB 76 Lynchburg 79 Newport 76 News Norfolk NAS 76 Norfolk Rgnl 76 Oceana NAS 76 Quantico Mca 77 Richmond 77 Roanoke 79 Muni
17. 28 8 39 40 2 4 8 40 8 28 2 3 6 27 6 1 8 34 2 33 33 52 8 31 2 0 6 31 2 31 8 46 2 52 2 52 2 16 2 22 8 40 8 40 8 45 57 31 2 10 8 25 2 LATITUDE degrees 40 41 37 35 40 33 33 38 39 33 39 34 35 36 39 40 37 39 39 39 38 37 40 39 37 39 39 38 39 40 40 39 40 38 38 38 39 39 38 38 39 38 37 40 38 29 29 28 28 30 30 29 29 30 30 27 26 26 26 29 25 30 30 24 28 27 30 30 31 2 13 2 54 43 2 49 2 18 30 45 39 34 2 40 8 34 2 27 34 8 25 8 33 7 2 15 10 8 30 16 8 31 8 31 8 15 10 2 22 2 19 8 43 8 13 2 18 55 8 7 8 40 2 57 43 8 7 2 4 8 28 2 13 2 46 8 37 2 10 8 39 28 8 36 34 8 4 2 39 40 8 28 8 25 8 13 8 33 1 8 51 50 4 24 Melbourne Miami Naples Nasa Shuttle Orlando Panama City Patrick AFB Pensacola Ruskin Saint Peters Sanford Sarasota Tallahassee Tampa Intl Titusville Tyndall AFB Vero Beach West Palm Beach Whiting Fld GEORGIA Albany Alma Athens Atlanta Augusta Bush Brunswick Columbus Dobbins AFB Fort Benning Ft Stewart Hunter Aaf La Grange Macon Lewis Moody AFB Robins AFB Rome Russell Valdosta Waycross HAWAII Barbers Pt Barking San Fr Frigate Hilo Honolulu Int Kahului Maui Kaneohe Mca Kilauea Pt Lanai Lanai Lihue Kauai Maui Molokai Upolo Pt Ln Waimea Koha IDAHO Boise Burley Challis Coeur d Alene Elk City Gooding Grangeville Idaho Falls Lew
18. 8 42 45 Bluefield 81 13 2 37 18 Lone Rock 90 10 8 43 12 Evanston 111 0 41 19 8 Charleston 81 3 6 38 222 Madison 89 19 8 43 7 8 Gillette 105 31 8 44 21 Clarksburg 80 13 8 39 16 8 Manitowac 87 40 2 44 7 8 Jackson 110 43 8 43 36 Elkins 79 51 38 52 8 Milwaukee 87 5 4 42 57 Lander 108 43 8 42 49 2 Huntington 82 33 38 22 2 Mosinee 89 40 2 44 46 8 Laramie 105 40 8 41 19 2 Lewisburg 80 2 4 37 52 2 Neenah 88 31 8 44 13 2 Moorcroft 104 48 6 44 21 Martinsburg 77 58 8 39 24 Oshkosh 88 34 2 44 0 Rawlins 107 1 2 41 48 Morgantown 79 55 2 39 39 Rhinelander 89 27 45 37 8 Riverton 108 27 43 3 Parkersburg 81 25 8 39 21 Rice Lake 91 43 2 45 28 8 Rock Springs 109 4 2 41 36 Wheeling 80 39 40 10 8 Volk Fld 90 16 2 43 55 8 Sheridan 106 58 2 44 46 2 Wh Sulphur 80 1 2 37 27 6 Wausau 89 37 2 44 55 2 Worland 107 58 2 43 58 2 Yellowstone 110 25 2 44 33 CANADA CITY PROVINCE LONGITUDE LATITUDE CITY COUNTRY LONGITUDE LATITUDE Calgary Alberta 114 7 51 14 Glasgow Scotland 4 15w 55 50n Churchill Newfoundland 94 0 58 45 Guatemala City Guatemala 90 31w 14 37n Coppermine Northwest Terr 115 21 67 49 Guayaquil Ecuador 79 56 w 2 10s Edmonton Alberta 113 25 53 34 Hamburg Germany 10 2e 53 33n Frederickton New Brunswick 66 40 45 57 Hammerfest Norway 23 38e 70 36 Ft Mcpherson Northwest Terr 134 50 67 29 Havana Cuba 82 23w 23 8n Goose Bay Newfoundland 60 20 53 15 Helsinki Finland 25 0e 60 10n Halifax Nova Scotia 63 34 44 39 Hobart Tasmania 147 19e 42 52 Hazelton BC 127 38 55 15 Iquique Chil
19. It is usually best to replace the star closest to the new object This will space out your alignment stars across the sky 6 Press ALIGN to make the change me Deer 20 Helpful Hint Object Catalog Selecting an Object Now that the telescope is properly aligned you can choose an object from any of the catalogs in the telescope s extensive database The hand control has a key 4 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 the hand control will access all objects in the database that have common names or types Each list is broken down into the following categories Named Stars Named Object Double Stars Variable Stars Asterisms and CCD Objects Selecting any one of these catalogs will display a numeric alphabetical listing of the objects under that list Pressing the Up and Down keys 10 allows you to scroll through the catalog to the desired object When scrolling through a long list of objects holding down either the Up or Down key will allow you to scroll through the catalog more rapidly by only displaying every fifth catalog object Pressing any of the other catalog keys M CALD NGC or STAR will display a blinking cursor below the name of the catalog chosen Use the numeric key pad to enter the number of any object within these standardized catalogs For example
20. New Iberia 91 New Orleans 90 S Marsh Isl 91 Shreveport 93 Slidel 89 MAINE Augusta 69 Bangor 68 Bar Harbor 68 Brunswick 69 Caribou Mun 68 Greenville 69 Houlton 67 Loring AFB 67 Portland TO Presque Isle 68 Rockland 69 Rumford TO MARYLAND Andrews AFB 76 Baltimore 76 Fort Meade 76 Hagerstown 77 Ocean City 75 Patuxent 76 Phillips 76 Salisbury 75 MASSACHUSETTS Bedford 71 Beverly 70 Boston 71 Cape Cod 70 Chatham 69 Fort Devens 71 Hyannis 70 Lawrence 71 Marthas Vine 70 Nantucket 70 New Bedford 70 Norwood 71 Otis ANGB 70 Pittsfield 73 S Weymouth 70 Westfield 72 Westover 72 Worcester 71 MICHIGAN Alpena 83 Ann Arbor 83 Battle Creek 85 Benton 86 Harbor Chippewa 84 Coopersville 85 Copper Harb 87 Detroit 83 Escanaba 87 Flint Bishop 83 Grand Rapids 85 Hancock 88 Harbor Beach 82 Houghton 84 Lake Iron Mtn 88 Ironwood 90 Jackson 84 Kalamazoo 85 Lansing 84 Manistee 86 Marquette 87 Menominee 87 Muskegon 86 Pellston 84 Pontiac 83 Saginaw 84 Sault Ste M 84 Sawyer AFB 87 Selfridge 82 Seul Choix 85 Traverse Cty 85 min 55 8 46 8 52 8 19 2 7 2 52 8 52 2 40 2 46 2 43 2 7 8 2 4 10 2 16 8 55 2 58 2 3 6 16 8 7 2 37 2 4 2 58 2 10 8 31 2 10 8 55 8 43 2 31 8 52 2 34 2 45 13 8 25 8 28 2 57 51 1 2 4 8 31 2 31 8 40 8 7 2 7 8 28 2 33 3 6 15 37 8 15 4 8 25 2 4 8 22 2 49 8 55 2 34 8 LATITUDE degrees 29 28 29 29 30 30 29 28 32 29 30
21. Staunton 78 Volens 78 Wallops Sta 75 WASHINGTON Bellingham 122 Bremerton 122 Burlington 122 Colville 118 Ephrata 119 Everet Paine 122 Fairchild 117 Fort Lewis 122 Hanford 119 Hoquiam 123 Mcchord AFB 122 Moses Lake 119 Oak Harbor 122 Olympia 122 Omak 119 Pasco 119 Port Angeles 123 Pullman 117 Quillayute 124 Renton 122 Seattle 122 Shelton 123 Spokane 117 Tacoma 122 Toledo 122 min 3 28 2 25 2 52 2 10 8 25 2 2 4 55 2 1 2 28 8 31 8 46 2 19 8 28 2 31 2 16 8 39 34 8 58 2 28 8 19 2 40 8 31 8 7 2 7 2 33 13 2 1 8 31 8 34 8 4 8 LATITUDE degrees 31 29 30 28 32 31 32 28 33 31 38 37 37 39 41 39 38 41 41 38 38 41 39 40 40 37 40 40 40 41 44 44 45 43 44 42 38 37 36 38 37 37 37 37 37 36 36 36 38 37 37 38 36 37 13 2 28 2 12 33 31 8 25 2 52 8 7 8 30 34 2 43 2 7 8 57 4 8 19 8 7 8 55 8 54 49 2 19 2 57 LONGITUDE LATITUDE LONGITUDE LATITUDE LONGITUDE LATITUDE degrees min degrees min degrees min degrees min degrees min degrees min Walla Walla 118 16 8 46 6 WISCONSIN WYOMING Wenatchee 120 1 2 47 24 Appleton 88 31 2 44 15 Big Piney 110 0 6 42 34 2 Whidbey Is 122 39 48 21 Eau Claire 91 28 8 44 52 2 Casper 106 28 2 42 55 2 Yakima 120 31 8 46 34 2 Green Bay 88 7 8 44 28 8 Cheyenne 104 49 2 41 9 WEST VIRGINIA Janesville 89 1 8 42 37 2 Cody 109 1 2 44 31 2 Beckley 81 7 2 37 46 8 La Crosse 91 15 43 52 2 Douglas 105 22
22. confirm the current setting Press ENTER to wake up the telescope Pressing UNDO at the Wake Up screen allows you to explore many of the features of the hand control without waking the telescope up from hibernate mode To wake up the telescope after UNDO has been pressed select Hibernate from the Utility menu and press ENTER Do not use the direction buttons to move the telescope while in hibernate mode Turn On Off GPS If using your Advanced GT telescope with the optional CN 16 GPS accessory see Optional Accessories section of the manual you will need to turn the GPS on the first time you use the accessory If you want to use the telescope s database to find the coordinates of a celestial object for a future or past dates you would need to turn the GPS off in order to manually enter a time other than the present 28 ADVANCED GT MENU ALIGNMENT LIST TRACKING START UP PROCUDURE NAMED STAR NAMED OBJECT MODE SET TO INDEX ASTERISM ENTER TIME TOUR DLS ST VARIABLE STAR TIME ZONE DOUBLE STAR OFF ENTER DATE MM DD YY x Cis ENTER LONG LAT RATE IC CATALOG CALDWELL SIDEREAL AUTO ALIGN MESSIER SOLAR NGC LUNAR CENTER STAR 1 SAO VIEW TIME SITE SOLAR SYSTEM SCOPE SETUP CENTER STAR 2 CONSTELLATION SETUP TIME SITE CENTER STAR 3 ANTI BACKLASH FILTER LIMITS DIRECTION BUTTONS GOTO APPROACH AUTOGUIDE RATE AZIMUTH LIMITS EAST WEST FILTERING UTILITIES CALIBRATE GOTO HOME POSITION POLAR ALIGN LIGHT CONTROL FACTORY SETT
23. define the direction that the telescope will approach when slewing to an object This allows the user the ability to minimize the affects of backlash when slewing from object to object Just like with Direction Buttons setting GoTo Approach to positive will make the telescope approach an object from the same direction as tracking west for azimuth and counterclockwise in declination Declination Goto approach will only apply while the telescope tube is on one side of the Meridian Once the tube passes over to the other side of the Meridian the Goto approach will need to be reversed To change the Goto approach direction simply choose Goto Approach from the Scope Setup menu select either Altitude or Azimuth approach choose positive or negative and press ENTER Hint In order to minimize the affect of gear backlash on pointing accuracy the settings for Button Direction should ideally match the settings for GoTo Approach By default using the up and right direction buttons to center alignment stars will automatically eliminate much of the backlash in the gears If you change the Goto approach of your telescope it 1s not necessary to change the Button Direction as well Simply take notice of the direction the telescope moves when completing it final goto approach If the telescope approaches its alignment star from the west negative azimuth and clockwise negative altitude then make sure that the buttons used to center the alignment stars als
24. dew must be removed either with a hair dryer on low setting or by pointing the telescope at the ground until the dew has evaporated If moisture condenses on the inside of the corrector remove the accessories from the rear cell of the telescope Place the telescope in a dust free environment and point it down This will remove the moisture from the telescope tube To minimize the need to clean your telescope replace all lens covers once you have finished using it Since the rear cell is NOT sealed the cover should be placed over the opening when not in use This will prevent contaminants from entering the optical tube Internal adjustments and cleaning should be done only by the Celestron repair department If your telescope is in need of internal cleaning please call the factory for a return authorization number and price quote Collimation The optical performance of your telescope is directly related to its collimation that is the alignment of its optical system Your telescope was collimated at the factory after it was completely assembled However if the telescope is dropped or jarred severely during transport it may have to be collimated The only optical element that may need to be adjusted or 1s possible is the tilt of the secondary mirror To check the collimation of your telescope you will need a light source A bright star near the zenith is ideal since there is a minimal amount of atmospheric distortion Make sure that trac
25. feature e Press the Menu button and select the Identify option e Use the Up Down scroll keys to select the catalog that you would like to search e Press ENTER to begin the search Note Some of the databases contain thousands of objects and can therefore take several minutes to return the closest objects 24 Precise GoTo The Advanced Series telescopes have a precise goto function that can assist in finding extremely faint objects and centering objects closer to the center of the field of view for astrophotography and CCD imaging Precise Goto automatically searches out the closest bright star to the desired object and asks the user to carefully center it in the eyepiece The hand control then calculates the small difference between its goto position and its centered position Using this offset the telescope will then slew to the desired object with enhanced accuracy To use Precise Goto SCOPE SETUP 1 Press the MENU button and use the Up Down keys to select Precise Goto ESTA Choose Database to select the object that you want to observe from any of the database catalogs listed or ANTI BACKLASH e Choose RA DEC to enter a set of celestial coordinates that you wish to slew to AZM POSITIVE 2 Once the desired object is selected the hand control will search out and display the closest bright star to your desired object Press ENTER to slew to the bright ALT NEGATIVE alignment star CHO 3 Use the direction button
26. number configurations for CCD imaging It can be used at f 6 3 with the optional Reducer Corrector f 10 and f 20 with the optional 2x Barlow making it the most versatile imaging system available today This makes the system ideal for imaging deep sky objects as well as planetary detail The key factors for good CCD imaging are exposure time field of view image size and pixel resolution As the F goes down or gets faster the exposure times needed decreases the field of view increases but the image scale of the object gets smaller What is the difference between f 6 3 and f 10 F 6 3 has about 2 3 the focal length of f 10 That makes the exposure time needed about 2 5 times shorter than at f 10 the field of view 5096 larger compared to that of f 10 see Table below 42 Telescope Standard Model Cassegrain f 10 PEDE 49 1250mm 31 788mm Focal Length amp 80 2032mm 50 4 1280mm Speed 9 25 5 93 2350mm 58 1481mm en 20 5 x 15 7 arc min min ST 237 8 x 6 1 arc F O V as min 12 6 x 9 7 arc min n UE 11 x 8 4 arc min min Field of view calculated using SBIG ST 237 CCD camera with 4 7mm x 3 6mm chip Table 7 3 Auto Guiding The Advanced GT telescope has a designated auto guiding port for use with a CCD autoguider The diagram below may be useful when connecting the CCD camera cable to the telescope and calibrating the autoguider Note that the four outputs are active low
27. planetary photography a couple of seconds and short exposure piggyback astrophotography a couple of minutes Pointing at Polaris This method utilizes Polaris as a guidepost to the celestial pole Since Polaris is less than a degree from the celestial pole you can simply point the polar axis of your telescope at Polaris Although this is by no means perfect alignment it does get you within one degree Unlike the previous method this must be done in the dark when Polaris is visible Set the telescope up so that the polar axis 15 pointing north Loosen the DEC clutch knob and move the telescope so that the tube is parallel to the polar axis When this is done the declination setting circle will read 90 If the declination setting circle is not aligned move the telescope so that the tube is parallel to the polar axis Adjust the mount in altitude and or azimuth until Polaris 15 in the field of view of the finder 22 4 Center Polaris in the field of the telescope using the fine adjustment controls on the mount Remember while Polar aligning do NOT move the telescope in R A or DEC You do not want to move the telescope itself but the polar axis The telescope is used simply to see where the polar axis is pointing Like the previous method this gets you close to the pole but not directly on it The following methods help improve your accuracy for more serious observations and photography Finding the North Celestial Pole
28. sky is judged by steady versus twinkling stars 45 8 CELESTRON Optional Accessories You will find that additional accessories enhance your viewing pleasure and expand the usefulness of your telescope For ease of reference all the accessories are listed in alphabetical order Adapter AC 18773 Allow DC battery powered telescopes to be converted for use with 120 volt AC power Auxiliary Port Accessory 93965 This accessory plugs into the auxiliary port of the telescopes control panel to provide additional ports for accessories like the CN 16 GPS as well as a PC programming port Barlow Lens A Barlow lens is a negative lens that increases the focal length of a telescope Used with any eyepiece it doubles the magnification of that eyepiece Celestron offers two Barlow lens in the 1 1 4 size The 2x Ultima Barlow 93506 is a compact triplet design that is fully multicoated for maximum light transmission and parfocal when used with the Ultima eyepieces Model 93326 1 a compact achromatic Barlow lens that 15 under three inches long and weighs only 4 oz It works very well with all Celestron eyepieces Erect Image Diagonal 94112 A This accessory is an Amici prism arrangement that allows you to look into the telescope at a 45 angle with images that are oriented properly upright and correct from left to right It is useful for daytime terrestrial viewing Eyepieces Like telescopes eyepieces come in a variety of d
29. the number of the object you wish to select and press ENTER The telescope will automatically retrieve and display the coordinates before slewing to the object Your telescope stores celestial objects to its database by saving its right ascension and declination in the sky This way the same object can be found each time the telescope is aligned Once a desired object is centered in the eyepiece simply scroll to the Save Sky Obj command and press ENTER The display will ask you to enter a number between 1 200 to identify the object Press ENTER again to save this object to the database 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 DEC command and press ENTER The display will then ask you to enter first the R A and then the declination of the desired object The telescope can also be used as a spotting scope on terrestrial objects Fixed land objects can be stored by saving their altitude and azimuth relative to the location of the telescope at the time of observing Since these objects are relative to the location of the telescope they are only valid for that exact location To save land objects once again center the desired object in the eyepiece Scroll down to the Save Land Obj command and press ENTER The display will ask you to enter a number between 1 200 to identify the object Press ENTER again to save this object to the database
30. 0n Tokyo Japan 139 45e 35 40n C rdoba Argentina 64 10 31 285 Tripoli Libya 13 12e 32 57 Darwin Australia 130 51e 12 28s Venice Italy 12 20e 45 26n Dublin Ireland 6 15w 53 20n Veracruz Mexico 96 10w 19 10n Durban South Africa 30 53e 29 53s Vienna Austria 16 20e 48 14n Edinburgh Scotland 3 10 55 55n Warsaw Poland 21 0e 52 14n Frankfurt Germany 8 41e 50 7n Wellington New Zealand 174 47 e 41 17s Georgetown Guyana 58 15w 6 45n Z rich Switzerland 8 31e 47 21n Appendix D RS 232 Connection You can control your telescope with a computer via the RS 232 port on the computerized hand control and using an optional RS 232 cable 93920 Once connected the telescope can be controlled using popular astronomy software programs Communication Protocol The Advanced GT communicates at 9600 bits sec No parity and a stop bit All angles are communicated with 16 bit angle and communicated using ASCII hexadecimal PC Command ASCII Hand Control Response Notes Useful to check communication Goto Azm Alt B12AB 4000 10 characters sent B Command 12AB Azm comma 4000 Alt If command conflicts with slew limits there will be no action Goto Ra Dec R34AB 12CE Scope must be aligned If command conflicts with slew limits there will be no action 12AB Azm comma 4000 Alt Get RA Dec Cancel Goto Is Goto in Progress 0 or 1 O No 1 Yes 0 is ASCII character zero Is Alignment Complete Commands below available on version
31. 1 6 or later HC version Stop Start Tracking T Alt Az tracking requires alignment Tracking off Alt Az on 5 32 bit goto RA Dec r34AB0500 12CE0500 0 0 O 32 bit get RA Dec 6 34AB0500 12CE0500 The last two characters will always be zero Commands below available on version 2 2 or later 32 bit goto Azm Alt b34ABO500 12CE0500 32 bit get Azm Alt Z 34AB0500 12CE0500 The last two characters will always be zero 4 4 Modular Phone Jack The cable required to interface to the telescope has an RS 232 male plug at one end and a 4 4 telephone jack at the other end The wiring 1s as follows 089 Pin 2 DB9 Pin 3 PC Receive PC Transmit DB9 Pin 5 Ground 58 Additional RS232 Commands Send Any Track Rate Through RS232 To The Hand Control 1 Multiply the desired tracking rate arcseconds second by 4 Example if the desired trackrate 15 150 arcseconds second then TRACKRATE 600 2 Separate TRACKRATE into two bytes such that TRACKRATE TrackRateHigh 256 rackRateLow Example TrackRateHigh 2 TrackRateLow 88 3 To send a tracking rate send the following 8 bytes a Positive Azm tracking 80 3 16 6 TrackRateHigh TrackRateLow 0 0 b Negative Azm tracking 80 3 16 7 TrackRateHigh TrackRateLow 0 0 c Positive Alt tracking 80 3 17 6 TrackRateHigh TrackRateLow 0 0 d Negative Alt tracking 80 3 17 7 TrackRateHigh TrackRateLow 0 0 4 The numb
32. 2 Close the camera s shutter When getting started use fast films to record as much detail in the shortest possible time Here are proven recommendations Ektar 1000 color print Konica 3200 color print Fujichrome 1600D color slide 1000 color slide Scotchchrome 400 T Max 3200 black and white print T Max 400 black and white print As you perfect your technique try specialized films that is films that are designed or specially treated for celestial photography Here are some popular choices Ektar 125 color print Fujichrome 100D color slide Tech Pan gas hypered black and white print T Max 400 black and white print 41 There is no exposure determination table to help you get started The best way to determine exposure length is look at previously published photos to see what film exposure combinations were used Or take unguided sample photos of various parts of the sky while the drive is running Always take exposures of various lengths to determine the best exposure time Terrestrial Photography Your telescope makes an excellent telephoto lens for terrestrial land photography Terrestrial photography is best done will the telescope in Alt Az configuration and the tracking drive turned off To turn the tracking drive off press the MENU 9 button on the hand control and scroll down to the Tracking Mode sub menu Use the Up and Down scroll keys 10 to select the Off option and press ENTER This will tur
33. 46 2 7 2 46 8 54 57 55 2 16 2 45 10 8 12 6 55 2 31 2 54 49 2 49 2 37 8 16 2 57 LONGITUDE degrees OKLAHOMA Altus AFB 99 Ardmore 97 Bartlesville 96 Clinton 99 Enid 97 Fort Sill 98 Gage 99 Hobart 99 Lawton 98 Mcalester 95 Norman 97 Oklahoma 97 Page 94 Ponca City 97 Stillwater 97 Tinker AFB 97 Tulsa 95 Vance AFB 97 OREGON Astoria 123 Aurora 122 Baker 117 Brookings 124 Burns Arpt 118 Cape Blanco 124 Cascade 121 Corvallis 123 Eugene 123 Hillsboro 122 Klamath Fall 121 La Grande 118 Lake View 120 Meacham 118 Medford 122 Newport 124 North Bend 124 Ontario 117 Pendleton 118 Portland 122 Redmond 121 Roseburg 123 Salem 123 Sexton 123 The Dalles 121 Troutdale 122 PENNSYLVANIA Allentown 75 Altoona 78 Beaver Falls 80 Blairsville 79 Bradford 78 Dubois 78 Erie 80 Franklin 79 Harrisburg 76 Johnstown 78 Lancaster 76 Latrobe 79 Middletown 76 Muir 76 Nth Philadel 75 Philadelphia 75 Philipsburg 78 Pittsburgh 79 Reading 75 Site R 77 State Colleg 77 Wilkes Barre 75 Williamsport 76 Willow Grove 75 RHODE ISLAND Block Island 71 Nth Kingston 71 Providence 71 SOUTH CAROLINA Anderson 82 Beaufort 80 Charleston 80 Columbia 81 Florence 79 Greenville 82 Mcentire 80 min 25 8 19 2 19 8 5 4 37 8 5 4 10 8 52 2 49 8 1 8 2 4 46 2 34 2 1 2 15 7 8 55 8 58 2 25 8 49 8 43 8 55 2 34 8 25 2 25 8 43 2 43 2 1 8 7 2 43 2 21 4 8 LATITUDE degrees 34 34 36 35
34. Alphabetical listing of over 50 of the most popular deep sky objects Double Stars Numeric alphabetical listing of the most visually stunning double triple and quadruple stars in the sky Variable Stars Select list of the brightest variable stars with the shortest period of changing magnitude Asterisms A unique list of some of the most recognizable star patterns in the sky CCD Objects A custom list of many interesting galaxy pairs trios and clusters that are well suited for CCD imaging with the Advanced GT telescope IC Objects A complete list of all the Index Catalog deep sky objects Abell Objects A custom list of the Abell Catalog deep sky galaxies Constellation A complete list of all 88 constellations 5 Info Displays coordinates and useful information about objects selected from the Advanced GT database 6 Tour Activates the tour mode which seeks out all the best objects for the current date and time and automatically slews the telescope to those objects 7 Enter Pressing Enter allows you to select any of the Advanced GT functions and accept entered parameters 8 Undo Undo will take you out of the current menu and display the previous level of the menu path Press Undo repeatedly to get back to a main menu or use it to erase data entered by mistake 9 Menu Displays the many setup and utilities functions such as tracking rates and user defined objects and many others 10 Scroll Keys Used to scroll up and down
35. Auckland New Zealand 174 45e 36 52s Naples Italy 14 15e 40 50n Bangkok Thailand 100 30 e 13 45n Newcastle England 1 37 w 54 58n Barcelona Spain 2 9e 41 23 Odessa Ukraine 30 48e 46 27n Bel m Brazil 48 29 w 1 28s Osaka Japan 135 30e 34 32 Belfast Northern Ireland 5 56 w 54 37n Oslo Norway 10 42e 59 57n Belgrade Yugoslavia 20 32 6 44 52 Panama City Panama 79 32w 8 58n Berlin Germany 13 256 52 30 Paramaribo Surinam 55 15w 5 45n Birmingham England 1 55w 52 25n Paris France 2 20 48 48n Bombay India 72 48e 19 On Beijing China 116 25e 39 55n Bordeaux France 0 31w 44 50n Perth Australia 115 52e 31 57 s Bremen Germany 8 49e 53 5n Plymouth England 4 5w 50 25n Brisbane Australia 153 8e 27 29s Rio de Janeiro Brazil 43 12 22 57 Bristol England 2 35w 51 28 Rome Italy 12 27e 41 54 Brussels Belgium 4 22e 50 52n Salvador Brazil 38 27 w 12 56s Bucharest Romania 26 44 25 Santiago Chile 70 45 w 33 28s Budapest Hungary 19 5e 47 30n St Petersburg Russia 30 18e 59 56n Buenos Aires Argentina 58 22 w 34 35 5 Sao Paulo Brazil 46 31w 23 31 Cairo Egypt 31 21e 30 2n Shanghai China 121 28e 31 10n Canton China 113 15e 23 7n Sofia Bulgaria 23 20e 42 40 Cape Town South Africa 18 22 33 55s Stockholm Sweden 18 3e 59 17n Caracas Venezuela 67 2w 10 28n Sydney Australia 151 Oe 34 Os Chihuahua Mexico 106 5 28 37n Tananarive Madagascar 47 33e 18 50s Chongqing China 106 34 e 29 46n Teheran Iran 51 45e 35 45n Copenhagen Denmark 12 34 e 55 4
36. ING VERSION GET ALT AZ GOTOALT AZ HIBERNATE TURN ON OFF GPS USER OBJECTS GOTO SKY OBJ SAVE SKY OBJ ENTER RA amp DEC SAVE LAND OBJ GOTO LAND OBJ GET RA DEC GOTO RA DEC IDENTIFY SELECT CATALOG PRECISE GOTO GOTO TYPE AUTO THREE STAR ALIGN SELECT STAR 1 CENTER STAR 1 SELECT STAR 2 CENTER STAR 2 SELECT STAR 3 CENTER STAR 3 LAST ALIGNMENT QUICK ALIGN 29 Q CELESTRON Astronomy Basics Up to this point this manual covered the assembly and basic operation of your telescope However to understand your telescope more thoroughly you need to know a little about the night sky This section deals with observational astronomy in general and includes information on the night sky and polar alignment The Celestial Coordinate System To help find objects in the sky astronomers use a celestial coordinate system that 1s similar to our geographical coordinate system here on Earth The celestial coordinate system has poles lines of longitude and latitude and an equator For the most part these remain fixed against the background stars The celestial equator runs 360 degrees around the Earth and separates the northern celestial hemisphere from the southern Like the Earth s equator it bears a reading of zero degrees On Earth this would be latitude However in the sky this 1s referred to as declination or DEC for short Lines of declination are named for their angular distance above and below the celestial equat
37. IS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL BE TO REPAIR OR REPLACE THE COVERED PRODUCT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS SET FORTH HEREIN CELESTRON EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY LOST PROFITS GENERAL SPECIAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHICH MAY RESULT FROM BREACH OF ANY WARRANTY OR ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE ANY CELESTRON PRODUCT ANY WARRANTIES WHICH ARE IMPLIED AND WHICH CANNOT BE DISCLAIMED SHALL BE LIMITED IN DURATION TO A TERM OF TWO YEARS FROM THE DATE OF ORIGINAL RETAIL PURCHASE Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages or limitation on how long an implied warranty lasts so the above limitations and exclusions may not apply to you This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state Celestron reserves the right to modify or discontinue without prior notice to you any model or style telescope If warranty problems arise or if you need assistance in using your telescope contact Celestron Customer Service Department 2835 Columbia Street Torrance CA 90503 U S A Tel 310 328 9560 Fax 310 212 5835 Monday Friday 8 4 PST This warranty supersedes all other product warranties NOTE This warranty is valid to U S A and Canadian customers who have purchased this product from an Authorized Celestron Dealer in the U S A or Canada Warranty outside the U S A and Canada is valid only to customers who purchased froma C
38. PA CONNECTION etc 58 APPENDIX E TIME ZONE MAP A 60 SKY IMATSu uyu wanu 62 Q CELESTRON Introduction Congratulations on your purchase of the Celestron Advanced Series telescope AST The Advanced Series of telescopes come in standard non computerized and computerized GT models The Advanced Series is made of the highest quality materials to ensure stability and durability All this adds up to a telescope that gives you a lifetime of pleasure with a minimal amount of maintenance Furthermore your Celestron telescope is versatile it will grow as your interest grows The Advanced GT Series ushers in the next generation of computer automated telescopes The Celestron Advanced GT series continues in this proud tradition combining large aperture optics with the sophistication and ease of use of our computerized GoTo mount If you are new to astronomy you may wish to start off by using the built in Sky Tour feature which commands the telescopes to find the most interesting objects in the sky and automatically slews to each one Or if you are an experienced amateur you will appreciate the comprehensive database of over 40 000 objects including customized lists of all the best deep sky objects bright double stars and variable stars No matter at what level you are starting out the Advanced Series telescopes will unfold for you and your friends all the wo
39. against the stars A telescope mounting in which the instrument is set upon an axis which is parallel to the axis of the Earth the angle of the axis must be equal to the observer s latitude The distance between a lens or mirror and the point at which the image of an object at infinity 1s brought to focus The focal length divided by the aperture of the mirror or lens is termed the focal ratio 50 J Jovian Planets Kuiper Belt L Light Year LY M Magnitude Meridian Messier N Nebula North Celestial Pole Nova O Open Cluster P Parallax Parfocal Parsec Point Source R Reflector Resolution Right Ascension RA S Schmidt Telescope Sidereal Rate Any of the four gas giant planets that are at a greater distance form the sun than the terrestrial planets A region beyond the orbit of Neptune extending to about 1000 AU which is a source of many short period comets A light year is the distance light traverses in a vacuum in one year at the speed of 299 792 km sec With 31 557 600 seconds in a year the light year equals a distance of 9 46 X 1 trillion km 5 87 X 1 trillion mi Magnitude is a measure of the brightness of a celestial body The brightest stars are assigned magnitude 1 and those increasingly fainter from 2 down to magnitude 5 The faintest star that can be seen without a telescope is about magnitude 6 Each magnitude step corresponds to a ratio of 2 5 in brightnes
40. an asymmetrical appearance and are loosely assembled They contain from a dozen to many hundreds of stars Parallax is the difference in the apparent position of an object against a background when viewed by an observer from two different locations These positions and the actual position of the object form a triangle from which the apex angle the parallax and the distance of the object can be determined if the length of the baseline between the observing positions is known and the angular direction of the object from each position at the ends of the baseline has been measured The traditional method in astronomy of determining the distance to a celestial object is to measure its parallax Refers to a group of eyepieces that all require the same distance from the focal plane of the telescope to be in focus This means when you focus one parfocal eyepiece all the other parfocal eyepieces in a particular line of eyepieces will be in focus The distance at which a star would show parallax of one second of arc It is equal to 3 26 light years 206 265 astronomical units or 30 8000 000 000 000 km Apart from the Sun no star lies within one parsec of us An object which cannot be resolved into an image because it to too far away or too small is considered a point source A planet is far away but it can be resolved as a disk Most stars cannot be resolved as disks they are too far away A telescope in which the light is collected by means of a mirro
41. ange depending on which side of the Meridian the telescope tube is positioned In order to change the direction of the arrow buttons see Scope Setup Features later in this section 22 Ix sidereal 4x x 16x Nine available slew speeds Setup Procedures The Advanced GT contains many user defined setup functions designed to give the user control over the telescope s many advanced features All of the setup and utility features can be accessed by pressing the MENU key and scrolling through the options Tracking Mode This allows you to change the way the telescope tracks depending on the type of mount being used to support the telescope The telescope has three different tracking modes EQ North Used to track the sky when the telescope is polar aligned in the Northern Hemisphere EQ South Used to track the sky when the telescope is polar aligned in the Southern Hemisphere Off When using the telescope for terrestrial land observation the tracking can be turned off so that the telescope never moves Tracking Rate In addition to being able to move the telescope with the hand control buttons your telescope 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 1s 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 but in the opposite directio
42. anyon LONGITUDE degrees 85 85 86 87 85 85 86 86 86 88 88 86 87 86 86 87 149 156 147 135 151 134 131 152 165 135 154 135 146 110 112 109 111 111 110 113 112 112 113 112 111 111 112 112 109 111 110 110 111 110 115 114 114 89 92 92 94 94 93 93 90 92 91 94 94 90 122 120 124 119 121 116 116 116 118 120 min 43 8 37 2 2 4 57 2 4 4 8 10 2 22 2 0 6 39 22 8 55 8 55 8 19 2 31 8 0 6 27 37 2 40 8 3 6 4 2 LATITUDE degrees 33 32 33 32 31 31 33 34 32 30 30 32 34 32 31 33 min 34 8 40 2 34 2 19 2 16 8 58 2 22 8 13 8 58 2 31 2 13 2 19 8 16 2 28 8 49 8 13 2 10 2 10 8 7 8 46 8 28 8 58 8 25 8 7 8 55 8 16 8 16 2 36 16 8 Blythe Burbank Campo Carlsbad Castle AFB Chico China Lake Chino Concord Crescent Cty Daggett Edwards AFB El Centro El Monte El Toro Eureka Fort Hunter Fort Ord Fresno Fullerton George AFB Hawthorne Hayward Imperial Imperial Bch La Verne Lake Tahoe Lancaster Livermore Long Beach Los Alamitos Los Angeles Mammoth March AFB Marysville Mather AFB Mcclellan Merced Miramar NAS Modesto Moffet Mojave Montague Monterey Mount Shasta Mount Wilson Napa Needles North Is Norton AFB Oakland Ontario Intl Oxnard Palm Springs Palmdale Palo Alto Paso Robles Pillaro Pt Point Mugu Pt Arena Pt Arguello Pt Piedras Red Bluff Redding Riversi
43. atalog 93685 48 Appendix A Technical Specifications p C5 S C9 25 S Specifications 2350mm F 10 CTA Star Diagonal 1 25 Accessory tray Ye Ye s 2 Stainless Steel 2 Stainless Steel 2 Stainless Steel x TehnialSpees 144 Advanced GT Additional Specifications Tracking Modes EQ North amp EQ South Alignment Procedures AutoAlign 3 Star Alignment Quick Align Last Align pie Database Enhanced information on over 200 objects Complete IC Catalog 5 386 Complete Caldwell 109 Abell Galaxies 2 712 Solar System objects 9 Famous Asterisms 20 Selected CCD Imaging Objects 25 Selected SAO Stars 29 500 Total Object Database 45 492 49 Appendix B Glossary of Terms Absolute magnitude Airy disk Alt Azimuth Mounting Altitude Aperture Apparent Magnitude Arcminute Arcsecond Asterism Asteroid Astrology Astronomical unit AU Aurora Azimuth B Binary Stars Es Celestial Equator Celestial pole Celestial Sphere Collimation D Declination DEC Ecliptic Equatorial mount F Focal length The apparent magnitude that a star would have if it were observed from a standard distance of 10 parsecs or 32 6 light years The absolute magnitude of the Sun is 4 8 at a distance of 10 parsecs it would just be visible on Earth on a clear moonless night away from surface light The apparent size of a star s dis
44. atorial head to center Polaris in the eyepiece the mount will then FACTORY SETTING be pointed towards the actual North Celestial Pole Once Polar Align 1s complete you must re align your telescope again using any of the alignment methods described earlier To polar align the mount in the Northern Hemisphere PRESS UNDO PRESS 0 1 With the telescope set up and roughly positioned towards Polaris align the VERSION mount using the Auto Align or Auto Three Star method GET ALT AZ GOTO ATL AZ 2 Select Polar Align from the Utilities menu and press Enter HIBERNATE TURN ON OFF GPS Based on your current alignment the telescope will slew to where it thinks Polaris should be Use the equatorial head latitude and azimuth adjustments to place Polaris in the center of the eyepiece Do not use the direction buttons to position Polaris Once Polaris is centered in the eyepiece press ENTER the polar axis should then be pointed towards the North Celestial Pole 2 Light Control This feature allows you to turn off both the red key pad light and LCD display for daytime use to conserve power and to help preserve your night vision Factory Settings Returns the Advanced GT hand control to its original factory settings Parameters such as backlash compensation values initial date and time longitude latitude along with slew and filter limits will be reset However stored parameters such as user defined objects will remain saved even when Fac
45. atures in just a few observing sessions Below is a brief description of the individual components of the computerized hand controller 1 Liquid Crystal Display LCD Window Has a dual line 16 character display screen that 15 backlit for comfortable viewing of telescope information and scrolling text 2 Align Instructs the telescope to use a selected star or object as an alignment position 3 Direction Keys Allows complete control of the telescope in any direction Use the direction keys to move the telescope to the initial alignment stars or for centering objects in the eyepiece NexStar lt Figure 3 1 The Advanced GT Hand Control 16 4 Catalog Keys The Advanced Series has keys on hand control to allow direct access to each of the catalogs in its database The hand control contains the following catalogs in its database Messier Complete list of all Messier objects NGC Complete list of all the deep sky objects in the Revised New General Catalog Caldwell combination of the best NGC and IC objects Planets 8 planets in our Solar System plus the Moon Stars A compiled list of the brightest stars from the SAO catalog List For quick access all of the best and most popular objects in the Advanced GT database have been broken down into lists based on their type and or common name Named Stars Common name listing of the brightest stars in the sky Named Objects
46. beyond this point Warning In order for the telescope to be able to slew to a star from the direction that minimizes the amount of backlash in the gears it may be necessary for the telescope to slew beyond the specified slew limit in order to approach the star from the correct direction This can limit your ability to slew to an object by as much as 6 from azimuth slew limit set in the hand control If this proves to be a problem the direction that the telescope takes to center an object can be changed To change the telescopes slewing direction see Goto Approach under the Scope Setup menu In order to guaranty that the telescope will have a full range of motion in R A azimuth set the azimuth slew limits to 354 and 186 This will allow the mount to slew without regard to the slew limits East West E W Filtering In order to ensure the best possible full sky pointing accuracy the Advanced series telescopes automatically filters and chooses its initial alignment stars so that the first two alignment stars are located on one side of the Meridian and the third star is on the opposite side of the Meridian East West Filtering allows you to turn off this automatic filtering feature allowing the hand control to display all of its alignment stars when doing a Auto Three Star Align without regard to the Meridian Utility Features Scrolling through the MENU 9 options will also provide access to several advanced utility functions within the A
47. bluff 103 Sidney Muni 102 Valentine 100 NEVADA Austin 117 Battle Mtn 116 Caliente 114 Elko 115 Ely Yelland 114 Eureka 115 Fallon NAS 118 Hawthorne 118 Ind Sprng Rn 115 Las Vegas 115 Lovelock 118 Mercury 116 Nellis AFB 115 Owyhee 116 Reno 119 Tonopah 117 Wildhorse 116 Winnemucca 117 Yucca Flat 116 NEW HAMPSHIRE Berlin 71 Concord 71 Jaffrey 72 Keene 72 Laconia 71 Lebanon 72 Manchester 71 Mt Washingtn 71 Nashua 71 Pease AFB 70 Wolfeboro 71 NEW JERSEY Atlantic Ctly 74 Barnegat Ls 74 Fairfield 74 Lakehurst 74 Mcguire AFB 74 Millville 75 Morristown 74 Newark Intl 74 Teterboro 74 Trenton 74 NEW MEXICO Albuquerque 106 Cannon 103 Carlsbad 104 Clayton Arpt 103 Corona 105 Deming 107 Farmington 108 Gallup Clark 108 Grants 107 Hobbs 103 Holloman 106 AFB Las Cruces 106 Las Vegas 105 Los Alamos 106 Moriarity 106 Northrup Str 106 Raton 104 Roswell 104 55 min 58 8 4 8 45 39 9 4 8 21 0 34 8 19 2 25 8 25 8 31 2 49 2 22 8 34 2 16 8 16 8 21 3 6 4 2 25 2 10 2 49 2 LATITUDE degrees min 34 8 19 2 25 8 46 8 49 8 52 2 4 2 58 2 36 19 8 43 8 51 13 2 58 8 22 2 28 2 7 2 18 37 2 52 2 52 2 49 8 37 2 37 2 49 8 16 8 30 25 2 33 31 8 4 8 37 2 13 8 34 8 30 4 2 19 8 54 34 8 34 8 LONGITUDE degrees Santa Fe 106 Silver City 108 Socorro 106 Taos 105 Truth Or Con 107 Tucumcari 103 White Sands 106 NEW YORK Albany 73 Ambrose 74 Bingham
48. bracket and strap combination that securely wraps around any of the tripod legs and holds the GPS module in place Light Pollution Reduction LPR Filters These filters are designed to enhance your views of deep sky astronomical objects when viewed from urban areas LPR Filters selectively reduce the transmission of certain wavelengths of light specifically those produced by artificial lights This includes mercury and high and low pressure sodium vapor lights In addition they also block unwanted natural light sky glow caused by neutral oxygen emission in our atmosphere Celestron offers a model for 1 1 4 eyepieces 94126A and a model that attaches to the rear cell ahead of the star diagonal and visual back 2941274 Micro Guide Eyepiece 794171 This multipurpose 12 5mm illuminated reticle can be used for guiding deep sky astrophotos measuring position angles angular separations and more The laser etched reticle provides razor sharp lines and the variable brightness illuminator is completely cordless The micro guide eyepiece produces 163 power with the C8 S and 188 power with the C9 25 S Moon Filter 94119 A Celestron s Moon Filter is an economical eyepiece filter for reducing the brightness of the moon and improving contrast so greater detail can be observed on the lunar eS surface The clear aperture is 21mm and the transmission 1s about 18 Motor Drive Single Axis 93518 This motor drive is a single axi
49. cular path a star follows depends on where it is in the sky Stars near the celestial equator form the largest circles rising in the east and setting in the west Moving toward the north celestial pole the point around which the stars in the northern hemisphere appear to rotate these circles become smaller Stars in the mid celestial latitudes rise in the northeast and set in the northwest Stars at high celestial latitudes are always above the horizon and are said to be circumpolar because they 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 motions also applies to the southern hemisphere except all stars south of the celestial equator move around the south celestial pole Stars seen near the north celestial pole Stars seen near the celestial equator Stars seen looking in the opposite direction of the north celestial pole Figure 5 2 All stars appear to rotate around the celestial poles However the appearance of this motion varies depending on where you are looking in the sky Near the north celestial pole the stars scribe out recognizable circles centered on the pole 1 Stars near the celest
50. de Sacramento Salinas San Carlos San Clemente San Diego San Francisco San Jose San Luis Obi San Mateo San Miguel Sandburg Santa Ana Santa Barb Santa Maria Santa Monica Santa Rosa LONGITUDE degrees 114 118 116 53 min 43 2 22 2 28 2 16 8 34 2 51 40 8 37 8 LATITUDE degrees 33 52 2 37 8 25 2 43 8 Shelter Cove Siskiyou Stockton Superior Val Susanville Thermal Torrance Travis AFB Tahoe Tustin Mcas Ukiah Van Nuys Vandenberg Visalia COLORADO Air Force A Akron Alamosa Aspen Brmfield Jef Buckley Colo Sprgs Cortez Craig Moffat Denver Durango Eagle Englewood Fort Carson Fraser Ft Col Lovel Ft Collins Grand Jct Greeley Wld Gunnison La Junta Lamar Leadville Limon Montrose Pueblo Rifle Salida Trinidad Winter Park CONNECTICUT Bridgeport Danbury Groton Hartford New Haven New London Windsor Loc DELAWARE Dover Wilmington D C WASH Washington FLORIDA Apalachicola Astor NAS Avon Park G Cape Canaveral Cecil Crestview Cross City Daytona Bch Duke Fld Eglin AFB Egmont Key Fort Myers Ft Lauderdale Ft Myers Gainesville Homestead Hurlburt Fid Jacksonville Key West Lakeland Macdill AFB Marianna Mayport NAS LONGITUDE degrees 124 105 105 108 104 106 103 102 106 103 107 104 107 106 104 105 77 85 81 81 80 81 86 83 81 86 86 82 81 80 81 82 80 86 81 81 81 82 85 81 min 4 2 52 8 31 2 4 8 19 8 52 2 7 8
51. dvanced Series telescopes such as Calibrate Goto Polar Alignment Hibernate as well as many others Calibrate Goto Goto Calibration is a useful tool when attaching heavy visual or photographic accessories to the telescope Goto Calibration calculates the amount of distance and time it takes for the mount to complete its final slow goto when slewing to an object Changing the UTILITIES balance of the telescope can prolong the time it takes to complete the final slew Goto Calibration takes into account any slight imbalances and changes the final goto distance to compensate CALIBRATE GOTO HOME POSTION Home Position The telescopes home position is a user definable position that is used to store the telescope when not in use The home position is useful when storing the telescope in a permanent observatory facility By default the Home position is the GOTO e EU D SET same as the index position used when aligning the mount To set the Home position POLAR ALIGN for your mount simply use the arrow buttons on the hand control to move the LIGHT CONTROL telescope mount to the desired position Select the Set option and press Enter Polar Align The Advanced GT has a polar alignment function that will help you KEYPAD OFF polar align your telescope for increased tracking precision and astrophotography KEYPAD ON After performing an Auto Alignment the telescope will slew to where Polaris should DISPLAY OFF DISPLAY ON be By using the equ
52. e 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 Figure 5 4 The position of the Big Dipper changes throughout the year and the night Winter lt The north celestial pole is the point in the northern hemisphere around which all stars appear to rotate The counterpart in the southern hemisphere is referred to as the south celestial pole Little Dipper Cassiopela Polaris e North Star Figure 5 5 The two stars in the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris which is less than one degree from the true north celestial pole Cassiopeia the W shaped constellation is on the opposite side of the pole from the Big Dipper The North Celestial Pole N C P is marked by the sign 33 Declination Drift Method of Polar Alignment This method of polar alignment allows you to get the most accurate alignment on the celestial pole and is required if you want to do long exposure deep sky astrophotography through the telescope The declination drift method requires that you monitor the drift of selected stars The drift of each star tells you how far away the polar axis is pointing from the true celestial pole and in what direction Although declination drift is simple and straight forward it re
53. e These atmospheric disturbances vary from time to time and place to place The size of the air parcels compared to your aperture 36 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 photographic observations Figure 6 1 Seeing conditions directly affect image quality These drawings represent a point source i e star under bad seeing conditions left to excellent conditions right Most often seeing conditions produce images that lie some where between these two extremes 37 CELESTRON Astrophotography After looking at the night sky for a while you may want to try photographing it Several forms of celestial photography are possible with your telescope including short exposure prime focus eyepiece projection long exposure deep sky terrestrial and even CCD imaging Each of these is discussed in moderate detail with enough information to get you started Topics include the accessories required and some simple techniques More information 15 available in some of the publications listed at the end of this manual In addition to the specific accessories required for each type of celestial photography there is the need for a camera but not just any camera The camera does not have
54. e 70 20 10s Kenora Ontario 94 29 49 47 Irkutsk Russia 104 20e 52 30 Labrador City Labrador 66 52 52 56 Jakarta Indonesia 106 48e 6 16s Montreal Quebec 73 39 45 32 Johannesburg South Africa 28 4e 26 12s Mt Logan Yukon 140 24 60 34 Kingston Jamaica 76 49 w 17 59n Nakina Yukon 132 48 59 12 La Paz Bolivia 68 w 16 27s Ottawa Ontario 75 45 45 18 Leeds England 1 30 w 53 45n Peace River Alberta 117 18 56 15 Lima Peru 77 2w 12 0s Pr Edward Isl Nova Scotia 63 9 46 14 Liverpool England 3 Ow 53 25n Quebec Quebec 71 15 46 50 London England 0 5 w 51 32 Regina Saskatchewan 104 38 50 30 Lyons France 4 50e 45 45n Saskatoon Saskatchewan 101 32 52 10 Madrid Spain 3 42w 40 26n St Johns Newfoundland 52 43 47 34 Manchester England 2 15 53 30n Toronto Ontario 79 23 43 39 Manila Phillipines 120 57e 14 35n Vancouver BC 123 7 49 16 Marseilles France 5 20e 43 20n Victoria BC 123 20 48 26 Mazatl n Mexico 106 25 w 23 12n Whitehorse Yukon 135 3 60 43 Mecca Saudi Arabia 39 45e 21 29n Winnipeg Manitoba 97 9 49 53 Melbourne Australia 144 58e 37 475 INTERNA TIONAL Mexico City Mexico 99 TW 19 26n Milan Italy 9 10e 45 27 Aberdeen Scotland 2 9w 57 9n O E a EE s Adelaide Australia 138 36e 34 55s Munich Germany 11 35e 48 8n Amsterdam Holland 4 53e 52 22n Nagasaki Japan 129 57e 32 48n Ankara Turkey 32 55e 39 55n Nagoya Japan 136 56e 35 7n Asunci n Paraguay 57 40 25 15s Nairobi Kenya 36 55e 1 25s Athens Greece 23 43e 37 58n Nanjing China 118 53e 32 3n
55. e of the mount 35 Release the telescope GRADUALLY to see which way the telescope rolls M R A Lock Lever 4 Loosen the set screws on the side of the counterweight so it can be moved the length of the counterweight bar Move the counterweight to a point where it balances the telescope 1 e the telescope remains stationary when the R A clutch knobs are loose Figure 2 12 6 Tighten the screw on the counterweight to hold it in place While the above instructions describe a perfect balance arrangement there should be a SLIGHT imbalance to ensure the best possible tracking When the scope is on the west side of the mount the counterweight should be slightly imbalanced to the counterweight bar side And when the tube is on the east side of the mount there should be a slight imbalance toward the telescope side This is done so that the worm gear 15 pushing against a slight load The amount of the imbalance is very slight When taking astrophotographs this balance process can be done for the specific area at which the telescope is pointing to further optimize tracking accuracy Figure 2 13 Balancing The Mount in DEC Although the telescope does not track in declination the telescope should also be balanced in this axis to prevent any sudden motions when the DEC lock lever is loose To balance the telescope in DEC 1 Loosen the R A clutch lock lever and rotate the telescope so that it is on one side of the mou
56. e thin allowing the light from the brightest stars through Hazy skies absorb more light than clear skies making fainter objects harder to see and reducing contrast on brighter objects Aerosols ejected into the upper atmosphere from volcanic eruptions also affect transparency Ideal conditions are when the night sky is inky black Sky Illumination General sky brightening caused by the Moon aurorae natural airglow and light pollution greatly affect transparency While not a problem for the brighter stars and planets bright skies reduce the contrast of extended nebulae making them difficult if not impossible to see To maximize your observing limit deep sky viewing to moonless nights far from the light polluted skies found around major urban areas LPR filters enhance deep sky viewing from light polluted areas by blocking unwanted light while transmitting light from certain deep sky objects You can on the other hand observe planets and stars from light polluted areas or when the Moon is out Seeing Seeing conditions refers to the stability of the atmosphere and directly affects the amount of fine detail seen in extended objects The air in our atmosphere acts as a lens which bends and distorts incoming light rays The amount of bending depends on air density Varying temperature layers have different densities and therefore bend light differently Light rays from the same object arrive slightly displaced creating an imperfect or smeared imag
57. easier Installing the Counterweight Depending on which AST telescope you have you will receive either one or two counterweights To install the counterweight s Orient the mount so that the counterweight bar points toward the ground Remove the counterweight safety screw on the end of the counterweight bar 1 e opposite the end that attaches to the mount Loosen the locking screw on the side of the counterweight Slide the counterweight onto the shaft see Figure 2 5 Tighten the locking screw on the side of the weight to hold the counterweight in place Replace the counterweight safety screw Attaching the Hand Control Holder Advanced GT Models Only Hand Control The Advanced GT telescope models come with a hand control Holder holder to place the computerized hand control The hand control holder comes in two pieces the leg clamp that snaps around the tripod leg and the holder which attaches to the leg clamp To attach the hand control holder 1 Place the leg clamp up against one of the tripod legs and press firmly until the clamp wraps around the leg 2 Slide the back of the hand control holder downward into the channel on the front of the legs clamp see Fig 2 6 i Leg Clamp until it snaps into place Attaching the Slow Motion Knobs Figure 2 6 For Non GT Models Only The Advanced Series non GT models comes with two slow motion control knobs that allows you to make fine pointing adjustments
58. ed slewing to your first alignment star the display will ask you to use the arrow buttons to align the selected star with the cross hairs in the center of the finderscope Once centered in the finder press ENTER 3 The display will then instruct you to center the star in the field of view of the eyepiece When the star is centered press ALIGN to accept this star as your first alignment star 4 After the first alignment star has been entered the telescope will automatically select a second alignment star on the same side of the Meridian and have you repeat this procedure for that star 5 For the third alignment star the telescope will select a bright star on the opposite side of the Meridian and slew to it Once again center the star in the crosshairs of the finderscope and then center the star in the eyepiece pressing ENTER when complete When the telescope has been aligned on all three stars the display will read Alignment Successful and you are now ready to find your first object Figure 3 2 The Meridian is an imaginary line in the sky that starts at the North celestial pole and ends at the South celestial pole and passes through the zenith If you are facing South the meridian starts from your Southern horizon and passes directly overhead to the North celestial pole Auto Three Star Align Auto Three Star Alignment works much the same way as Auto Align however instead of automatically slewing to the alignment stars the
59. elestron Distributor or Authorized Celestron Dealer in the specific country and please contact them for any warranty service 8 CELESTRON Celestron 2835 Columbia Street Torrance CA 90503 U S A Tel 310 328 9560 Fax 310 212 5835 Web site at http www celestron com Copyright 2003 Celestron All rights reserved Products or instructions may change without notice or obligation Item 11025 INST 10 00 08 03
60. er 35 is returned from the handcontrol Send A Slow Goto Command Through RS232 To The Hand Control note Only valid for motorcontrol version 4 1 or greater 1 Convert the angle position to a 24bit number Example if the desired position is 220 then POSITION 24BIT 220 360 2 10 252 743 2 Separate POSITION 24BIT into three bytes such that POSITION 24BIT PosHigh 65536 PosMed 256 PosLow Exampe PosHigh 156 PosMed 113 PosLow 199 3 Send the following 8 bytes a Azm Slow Goto 80 4 16 23 PosHigh PosMed PosLow 0 b Alt Slow Goto 80 4 17 23 PosHigh PosMed PosLow 0 4 The number 35 is returned from the handcontrol Reset The Position Of Azm Or Alt 1 Convert the angle position to a 24bit number same as Slow Goto example 2 Send the following 8 bytes a Azm Set Position 80 4 16 4 PosHigh PosMed PosLow 0 b Alt Set Position 80 4 17 4 PosHigh PosMed PosLow 0 3 The number 35 is returned from the handcontrol 4 Note If using Motorcontrol version less than 4 1 then send a Azm Set Position 80 3 16 4 PosHigh PosMed PosLow 0 b Alt Set Position 80 3 17 4 PosHigh PosMed PosLow 0 59 APPENDIX E MAPS OF TIME ZONES 1 00 260 3 00 4 00 5 00 6 00 41 10 9 8 7 6 Hawaii Alaska Pacific Mountain Central Eastern Time Zones 60 iy HV Time Zones 61 Virgo January Februar
61. esigns Each design has its own advantages and disadvantages For the 1 1 4 barrel diameter there are four different eyepiece designs available e OMNI Plossl Plossl eyepieces have a 4 element lens designed for low to high power observing The Plossls offer razor sharp views across the entire field even at the edges In the 1 1 4 barrel diameter they are available in the following focal lengths 4mm 6mm 9mm 12 5mm 15mm 20mm 25mm 32mm and 40mm e X Cel This 6 element design allows each X Cel Eyepiece to have 20mm of eye relief 55 field of view and more than 25mm of lens aperture even with the 2 3mm In order to maintain razor sharp color corrected images across its 55 field of view extra low dispersion glass is used for the most highly curved optical elements The excellent refractive properties of these high grade optical elements make the X Cel line especially well suited for high magnification planetary viewing where sharp color free views are most appreciated X Cel eyepiece come in the following focal lengths 2 3mm 5mm 8mm 10mm 12 5mm 18mm 21mm 25mm e Ultima Ultima is our 5 element wide field eyepiece design In the 1 1 4 barrel diameter they are available in the following focal lengths 5mm 7 5mm 10mm 12 5mm 18mm 30mm 35mm and 42mm These eyepieces are all parfocal The 35mm Ultima gives the widest possible field of view with a 1 1 4 diagonal e Axiom As an extension of the Ultima line a new w
62. ews since they are needed later for polar alignment Alignment Peg Hold the equatorial mount over the tripod head so that the i azimuth housing is above the metal peg Mounting Place equatorial mount on the tripod head so that the two are flush Tighten the knob attached to the central rod on the underside of the tripod head to hold the equatorial mount firmly in place Figure 2 3 Attaching the Center Leg Brace Slide the accessory tray over the central rod so that each arm of the tray is pushing against the Inside of the tripod legs Thread the accessory tray knob on to the central rod and tighten Installing the Counterweight Bar To properly balance the telescope the mount comes with a counterweight bar and at least 3 Mounting Knob counterweight depending on model To install the counterweight bar Central Rod Locate the opening in the equatorial mount on the AN Accessory Tray DEC axis y the counterweight bar into the opening until i AL Accessory y Tray Knob Tighten the counterweight bar lock nut fully for added support Figure 2 4 Once the bar is securely in place you are ready to attach the counterweight Since the fully assembled telescope can be quite heavy position the mount so that the polar axis is pointing towards north before the tube assembly and counterweights are attached This will make the polar alignment procedure much
63. g 2 7 Press Enter to continue necessary 10 calculate 3 The hand control will then display the last entered local time Compensates for cone error date time zone longitude and latitude inherent in all German equatorial e Use the Up Down keys 10 to view the current mounts Cone error is the inaccuracy that results from the parameters optical tube not being exactly e Press ENTER to accept the current parameters perpendicular to the mounts e Press UNDO tto enter current date and time declination axis as well as various information into the hand control The following other inaccuracies such as backlash information will be displayed in the mounts gears The telescope is able to automatically determine the cone error value by always using alignment stars on both sides of the Meridian see Figure 3 2 Time Enter the current local time for your area You can enter either the local time i e 08 00 or you can enter military time i e 20 00 Mechanical errors can be reduced e Select PM or AM If military time was entered the further always centering hand control will bypass this step alignment stars using the up and e Choose between Standard time or Daylight Savings right arrow buttons as described in time Use the Up and Down scroll buttons 10 to the Pointing Accuracy box below toggle between options e Select the time zone that you are observing from Again use the Up and Down buttons 10 to scr
64. h the eyepiece in place To do so you need two additional accessories a deluxe tele extender 93643 which attaches to the visual back and a T ring for your particular camera make 1 e Minolta Nikon Pentax etc Because of the high magnifications during eyepiece projection the field of view is quite small which makes it difficult to find and center objects To make the job a little easier align the finder as accurately as possible This allows you to get the object in the telescope s field based on the finder s view alone Leu 3 Smm cou ETA SLR _ A T RIng Another problem introduced by the high magnification is vibration Simply os tripping the shutter even with a cable release produces enough vibration to smear the image To get around this use the camera s self timer if the exposure time is less than one second a common occurrence when photographing the Cyn Tele Extender Eyepiece Moon For exposures over one second use the hat trick This technique RAM a incorporates a hand held black card placed over the aperture of the telescope to Visual Back Figure 7 1 Accessories for Projection Photography 39 act as a shutter The card prevents light from entering the telescope while the shutter is released Once the shutter has been released and the vibration has diminished a few seconds move the black card out of the way to expose the film After the exposure is complete p
65. he Sun without looking into the eyepiece watch the shadow of the telescope tube until it forms a circular shadow e To ensure accurate tracking be sure to select the solar tracking rate Observing Deep Sky Objects Deep sky objects are simply those objects outside the boundaries of our solar system They include star clusters planetary nebulae diffuse nebulae double stars and other galaxies outside our own Milky Way Most deep sky objects have a large angular size Therefore low to moderate power is all you need to see them Visually they are too faint to reveal any of the color seen in long exposure photographs Instead they appear black and white 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 Seeing Conditions Viewing conditions affect what you can see through your telescope during an observing session Conditions include transparency sky illumination and seeing Understanding viewing conditions and the effect they have on observing will help you get the most out of your telescope Transparency Transparency is the clarity of the atmosphere which is affected by clouds moisture and other airborne particles Thick cumulus clouds are completely opaque while cirrus can b
66. he drift in declination e Ifthe star drifts south the polar axis is too far east e Ifthe star drifts north the polar axis is too far west Make the appropriate adjustments to the polar axis to eliminate any drift Once you have eliminated all the drift move to the star near the eastern horizon The star should be 20 degrees above the horizon and within five degrees of the celestial equator 9 Ifthe star drifts south the polar axis is too low e Ifthe star drifts north the polar axis is too high Again make the appropriate adjustments to the polar axis to eliminate any drift Unfortunately the latter adjustments interact with the prior adjustments ever so slightly So repeat the process again to improve the accuracy checking both axes for minimal drift Once the drift has been eliminated the telescope is very accurately aligned You can now do prime focus deep sky astrophotography for long periods NOTE Ifthe eastern horizon is blocked you may choose a star near the western horizon but you must reverse the polar high low error directions Also if using this method in the southern hemisphere the direction of drift is reversed for both R A and DEC 34 8 CELESTRON Celestial Observing With your telescope set up you are ready to use it for observing This section covers visual observing hints for both solar system and deep sky objects as well as general observing conditions which will affect your ability to observe Ofte
67. hing happens again You would have to travel 70 miles north or south to change your latitude by one degree As you can see from this example the distance from the northern horizon to the celestial pole is always equal to your latitude If you are observing from Los Angeles which has a latitude of 34 then the celestial pole is 34 above the northern horizon All a latitude scale does then is to point the polar axis of the telescope at the right elevation above the northern or southern horizon To align your telescope Make sure the polar axis of the mount is pointing due north Use a landmark that you know faces north Level the tripod There is a bubble level built into the mount for this purpose NOTE Leveling the tripod is only necessary if using this method of polar alignment Perfect polar alignment is still possible using other methods described later in this manual without leveling the tripod Adjust the mount in altitude until the latitude indicator points to your latitude Moving the mount affects the angle the polar axis is pointing For specific information on adjusting the equatorial mount please see the section Adjusting the Mount This method can be done in daylight thus eliminating the need to fumble around in the dark Although this method does NOT put you directly on the pole it will limit the number of corrections you will make when tracking an object It will also be accurate enough for short exposure prime focus
68. ial equator also follow circular paths around the pole But the complete path is interrupted by the horizon These appear to rise in the east and set in the west 2 Looking toward the opposite pole stars curve or arc in the opposite direction scribing a circle around the opposite pole 3 3l Latitude Scales The easiest way to polar align a telescope is with a latitude scale Unlike other methods that require you to find the celestial pole by identifying certain stars near it this method works off of a known constant to determine how high the polar axis should be pointed The Advanced Series mount can be adjusted from 25 to 60 degrees see figure 5 3 The constant mentioned above is a relationship between your latitude and the angular distance the celestial pole is above the northern or southern horizon The angular distance from the northern horizon to the north celestial pole is always equal to your latitude To illustrate this imagine that Latitude you are standing on the north pole latitude 90 Scale The north celestial pole which has a declination of 90 would be directly overhead 1 90 above the horizon Now let s say that you move one degree south your latitude is now 89 and the celestial pole is no longer directly overhead Figure 5 3 It has moved one degree closer toward the northern horizon This means the pole is now 89 above the northern horizon If you move one degree further south the same t
69. ide angle series is offered called the Axiom series All units are seven element designs and feature a 70 extra wide field of view except the 50mm All are fully multicoated and contain all the features of the Ultimas Filters Sets Eyepiece Celestron offers four convenient filter sets which contain four different filters per set Not only are these highly useful filter combinations but they also offer an economical way to add versatility to your filter collection Series 1 94119 10 Orange Light Blue ND13 T Polarizing 5 21 80 96ND 13 Polarizing 46 Series 2 94119 20 Deep Yellow Red Light Green ND25 T 5 12 25 56 96ND 25 Series 3 94119 30 Light Red Blue Green ND50 T s 23A 38A 58 96ND 50 Series 4 94119 40 Yellow Deep Yellow Violet Pale Blue Zs 8 15 47 82A Flashlight Night Vision 93588 Celestron s premium model for astronomy using two red LED s to preserve night vision better than red filters or other devices Brightness is adjustable Operates on a single 9 volt battery included CN16 GPS Accessory 93963 Plug in this 16 channel GPS module into your telescopes drive base port to link up and automatically download information from one of many global positioning satellites Controlled with the computerized hand control the CN 16 will greatly improve the accuracy of your star alignments CN16 GPS Bracket 93964 Support your CN 16 GPS accessory with this
70. inting accuracy after using the Last Alignment method To maintain a more accurate alignment over a series of observing sessions use the Hibernate feature described later in this chapter Re Alignment The Advanced Series telescopes have a re alignment feature which allows you to replace any of the original alignment stars with a new star or celestial object This can be useful in several situations e If you are observing over a period of a few hours you may notice that your original two alignment stars have drifted towards the west considerably Remember that the stars are moving at a rate of 15 every hour Aligning on a new star that 1s in the eastern part of the sky will improve your pointing accuracy especially on objects in that part of the sky e If you have aligned your telescope using the Quick Align method you can use re align to align on actual objects in the sky This will improve the pointing accuracy of your telescope without having to re enter addition information To replace an existing alignment star with a new alignment star Select the desired star or object from the database and slew to it Carefully center the object in the eyepiece Once centered press the UNDO button until you are at the main menu With Advanced GT displayed press the ALIGN key on the hand control The display will then ask you which alignment star you want to replace Use the UP and Down scroll keys to select the alignment star to be replaced
71. ion If the star image moves out of the field of view in the direction that the central shadow 1s skewed than you are turning the collimation screw the wrong way Turn the screw in the opposite direction so that the star image 1s moving towards the center of the field of view 6 If while turning you notice that the screws get very loose then simply tighten the other two screws by the same amount Conversely if the collimation screw gets too tight then loosen the other two screws by the same amount 7 Once the star image is in the center of the field of view check to see if the rings are concentric If the central obstruction is still skewed in the same direction then continue turning the screw s in the same direction If you find that the ring pattern is skewed in a different direction than simply repeat steps 2 through 6 as described above for the new direction Figure 8 3 A collimated telescope should appear symmetrical with the eon all OR Perfect collimation will yield a star image very symmetrical just inside and outside of focus In centered in the star s addition perfect collimation delivers the optimal optical performance specifications that your diffraction pattern telescope is built to achieve If seeing 1 e air steadiness is turbulent collimation is difficult to judge Wait until a better night if it is turbulent or aim 10 a steadier part of the sky A steadier part of the
72. iston Malad City Malta Mccall Mullan Pocatello Salmon Soda Springs Sun Valley Twin Falls ILLINOIS Alton Aurora Bistate Park Bloomington Bradford Cairo Carbondale Centralia Champaign Chicago Danville DeKalb Decatur Du Page Galesburg LONGITUDE degrees 80 80 87 84 82 83 84 81 81 84 84 85 81 81 85 83 83 83 85 83 82 158 160 166 155 157 156 158 159 156 159 156 157 156 156 116 113 114 116 115 119 116 112 117 112 113 116 115 112 113 111 114 114 90 88 90 88 89 89 89 89 88 87 87 88 88 88 90 37 8 16 8 4 8 40 8 19 2 40 8 10 8 13 2 46 2 13 2 49 2 25 8 10 2 7 8 4 2 19 2 22 2 0 6 4 8 3 6 34 8 1 8 28 8 19 2 55 8 3 6 13 2 15 5 4 16 8 39 3 6 43 2 52 2 15 25 8 LATITUDE degrees 31 8 31 8 57 39 22 2 31 2 55 2 19 8 52 8 1 2 0 6 42 58 2 37 8 46 8 15 31 8 27 43 2 54 45 22 8 48 58 8 58 2 25 2 34 2 31 8 31 2 46 2 49 2 55 2 31 2 22 8 10 2 18 52 8 28 2 55 2 10 8 39 30 28 8 52 8 46 2 34 2 28 8 9 6 4 2 46 8 30 6 1 8 54 12 55 8 49 8 55 2 55 8 Glenview NAS Kankakee Macomb Marion Marseilles Mattoon Moline Quad Mount Vernon Peoria Quincy Rockford Salem Scott AFB Springfield Sterling Taylorville Vandalia INDIANA Bakalar Bloomington Elkhart Evansville Fort Wayne Gary Grissom AFB Indianapolis Muncie South Bend Terre Hau
73. k produced even by a perfect optical system Since the star can never be focused perfectly 84 per cent of the light will concentrate into a single disk and 16 per cent into a system of surrounding rings A telescope mounting using two independent rotation axis allowing movement of the instrument in Altitude and Azimuth In astronomy the altitude of a celestial object is its Angular Distance above or below the celestial horizon the diameter of a telescope s primary lens or mirror the larger the aperture the greater the telescope s light gathering power A measure of the relative brightness of a star or other celestial object as perceived by an observer on Earth A unit of angular size equal to 1 60 of a degree A unit of angular size equal to 1 3 600 of a degree or 1 60 of an arcminute A small unofficial grouping of stars in the night sky A small rocky body that orbits a star The pseudoscientific belief that the positions of stars and planets exert an influence on human affairs astrology has nothing in common with astronomy The distance between the Earth and the Sun It is equal to 149 597 900 km usually rounded off to 150 000 000 km The emission of light when charged particles from the solar wind slams into and excites atoms and molecules in a planet s upper atmosphere The angular distance of an object eastwards along the horizon measured from due north between the astronomical meridian the vertical line passing through
74. king 1s on so that you won t have to manually track the star Or if you do not want to power up your telescope you can use Polaris Its position relative to the celestial pole means that it moves very little thus eliminating the need to manually track it Before you begin the collimation process be sure that your telescope is in thermal equilibrium with the surroundings Allow 45 minutes for the telescope to reach equilibrium if you move it between large temperature extremes Figure 8 1 The three collimation screws are located qe on the front of the secondary mirror 12mm to 6mm focal length It is important to center a star in the center of the field to housing judge collimation Slowly cross in and out of focus and judge the symmetry of the star If you see a systematic skewing of the star to one side then re collimation is needed To verify collimation view a star near the zenith Use a medium to high power ocular 44 Figure 8 2 Even though the star pattern appears the same on both sides of focus they are asymmetric The dark obstruction is skewed off to the left side of the diffraction pattern indicating poor collimation To accomplish this you need to tighten the secondary collimation screw s that move the star across the field toward the direction of the skewed light These screws are located in the secondary mirror holder see figure 8 1 Make only small 1 6 to 1 8 adjustments to the collimation screws and re cente
75. lace the card over the front of the telescope and close the shutter Advance the film and you re ready for your next shot Keep in mind that the card should be held a few inches in front of the telescope and not touching it It is easier if you use two people for this process one to release the camera shutter and one to hold the card Here s the process for making the exposure 1 Find and center the desired target in the viewfinder of your camera 2 Turn the focus knob until the image is as sharp as possible 3 Place the black card over the front of the telescope 4 Release the shutter using a cable release 5 Wait for the vibration caused by releasing the shutter to diminish Also wait for a moment of good seeing 6 Remove the black card from in front of the telescope for the duration of the exposure see accompanying table 7 Replace the black card over the front of the telescope 8 Close the camera s shutter Advance the film and you are ready for your next exposure Don t forget to take photos of varying duration and keep accurate records of what you have done Record the date telescope exposure duration eyepiece f ratio film and some comments on the seeing conditions The following table lists exposures for eyepiece projection with a 10mm eyepiece All exposure times are listed in seconds or fractions of a second Mon J4 J 2 sg hj 1 S Meeuy 16 i 8 14 2 J Mas 116 8 A 2 Jupiter J8
76. leg brace accessory tray to give rock solid support to the mount The tripod comes fully assembled with a metal plate called the tripod head that holds the legs together at the top In addition there is a central rod that extends down from the tripod head that attaches the equatorial mount to the tripod To set up the tripod 1 Stand the tripod upright and pull the tripod legs apart until each leg is fully extended The tripod will now stand by itself Once the tripod is set up you can adjust the height at which it stands 2 Loosen the lever on the leg clamp so that the tripod leg can be adjusted 3 Slide the center portion of the tripod leg away from the tripod head until it is at the desired height 4 Tighten the levers on each leg clamp to hold the legs in place Attaching the Equatorial Mount The equatorial mount allows you to tilt the telescope s axis of rotation so that you can track the stars as they move across the sky The CG 5 mount is a German equatorial mount that attaches to the tripod head On one side of the tripod head there is a metal alignment peg for aligning the mount This side of the tripod will face north when setting up for an astronomical observing session To attach the equatorial head Equatorial he FS Azimuth Locate the azimuth adjustment screws on the equatorial mount de Alignment Screws Retract the screws so they no longer extend into the azimuth housing on the mount Do NOT remove the scr
77. mp hour rechargeable power supply Comes with two 12v output cigarette outlets built in red flash light Halogen emergency spotlight Switchable 110v 220v AC adapter and cigarette lighter adapter included 47 Radial Guider 94176 The Celestron Radial Guider is specifically designed for use in prime focus deep sky astrophotography and takes the place of the T Adapter This device allows you to photograph and guide simultaneously through the optical tube assembly of your telescope This type of guiding produces the best results since what you see through the guiding eyepiece is exactly reproduced on the processed film The Radial Guider is a T shaped assembly that attaches to the rear cell of the telescope As light from the telescope enters the guider most passes straight through to the camera A small portion however is diverted by a prism at an adjustable angle up to the guiding eyepiece This guider has two features not found on other off axis guiders first the prism and eyepiece housing rotate independently of the camera orientation making the acquisition of a guide star quite easy Second the prism angle is tunable allowing you to look at guide stars on axis This accessory works especially well with the Reducer Corrector Reducer Corrector 94175 This lens reduces the focal length of the telescope by 37 making your C8 S a 1280mm f 6 3 instrument In addition this unique lens also corrects inherent aberrations to p
78. n When the telescope is polar aligned this can be accomplished by moving the telescope in right ascension only Lunar Used for tracking the moon when observing the lunar landscape Solar Used for tracking the Sun when solar observing with the proper filter View Time Site Displays the current time and longitude latitude downloaded from the optional CN 16 GPS receiver It will also display other relevant time site information like time zone daylight saving and local sidereal time Local sidereal time LST is useful for knowing the right ascension of celestial objects that are located on the Meridian at that time View Time Site will always display the last saved time and location entered while it 1s linking with the GPS Once current information has been received it will update the displayed information If GPS 15 switched off or not present the hand control will only display the last saved time and location User Defined Objects Your telescope can store up to 400 different user defined objects in its memory The objects can be daytime land objects or an interesting celestial object that you discover that is not included in the regular database There are several ways to save an object to memory depending on what type of object it is 29 GoTo Object Save Sky Object Enter R A Dec Save Land Object To go to any of the user defined objects stored in the database scroll down to either GoTo Sky Obj or Goto Land Obj and enter
79. n it is tempting to look at the Moon when it is full At this time the face we see is fully illuminated and its light can be overpowering In addition little or no contrast can be seen during this phase One of the best times to observe the Moon is during its partial phases around the time of first or third quarter Long shadows reveal a great amount of detail on the lunar surface At low power you will be able to see most of the lunar disk at one time The optional Reducer Corrector lens allows for breath taking views of the entire lunar disk when used with a low power eyepiece Change to higher power magnification to focus in on a smaller area Choose the unar tracking rate from the hand control s MENU tracking rate options to keep the moon centered in the eyepiece even at high magnifications Lunar Observing Hints To increase contrast 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 Observing the Planets Other fascinating targets include the five naked eye planets You can see Venus go through its lunar like phases Mars can reveal a host of surface detail and one if not both of its polar caps You will be able to see the cloud belts of Jupiter and the great Red Spot if it is visible at the time you are observing In addition you will also be able to see the moons of Jupiter as
80. n advance of return Call Celestron at 310 328 9560 to receive the number to be displayed on the outside of your shipping container All returns must be accompanied by a written statement setting forth the name address and daytime telephone number of the owner together with a brief description of any claimed defects Parts or product for which replacement is made shall become the property of Celestron The customer shall be responsible for all costs of transportation and insurance both to and from the factory of Celestron and shall be required to prepay such costs Celestron shall use reasonable efforts to repair or replace any telescope covered by this warranty within thirty days of receipt In the event repair or replacement shall require more than thirty days Celestron shall notify the customer accordingly Celestron reserves the right to replace any product which has been discontinued from its product line with a new product of comparable value and function This warranty shall be void and of no force of effect in the event a covered product has been modified in design or function or subjected to abuse misuse mishandling or unauthorized repair Further product malfunction or deterioration due to normal wear is not covered by this warranty CELESTRON 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 CELESTRON UNDER TH
81. n the tracking motors off so that objects will remain in your camera s field of view Metering The Advanced Series telescope has a fixed aperture and as a result fixed f ratios To properly expose your subjects photographically you need to set your shutter speed accordingly Most 35mm SLR cameras offer through the lens metering which lets you know if your picture is under or overexposed Adjustments for proper exposures are made by changing the shutter speed Consult your camera manual for specific information on metering and changing shutter speeds Reducing Vibration Releasing the shutter manually can cause vibrations producing blurred photos To reduce vibration when tripping the shutter use a cable release A cable release keeps your hands clear of the camera and lens thus eliminating the possibility of introducing vibration Mechanical shutter releases can be used though air type releases are best Blurry pictures can also result from shutter speeds that are too slow To prevent this use films that produce shutter speeds greater than 1 250 of a second when hand holding the lens If the lens is mounted on a tripod the exposure length 15 virtually unlimited Another way to reduce vibration is with the Vibration Suppression Pads 93503 These pads rest between the ground and tripod feet They reduce the vibration amplitude and vibration time CCD Imaging Advanced GT telescope s versatility allows it to be used in many different f
82. nders of the Universe Some of the many standard features of the Advanced GT include e Fully enclosed optical encoders for position location Ergonomically designed mount that disassembles into compact and portable pieces e Database filter limits for creating custom object lists Storage for programmable user defined objects and Many other high performance features The AST s deluxe features combine with Celestron s legendary Schmidt Cassegrain optical system to give amateur astronomers the most sophisticated and easy to use telescopes available on the market today Take time to read through this manual before embarking on your journey through the Universe It may take a few observing sessions to become familiar with your telescope so you should keep this manual handy until you have fully mastered your telescope s operation The Advanced GT 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 conjunction with the on screen instructions provided by the hand control The manual gives detailed information regarding each step as well as needed reference material and helpful hints guaranteed to make your observing experience as simple and pleasurable as possible Your telescope is designed to give you years of fun and rewarding observations However there are a few things to consider before using your telescope that will ensure your
83. nt 1 e as described in the previous section on Balancing the Mount in R A Ze Tighten the R A lock lever to hold the telescope in place 13 3 Loosen the DEC clutch lock lever and rotate the telescope until the tube 1s parallel to the ground 4 Release the tube GRADUALLY to see which way it rotates around the declination axis DO NOT LET GO OF THE TELESCOPE TUBE COMPLETELY Slightly loosen the knobs that holds the telescope to the mounting platform and slide the telescope either forward or backward until it remains stationary when the DEC clutch is loose Do NOT let go of the telescope tube while the knob on the mounting platform is loose It may be necessary to rotate the telescope so that the counterweight bar is pointing down before loosening the mounting platform screw 6 Tighten the knobs on the telescope mounting platform to hold the telescope in place Like R A balance these are general balance instructions and will reduce undue stress on the mount When taking astrophotographs this balance process should be done for the specific area at which the telescope is pointing Adjusting the Mount In order for a motor drive to track accurately the telescope s axis of rotation must be parallel to the Earth s axis of rotation a process known as polar alignment Polar alignment is achieved NOT by moving the telescope in R A or DEC but by adjusting the mount vertically which is called altitude and horizontally
84. o experiment with different values from 0 99 a value between 20 and 50 is usually best for most visual observing whereas a higher value may be necessary for photographic guiding FILTERING ON FILTERING OFF To set the anti backlash value scroll down to the anti backlash option and press ENTER While viewing an object in the eyepiece observe the responsiveness of each of the four arrow buttons Note which directions you see a pause in the star movement after the button has been pressed Working one axis at a time adjust the backlash settings high enough to cause immediate movement without resulting in a pronounced jump when pressing or releasing the button Now enter the same values for both positive and negative directions If you notice a jump when releasing the button but setting the values lower results in a pause when pressing the button go with the higher value for positive but use a lower value for negative The telescope will remember these values and use them each time it is turned on until they are changed Filter Limits When an alignment is complete the telescope automatically knows which celestial objects are above the horizon As a result when scrolling through the database lists or selecting the Tour function the hand control will display only those objects that are known to be above the horizon when you are observing You can customize the object database by selecting altitude limits that are appropriate for your locati
85. o move the telescope in the same directions Autoguide Rate Allows the user to set an autoguide rate as a percentage of sidereal rate This is helpful when calibrating your telescope to a CCD autoguider for long exposure photography E Azimuth Limits Sets the limits that the telescope can slew in azimuth R A The slew limits are set to 0 to 180 with zero being the position of the telescope when the Fig 3 3 Azimuth Slew Limits This counterweight bar is extended out towards the west and 180 figure shows the full range of motion being the position when the counterweight bar is extended out forte RA axis toward the east see Fig 3 3 However the slew limits can be customized depending on your needs For example if you are using CCD imaging equipment that has cables that are not long enough to move with the telescope as it slews across the sky you can adjust the azimuth slew limit on the side of the mount that is restricted by the cables Using the example above the user could slew the telescope in R A azimuth until it reaches the point that the cables are extended to their maximum Then by displaying the 26 telescopes azimuth in this position by looking at Get A t Az under the Utilities menu you can determine the telescopes azimuth at its most extended position Enter this azimuth reading for either the maximum or minimum azimuth slew limit to ensure that the telescope will not slew
86. oll through the choices Refer to Time Zone map in Appendix for more information Date Enter the month day and year of your observing session e Finally you must enter the longitude and latitude of the location of your observing site Use the table in Appendix C to locate the closest longitude and latitude for your current observing location and enter those numbers when asked in the hand control pressing ENTER after each entry Remember to select West for longitudes in North America and North for latitudes in the North Hemisphere For international cities the correct hemisphere is indicated in the Appendix listings 18 4 Select one of the four alignment methods as described below Note If incorrect information is entered into the hand control the UNDO button acts like a back space button allowing the user to re enter the correct data Auto Align Auto Align allows the telescope to automatically choose three stars two on one side of the Meridian and one on the opposite side on which to align itself To Auto Align your telescope 1 Select Auto Align from the alignment choices given Based on the date and time information entered the telescope will automatically select and go to a bright star that is above the horizon e If for some reason the chosen star is not visible perhaps behind a tree or building press UNDO to automatically select the next bright star from the database star list 2 Once the telescope is finish
87. on and situation For example if you are observing from a mountainous location where the horizon 15 partially obscured you can set your 25 minimum altitude limit to read 20 This will make sure that the hand control only displays objects that are higher in altitude than 20 Observing If you want to explore the entire object database set the maximum altitude limit to 90 and the minimum limit to Tip 90 This will display every object in the database lists regardless of whether it is visible in the sky from your location Direction Buttons The direction a star appears to move in the eyepiece changes depending on which side of the Meridian the telescope tube is on This can create confusion especially when guiding on a star when doing astrophotography 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 button and select Direction Buttons from the Utilities menu Use the Up Down arrow keys 10 to select either the azimuth right ascension or altitude declination button direction and press ENTER Select either positive or negative for both axes and press ENTER to save Setting the azimuth button direction to positive will move the telescope in the same direction that the telescope tracks 1 e towards the west Setting the altitude buttons to positive will move the telescope counterclockwise along the DEC axis Goto Approach lets the user
88. opriate setting see table below 5 Trip the shutter using a cable release 6 Advance the film and repeat the process Table 7 1 Above is a listing of recommended exposure times when photographing the Moon at the prime focus of your telescope The exposure times listed in table 7 1 should be used as a starting point Always make exposures that are longer and shorter than the recommended time Also take a few photos at each shutter speed This will ensure that you will get a good photo e fusing black and white film try a yellow filter to reduce the light intensity and to increase contrast e Keep accurate records of your exposures This information is useful if you want to repeat your results or if you want to submit some of your photos to various astronomy magazines for possible publication e This technique is also used for photographing the Sun with the proper solar filter Eyepiece Projection This form of celestial photography is designed for objects with small angular sizes primarily the Moon and planets Planets although physically quite large appear small in angular size because of their great distances Moderate to high magnification is therefore required to make the image large enough to see any detail Unfortunately the camera telescope combination alone does not provide enough magnification to produce a usable image size on film In order to get the image large enough you must attach your camera to the telescope wit
89. or 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 1 e no designation or preceded by a plus sign The celestial equivalent of longitude is called Right Ascension or R A for short Like the Earth s lines of longitude they run from pole to pole and are evenly spaced 15 degrees apart Although the longitude lines are separated by an angular distance they are also a measure of time Each line of longitude is one hour apart from the next Since the Earth rotates once every 24 hours there are 24 lines total As a result the R A coordinates are marked off in units of time It begins with an arbitrary point in the constellation of Pisces designated as 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds All other points are designated by how far 1 e how long they lag behind this coordinate after it passes overhead moving toward the west M TES ENS Figure 5 1 The celestial sphere seen from the outside showing R A and DEC 30 Motion of the Stars The daily motion of the Sun across the sky is familiar to even the most casual observer This daily trek is not the Sun moving as early astronomers thought but the result of the Earth s rotation The Earth s rotation also causes the stars to do the same scribing out a large circle as the Earth completes one rotation The size of the cir
90. ould be able to manually move the mount head all the way to it lowest Rear Latitude latitude Now using only the rear screw raise the mount to your Adjustment desired latitude Screws gt a Front Latitude Adjusting the Mount in Azimuth 5 Adjustment Screw For rough adjustments in azimuth simply pick up the telescope and RITE T tripod and move it For fine adjustments in azimuth Knobs Turn the azimuth adjustment knobs located on either side of the Figure 2 14 14 azimuth housing While standing behind the telescope the knobs are on the front of the mount Turning the right adjustment knob clockwise moves the mount toward the right Turning the left adjustment knob clockwise moves the mount to the left Both screws push off of the peg on the tripod head which means you may have to loosen one screw while tightening the other The screw that holds the equatorial mount to the tripod may have to be loosened slightly Keep in mind that adjusting the mount is done during the polar alignment process only Once polar aligned the mount must NOT be moved Pointing the telescope is done by moving the mount in right ascension and declination as described earlier in this manual Attaching the Declination Cables For GT Models Only The Advanced Series mount comes with a declination cable that connects from the R A motor drive electronic panel to the Dec motor drive To attach the motor cables e Locate the Declina
91. play stars on the opposite side of the Meridian for the third alignment star Quick Align Quick Align uses all the date and time information entered at startup to align the telescope However instead of slewing to two alignment stars for centering and alignment the telescope bypasses this step and simply models the sky based on the information given This will allow you to roughly slew to the coordinates of bright objects like the moon and planets and gives the telescope the information needed to track objects in any part of the sky depending on accuracy of polar alignment Quick Align is not meant to be used to accurately locate small or faint deep sky objects or to track objects accurately for photography To use Quick Align simply select Quick Align from the alignment options and press ENTER The telescope will automatically use the entered date time parameters to align itself with the sky and display Alignment Successful NOTE Once a Quick Align has been done you can use the Re alignment feature see below to improve your telescopes pointing accuracy Last Alignment The Last Alignment method will automatically recall the last stored index positions to continue using the alignment that was saved when the telescope was last powered down This is a useful feature should your telescope accidentally lose power or be powered down NOTE Just like with Quick Align you can use the Re alignment feature see below to improve your telescopes po
92. quires a great deal of time and patience to complete when first attempted The declination drift method should be done after any one of the previously mentioned methods has been completed To perform the declination drift method you need to choose two bright stars One should be near the eastern horizon and one due south near the meridian Both stars should be near the celestial equator 1 e 0 declination You will monitor the drift of each star one at a time and in declination only While monitoring a star on the meridian any misalignment in the east west direction is revealed While monitoring a star near the east west horizon any misalignment in the north south direction 15 revealed It 15 helpful to have an illuminated reticle eyepiece to help you recognize any drift For very close alignment a Barlow lens is also recommended since it increases the magnification and reveals any drift faster When looking due south insert the diagonal so the eyepiece points straight up Insert the cross hair eyepiece and align the cross hairs so that one is parallel to the declination axis and the other is parallel to the right ascension axis Move your telescope manually in R A and DEC to check parallelism First choose your star near where the celestial equator and the meridian meet The star should be approximately within 1 2 an hour of the meridian and within five degrees of the celestial equator Center the star in the field of your telescope and monitor t
93. r The minimum detectable angle an optical system can detect Because of diffraction there is a limit to the minimum angle resolution The larger the aperture the better the resolution The angular distance of a celestial object measured in hours minutes and seconds along the Celestial Equator eastward from the Vernal Equinox Rated the most important advance in optics in 200 years the Schmidt telescope combines the best features of the refractor and reflector for photographic purposes It was invented in 1930 by Bernhard Voldemar Schmidt 1879 1935 This is the angular speed at which the Earth 1s rotating Telescope tracking motors drive the 5 T Terminator 0 Universe Variable Star W Waning Moon Waxing Moon Z Zenith Zodiac telescope at this rate The rate is 15 arc seconds per second or 15 degrees per hour The boundary line between the light and dark portion of the moon or a planet The totality of astronomical things events relations and energies capable of being described objectively A star whose brightness varies over time due to either inherent properties of the star or something eclipsing or obscuring the brightness of the star The period of the moon s cycle between full and new when its illuminated portion is decreasing The period of the moon s cycle between new and full when its illuminated portion is increasing The point on the Celestial Sphere directly above the observer The
94. r Align involves the same process as Auto Align however it allows the user to select which star to use to align the telescope Quick Align will ask you to input all the same information as you would for the Auto Align procedure However instead of slewing to the alignment stars for centering and alignment the telescope bypasses this step and simply models the sky based on the information given Finally Last Alignment restores your last saved star alignment and switch position Last Alignment also serves as a good safeguard in case the telescope should lose power Startup Procedure Before any of the described alignments are performed the telescope mount needs to be positioned so that the index marks are aligned on both the right ascension and declination axes First index its switch position so that each axis has an equal amount of travel to move in either direction Once the index position has been set Mount Calibration the hand control will display the last entered date and time information stored in the hand control Once the telescope is powered on After an Auto Align is successfully 1 Press ENTER begin the alignment process completed the hand control will 2 The hand control will ask the user to set the mount to its index display the message Calibrating position Move the telescope mount either manually or with the hand control so that the index marked in both R A and This automatic calibration routine is Dec are aligned see Fi
95. r the star by moving the scope before making any improvements or before making further adjustments To make collimation a simple procedure follow these easy steps 1 While looking through a medium to high power eyepiece de focus a bright star until a ring pattern with a dark shadow appears see figure 8 2 Center the de focused star and notice in which direction the central shadow is skewed 2 Place your finger along the edge of the front cell of the telescope be careful not to touch the corrector plate pointing towards the collimation screws The shadow of your finger should be visible when looking into the eyepiece Rotate your finger around the tube edge until its shadow is seen closest to the narrowest portion of the rings 1 6 the same direction in which the central shadow 15 skewed 3 Locate the collimation screw closest to where your finger is positioned This will be the collimation screw you will need to adjust first If your finger is positioned exactly between two of the collimation screws then you will need to adjust the screw opposite where your finger is located 4 Use the hand control buttons to move the de focused star image to the edge of the field of view in the same direction that the central obstruction of the star image 1s skewed 5 While looking through the eyepiece use an Allen wrench to turn the collimation screw you located in step 2 and 3 Usually a tenth of a turn is enough to notice a change in collimat
96. r the star diagonal To install an eyepiece 1 Loosen the set screw on the star diagonal until the tip no longer extends into the inner diameter of the eyepiece end of the diagonal 2 Slide the chrome portion of the eyepiece into the star diagonal 3 Tighten the set screw on the star diagonal to hold the eyepiece in place To remove the eyepiece loosen the set screw on the star diagonal and slide the eyepiece out You can replace it with another eyepiece purchased separately Eyepieces are commonly referred to by focal length and barrel diameter The focal length of each eyepiece is printed on the eyepiece barrel The longer the focal length 1 e the larger the number the lower the eyepiece power and the shorter the focal length 1 e the smaller the number the higher the magnification Generally you will use low to moderate power when viewing For more information on how to determine power see the section on Calculating Magnification Installing the Finderscope The AST telescopes come with a 6x30 finderscope used to help you locate and center objects in the main field of your telescope To accomplish this the finder has a built in cross hair reticle that shows the optical center of the finderscope Start by removing the finder and hardware from the plastic wrapper Included are the following 11 Finderscope Finder Bracket Rubber O ring Three Nylon Tipped Thumbscrews 10 24x1 2 Two Phillips Head Screws
97. r which is mounted along the bottom of Advanced the telescope tube Before you attach the optical tube make GT Users sure that the declination and right ascension clutch knobs are Declination tight This will ensure that the mount does not move suddenly while attaching the telescope To mount the telescope tube In order for the GT computerized mount to function properly before installing the optical tube the mounting platform must be positioned so that the Declination Index Marks are aligned see Fig 2 6 l Loosen the mounting screw on the side of the telescope mounting platform This allows you to slide the dovetail bar onto the mount 2 Slide the dovetail bar on the telescope tube into the mounting platform of the Figure 2 8 mount Slide the telescope so that the back of the dovetail bar is close to the back of the mounting platform 3 Tighten the mounting screw on the side of the mounting platform to hold the telescope in place Now that the optical tube is securely in place the visual accessories can now be attached to the telescope A Telescope Mounting Screw Figure 2 9 Attaching the Visual Back The visual back 1s the accessory that allows you to attach all visual accessories to the telescope The Advanced Series optical tubes come with the visual back installed If it is not already on the tube it can be attached as follows 1 Remove the rubber cover on the rear cell 2 Place the knu
98. rled slip ring on the visual back over the threads on the rear cell Fig 2 10 10 Hold the visual back with the set screw in a convenient position and rotate the knurled slip ring clockwise until tight Once this is done you are ready to attach other accessories such as eyepieces diagonal prisms etc If you want to remove the visual back rotate the slip ring counterclockwise until it is free of the rear cell Installing the Star Diagonal The star diagonal is a prism that diverts the light at a right angle to the light path of the telescope This allows you to observe in positions that are physically more comfortable than if you looked straight through To attach the star Eyepiece diagonal onto the optical tube GE Turn the set screw on the visual back until its tip no longer extends into 1 e obstructs the inner diameter of the visual back Slide the chrome portion of the star diagonal into the visual back Tighten the set screw on the visual back to hold the star diagonal in place Star Diagonal Visual Back If you wish to change the orientation of the star diagonal loosen the set screw on the visual back until the star diagonal rotates freely Dos Fi 2 10 Rotate the diagonal to the desired position and tighten the set screw iil Installing the Eyepiece The eyepiece or ocular is an optical element that magnifies the image focused by the telescope The eyepiece fits into either the visual back directly o
99. roduce crisp images all the way across the field when used visually When used photographically there is some vignetting that produces a 26mm circular image on the processed film It also increases the field of view significantly and is ideal for wide field deep space viewing It is also perfect for beginning prime focus long exposure astro photography when used with the radial guider It makes guiding easier and exposures much shorter RS 232 Cable 93920 Allows your Advanced Series telescope to be controlled using a laptop computer or PC Once connected the telescope can be controlled using popular astronomy software programs Sky Maps 93722 Celestron Sky Maps are the ideal teaching guide for learning the night sky You wouldn t set off on a road trip without a road map and you don t need to try to navigate the night sky without a map either Even if you already know your way around the major constellations these maps can help you locate all kinds of fascinating objects Skylight Filter 93621 The Skylight Filter is used on the Celestron telescope as a dust seal The filter threads onto the rear cell of your telescope All other accessories both visual and photographic with the exception of Barlow lenses thread onto the skylight filter The light loss caused by this filter 1s minimal Solar Filter The Baader AstroSolar filter is a safe and durable filter that covers the front opening of the telescope View sunspot
100. s R A DC motor drives It is powered by four D cell batteries not included 2x and 4x sidereal speeds are available through the included hand controller For non computerized Advanced Series Mounts Motor Drive Dual Axis 93523 This dual axis motor drive with drive corrector capabilities are designed for Celestron s Advanced CG 5 mounts They precisely control the telescope s tracking speed during long timed exposures of celestial objects producing the best possible image sharpness Four speeds are available 1x sidereal 2x for guiding 4x and 8x for centering These precision state of the art DC motor drives operate from 4 D cell batteries not included The hand controller module is very compact and fits easily in the palm of your hand Motors for both axes are included along with brackets clutches and hardware For non computerized Advanced Series Mounts Polarizing Filter Set 93608 The polarizing filter set limits the transmission of light to a specific plane thus increasing contrast between various objects This is used primarily for terrestrial lunar and planetary observing Polar Axis Finderscope 94220 This useful accessory speeds accurate polar alignment by providing a means of visually aligning your German equatorial mount with Polaris and true north As a result you can spend more time observing and less time setting up The finderscope has an easy to use cross hair reticle PowerTank 18774 12v 7A
101. s Thus a star of magnitude 1 is 2 5 times brighter than a star of magnitude 2 and 100 times brighter than a magnitude 5 star The brightest star Sirius has an apparent magnitude of 1 6 the full moon 15 12 7 and the Sun s brightness expressed on a magnitude scale 15 26 78 The zero point of the apparent magnitude scale is arbitrary A reference line in the sky that starts at the North celestial pole and ends at the South celestial pole and passes through the zenith If you are facing South the meridian starts from your Southern horizon and passes directly overhead to the North celestial pole A French astronomer in the late 1700 s who was primarily looking for comets Comets are hazy diffuse objects and so Messier cataloged objects that were not comets to help his search This catalog became the Messier Catalog M1 through M110 Interstellar cloud of gas and dust Also refers to any celestial object that has a cloudy appearance The point in the Northern hemisphere around which all the stars appear to rotate This is caused by the fact that the Earth 15 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 15 therefore referred to as the Pole Star Although Latin for new it denotes a star that suddenly becomes explosively bright at the end of its life cycle One of the groupings of stars that are concentrated along the plane of the Milky Way Most have
102. s and other solar features using this double sided metal coated filter for uniform density and good color balance across the entire field The Sun offers constant changes and will keep your observing interesting and fun Celestron offers filters for the C5 S 94139 and C8 S 94162 T Adapter 93633 A T Adapter with additional T Ring allows you to attach your SLR camera to the rear cell of your Celestron telescope This turns your telescope into a high power telephoto lens perfect for terrestrial photography and short exposure lunar and filtered solar photography T Ring The T Ring couples your 35mm SLR camera body to the T Adapter radial guider or tele extender This accessory is mandatory if you want to do photography through the telescope Each camera make i e Minolta Nikon Pentax etc has its own unique mount and therefore its own T Ring Celestron has 8 different models for 35mm cameras Tele Extender Deluxe 93643 The tele extender is a hollow tube that allows you to attach a camera to the telescope when the eyepiece is installed This accessory is used for eyepiece projection photography which allows you to capture very high power views of the Sun Moon and planets on film The tele extender fits over the eyepiece onto the visual back This tele extender works with eyepieces that have large housings like the Celestron Ultima series A full description of all Celestron accessories can be found in the Celestron Accessory C
103. s to carefully center the alignment star in the eyepiece MU as 4 Press ENTER to slew to the desired object ALTMIN IN LIST DIRECTION BUTTONS AZM BUTTONS Scope Setup Features ALT BUTTONS GOTO APPROACH Setup Ti ime Site Allows the user to customize the telescope s display by changing AZM APPROACH time and location parameters such as time zone and daylight savings ALT APPROACH AUTOGUIDE RATES Anti backlash All mechanical gears have a certain amount of backlash or play between the gears This play is evident by how long it takes for a star to move in the AUP RATE eyepiece when the hand control arrow buttons are pressed especially when changing AZIMUTH LIMITS directions The Advanced GT s anti backlash features allows the user to compensate for E backlash by inputting a value which quickly rewinds the motors just enough to eliminate AZM MAX LIMIT the play between gears The amount of compensation needed depends on the slewing E W FILTERING rate selected the slower the slewing rate the longer it will take for the star to appear to move in the eyepiece There are two values for each axis positive and negative Positive is the amount of compensation applied when you press the button in order to get the gears moving quickly without a long pause Negative is the amount of compensation applied when you release the button winding the motors back in the other direction to resume tracking Normally both values should be the same You will need t
104. safety and protect your equipment Warning a Never look directly at the sun with the naked eye or with a telescope unless you have the proper solar filter Permanent and irreversible eye damage may result Never use your telescope to project an image of the sun onto any surface Internal heat build up can damage the telescope and any accessories attached to it Never use an eyepiece solar filter or a Herschel wedge Internal heat build up inside the telescope can cause these devices to crack or break allowing unfiltered sunlight to pass through to the eye Never leave the telescope unsupervised either when children are present or adults who may not be familiar with the correct operating procedures of your telescope Figure 2 1 Advanced Series Advanced C8 S Shown 2 UE Optical Tube Tripod E Finderscope Bracket EN Counterweight Bar 8981 Equatorial Mount Declination Setting Circle 5 Latitude Adjustment Scale Dovetail Mounting Bar EJ Tripod Center Leg Brace Accessory Tray RN Schmidt Corrector Lens Figure 2 2 Advanced Series GT Advanced C8 SGT Shown Optical Tube 9 Counterweight Bar Finderscope Declination Setting Circle Dovetail Mounting Bar 4 Equatorial Mount 12 Schmidt Corrector Lens 5 Latitude Adjustment Scale 13 Hand Control 6 Tripod Center Leg Brace Accessory Tray 14 R A Motor Drive Control Panel Declination Motor Drive 8
105. sure deep sky astrophotography is with an off axis guider This device allows you to photograph and guide through the telescope simultaneously Celestron offers a very special and advanced off axis guider called the Radial Guider 94176 In addition you will need a T Ring to attach your camera to the Radial Guider Other equipment needs include a guiding eyepiece Unlike other forms of astrophotography which allows for fairly loose guiding prime focus requires meticulous guiding for long periods To accomplish this you need a guiding ocular with an illuminated reticle to monitor your guide star For this purpose Celestron offers the Micro Guide Eyepiece 294171 Here is a brief summary of the technique 1 Polar align the telescope For more information on polar aligning see the Polar Alignment section earlier in the manual 2 Remove all visual accessories 3 Thread the Radial Guider onto your telescope 4 Thread the T Ring onto the Radial Guider 5 Mount your camera body onto the T Ring the same as you would any other lens 6 Setthe shutter speed to the B setting 7 Focus the telescope on a star 8 Center your subject in the field of your camera 9 Finda suitable guide star in the telescope field This can be the most time consuming process 10 Open the shutter using a cable release 11 Monitor your guide star for the duration of the exposure using the buttons on the hand controller to make the needed corrections 1
106. te W Lafayette IOWA Burlington Cedar Rapids Des Moines Dubuque Estherville Fort Dodge Lamoni Mason City Ottumwa Sioux City Spencer Waterloo Mun KANSAS Chanute Col J Jabar Concordia Dodge City Elkhart Emporia Ft Leavnwrth Ft Riley Garden City Goodland Hays Hill City Hutchinson Johnson Cnty Liberal Manhatten Mcconnell Af Medicine Ldg Olathe Russell Salina Topeka Topeka Forbe Wichita KENTUCKY Bowling Gren Ft Campbell Ft Knox Jackson Lexington London Louisville Owensboro Paducah Pikeville LOUISIANA Alexandria Barksdale Baton Rouge Boothville Cameron Heli Claiborne R England AFB Eugene ls Fort Polk LONGITUDE degrees 87 87 90 89 88 88 90 88 89 91 89 88 89 89 89 89 89 86 86 86 87 85 87 86 86 85 86 87 86 91 91 93 90 94 94 93 93 92 96 95 92 95 97 97 99 101 96 94 96 100 101 99 99 97 94 100 96 97 98 94 98 97 95 95 97 54 min 49 2 51 39 6 0 40 8 16 8 31 2 51 6 28 8 13 2 39 58 2 52 8 1 2 55 2 46 2 43 2 4 2 16 2 49 8 52 2 52 8 58 2 40 2 16 2 34 8 5 4 49 2 39 37 2 40 2 25 8 25 8 58 2 19 2 40 2 10 2 46 2 31 2 1 8 40 2 40 2 57 33 46 8 1 2 LATITUDE degrees 42 min 40 2 45 33 46 2 19 8 22 2 55 8 22 2 LONGITUDE degrees Grand Isle 90 High Island 94 Houma 90 Intercoastal 92 Lafayette 92 Lake Charles 93 Lk Palourde 91 Missippi Can 89 Monroe 92 Morgan City 91
107. 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 Binary Double stars are pairs of stars that because of their mutual gravitational attraction orbit around a common Center of Mass If a group of three or more stars revolve around one another it is called a multiple system It is believed that approximately 50 percent of all stars belong to binary or multiple systems Systems with individual components that can be seen separately by a telescope are called visual binaries or visual multiples The nearest star to our solar system Alpha Centauri is actually our nearest example of a multiple star system it consists of three stars two very similar to our Sun and one dim small red star orbiting around one another The projection of the Earth s equator on to the celestial sphere It divides the sky into two equal hemispheres The imaginary projection of Earth s rotational axis north or south pole onto the celestial sphere An imaginary sphere surrounding the Earth concentric with the Earth s center The act of putting a telescope s optics into perfect alignment The angular distance of a celestial body north or south of the celestial equator It may be said to correspond to latitude on the surface of the Earth The projection of the Earth s orbit on to the celestial sphere It may also be defined as the apparent yearly path of the Sun
108. the telescope s motion in altitude up and down and azimuth left and right The telescope can be controlled at nine different speed rates Rate Button Pressing the RATE key 11 allows you to instantly change the speed rate of the motors from high speed slew rate to precise guiding rate or anywhere in between Each rate corresponds to a number on the hand controller key pad The number 9 is the fastest rate 3 per second depending on power source and is used for slewing between objects and locating alignment stars The number 1 on the hand control is the slowest rate 5x sidereal and can be used for accurate centering of objects in the eyepiece and photographic guiding To change the speed rate of the motors e Press the RATE key on the hand control The LCD will display the current speed rate e Press the number on the hand control that corresponds to the desired speed The number will appear in the upper right corner of the LCD display to indicate that the rate has been changed The hand control has a double button feature that allows you to instantly speed up the motors without having to choose a speed rate To use this feature simply press the arrow button that corresponds to the direction that you want to move the telescope While holding that button down press the opposite directional button This will increase the slew rate to the maximum slew rate The direction that a star moves in the eyepiece when a direction is pressed will ch
109. they orbit the giant planet Saturn with its beautiful rings is easily visible at moderate power Planetary Observing Hints e Remember that atmospheric conditions are usually limiting factor on how much planetary detail will be visible So avoid observing the planets when they are low on the horizon or when they are directly over a source of radiating heat such as a rooftop or chimney See the Seeing Conditions section later in this section e To increase contrast and bring out detail on the planetary surface try using Celestron eyepiece filters Observing the Sun Although overlooked by many amateur astronomers solar observation 15 both rewarding and fun However because the Sun is so bright special precautions must be taken when observing our star so as not to damage your eyes or your telescope Never project an image of the Sun through the telescope Because of the folded optical design tremendous heat build up will result inside the optical tube This can damage the telescope and or any accessories attached to the telescope 35 For safe solar viewing use a solar filter that reduces the intensity of the Sun s light making it safe to view With a filter you can see sunspots as they move across the solar disk and faculae which are bright patches seen near the Sun s edge Solar Observing Hints e best time to observe the Sun is in the early morning or late afternoon when the air is cooler e center t
110. tion cable and plug one end of the cable into the port on the electronics panel labeled DEC Port and plug the other end of the cable into the port located on the inati i Declination Cable declination motor drive see Fig 2 inati 1 5 Input Port Powering the Telescope uu The Advanced GT can be powered by the iiber ete an utput Port supplied car battery adapter or optional 12v AC adapter Use only adapters supplied by Celestron dh 12 Power Input Using any other adapter may damage the electronies and will void your manufacturer s warranty On Off Switch 1 To power the telescope with the car battery adapter or 12v Figure 2 15 AC adapter simply plug the round post into the 12v outlet on the electronic panel and plug the other end into your cars cigarette lighter outlet or portable power supply see Optional Accessories Note to prevent the power cord from being accidentally pulled out wrap the power cord around the strain relief located below the power switch 2 Turn on the power to the telescope by flipping the switch located on the electronics panel to the On position 15 8 CELESTRON Hand Control The Advanced Series GT computerized version of each telescope has a hand controller designed to give you instant access to all the functions that your telescope has to offer With automatic slewing to over 40 000 objects and common sense menu descriptions even a beginner can master its variety of fe
111. to have many of the features offered on today s state of the art equipment For example you don t need auto focus capability or mirror lock up Here are the mandatory features a camera needs for celestial photography First a B setting which allows for time exposures This excludes point and shoot cameras and limits the selection to SLR cameras the most common type of 35mm camera on the market today Second the B or manual setting should NOT run off the battery Many new electronic cameras use the battery to keep the shutter open during time exposures Once the batteries are drained usually after a few minutes the shutter closes whether you were finished with the exposure or not Look for a camera that has a manual shutter when operating in the time exposure mode Olympus Nikon Minolta Pentax Canon and others have made such camera bodies The camera must have interchangeable lenses so you can attach it to the telescope and so you can use a variety of lenses for piggyback photography If you can t find a new camera you can purchase a used camera body that 1s not 100 percent functional The light meter for example does not have to be operational since you will be determining the exposure length manually You also need a cable release with a locking function to hold the shutter open while you do other things Mechanical and air release models are available Short Exposure Prime Focus Photography Short exposure prime focus photograph
112. to hold the finder in place Once on push the finder back until the O ring is snug inside the back ring of the finder bracket 8 Hand tighten the three nylon tipped thumbscrews until snug Removing the Lens Cap The C5 S and C9 25 S have aluminum lens caps that slide on and off of the front of the telescope The C8 S lens cap utilizes a bayonet type locking mechanism to hold it in place To remove the lens cap hold the cover firmly and rotate the outer edge 1 2 counterclockwise and pull off Moving the Telescope Manually In order to properly balance your telescope you will need to move your telescope manually at various portions of the sky to observe different objects To make rough adjustments loosen the R A and DEC clutch knobs slightly and move the telescope in the desired direction 12 Both the R A and DEC axis have lock levers to clutch down each axis of the telescope To loosen the clutches on the telescope rotate the lock levers counterclockwise Balancing The Mount in R A To eliminate undue stress on the mount the telescope should be properly balanced around the polar axis Proper balancing is crucial for accurate tracking To balance the mount 1 Verify that the telescope is securely attached to the telescope mounting platform Declination Lock Lever 2 Loosen the R A lock lever and position the telescope off to one side of the mount The counterweight bar will extend horizontally on the opposite sid
113. to the telescope in both R A and Declination To install the knobs Telescope Mounting 9 Platform Declination Slow Motion Knob Locate the hard plastic shell under the R A shafts Remove either of the two oval tabs by pulling tightly R A Slow Motion Knob Line up the flat area on the inner portion of the R A R A Shaft slow motion knob with the flat area on the R A shaft see Fig 2 7 Slide the R A slow motion knob onto the R A shaft The knob is a tension fit so sliding it on holds it in place As mentioned above there are two R A Figure 2 7 shafts one on either side of the mount It makes no difference which shaft you use since both work the same Use whichever one you find more convenient If after a few observing sessions you find the R A slow motion knob is more accessible from the other side pull firmly to remove the knob then install it on the opposite side 5 The DEC slow motion knob attaches in the same manner as the R A knob The shaft that the DEC slow motion knob fits over is toward the top of the mount just below the telescope mounting platform Once again you have two shafts to choose from Use the shaft that is pointing toward the ground This makes it easy to reach while looking through the telescope something which is quite important when you are observing Attaching the Optical Tube to the Mount The telescope attaches to the mount via a dovetail slide ba
114. ton 15 Buffalo 78 Dansville 78 Elmira 76 Farmingdale 73 Fort Drum 75 Glens Falls 73 Griffiss AFB 75 Islip 73 Ithaca 76 Jamestown 79 Massena 74 Monticello 74 New York 73 Newburgh 74 Niagara Fall 78 Ogdensburg 75 Oneonta 75 Plattsburgh 73 Rochester 77 Saranac Lk 74 Schenectady 73 Syracuse 76 Utica 75 Watertown 76 Westhampton 72 White Plains 73 NORTH CAROLINA Asheville 82 Cape Hattera 75 Charlotte 80 Cherry Point 76 Dare Co Gr 76 Diamond Sho 75 Elizabeth 76 Fayetteville 78 Fort Bragg 78 Greensboro 79 Hickory 81 Hot Springs 82 Jacksonville 77 Kinston 77 Aaf 79 Manteo 75 New Bern 77 New River 77 79 Raleigh Durh 78 Rocky Mt 77 Southern Pin 79 Wilmington 17 Winston 80 Salem NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck 100 Devil s Lake 98 Dickenson 102 Fargo 96 Grand Forks 97 Jamestown 98 Lidgerwood 97 Minot 101 Roseglen 101 Williston 103 OHIO Athens 82 Canton 81 Cincinnati 84 Cleveland 81 Columbus 82 Dayton 84 Findlay 83 Mansfield 82 Rickenbacker 82 Toledo 83 Willoughby 81 Youngstown 80 Zanesville 81 min 4 8 10 2 5 4 34 2 16 2 3 6 2 4 4 8 22 2 58 8 43 8 1 2 5 4 25 8 43 8 37 2 55 8 52 8 10 8 52 8 55 8 22 8 49 2 37 2 37 8 40 8 25 8 46 8 52 8 23 4 55 2 13 8 LATITUDE degrees 35 32 min 37 2 37 8 25 2 13 8 10 8 37 8 25 8 16 2 13 2 54 7 8 16 2 7 8 4 8 45 54 49 2 19 2 55 2 4 8 42 10 2 52 2 51 14 4 16 2 7 8
115. tory Settings 1s selected The hand control will ask you to press the 0 key before returning to the factory default setting Version Selecting this option will allow you to see the current version number of the hand control motor control and GPS software if using optional CN 16 GPS accessory The first set of numbers indicate the hand control software version For the motor control the hand control will display two sets of numbers the first numbers are for azimuth and the second set are for altitude On the second line of the LCD the GPS and serial bus versions are displayed Get Alt Az Displays the relative altitude and azimuth for the current position of the telescope Goto Alt Az Allows you to enter a specific altitude and azimuth position and slew to it Hibernate Hibernate allows the telescope to be completely powered down and still retain its alignment when turned back on This not only saves power but is ideal for those that have their telescopes permanently mounted or leave their telescope in one location for long periods of time To place your telescope in Hibernate mode 1 Select Hibernate from the Utility Menu 2 Move the telescope to a desire position and press ENTER 3 Power off the telescope Remember to never move your telescope manually while in Hibernate mode Once the telescope is powered on again the display will read Wake Up After pressing Enter you have the option of scrolling through the time site information to
116. user is allowed to select the alignment stars from a list To use Auto Three Star Align For best possible pointing accuracy always Pointing Accuracy l Select Auto Three Star Align from the alignment choices given center the alignment stars The hand control will display a recommended alignment star to Using the up arrow button begin and the right arrow button e Press UNDO to display the next recommended star on the same Approacnng Jo fth Pa direction when looking side of the Meridian or through the eyepiece will e Press the UP and DOWN arrows keys to scroll through the eliminate much of the compete list of available alignment stars to choose from backlash between the 3 Once the desired alignment star is displayed on the hand control gears and assures the press ENTER to slew the telescope to the star most accurate alignment 4 As with the Auto Align procedure you will be asked to center the Possible star in the crosshairs of the finderscope and then center the star in 19 the eyepiece pressing ENTER when complete NOTE Although the telescope allows the user to select the alignment stars for best all sky pointing accuracy it is still necessary to select two alignment stars on one side of the Meridian and the third star on the opposite side of the Meridian For this reason the hand control will only display stars that are on the same side of the Meridian for the first two alignment stars then will only dis
117. with internal pull ups and are capable of sinking 25 mA DC 123456 145 2 Ground 3 Right 4 DEC Up 5 DEC Down 6 RA Left 43 Telescope Maintenance While your telescope requires little maintenance there are a few things to remember that will ensure your telescope performs at its best Care and Cleaning of the Optics Occasionally dust and or moisture may build up on the corrector plate of your telescope Special care should be taken when cleaning any instrument so as not to damage the optics If dust has built up on the corrector plate remove it with a brush made of camel s hair or a can of pressurized air Spray at an angle to the lens for approximately two to four seconds Then use an optical cleaning solution and white tissue paper to remove any remaining debris Apply the solution to the tissue and then apply the tissue paper to the lens Low pressure strokes should go from the center of the corrector to the outer portion Do NOT rub in circles You can use a commercially made lens cleaner or mix your own A good cleaning solution is isopropyl alcohol mixed with distilled water The solution should be 6096 isopropyl alcohol and 409 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
118. within any of the menu lists A double arrow will appear on the right side of the LCD when there are sub menus below the displayed menu Using these keys will scroll through those sub menus 11 Rate Instantly changes the rate of speed of the motors when the direction buttons are pressed 12 RS 232 Jack Allows you to interface with a computer and control the telescope remotely Hand Control Operation This section describes the basic hand control procedures needed to operate the GT Series Telescopes 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 tracking rate finally the last section reviews all of the utilities functions such as calibrating your mount polar alignment and backlash compensation 17 Alignment Procedures In order for the telescope to accurately point to objects in the sky it must first be aligned to three known positions stars in the sky With this information the telescope can create a model of the sky which it uses to locate any object with known coordinates There are many ways to align your telescope with the sky depending on what information the user is able to provide Auto Align allows the telescope to select three stars and uses the entered time location information to align the telescope Auto Three Sta
119. y Sky Draco Denebola Crater Hydra Trianguium e Perseus Aries Q Gemini Canis Minor Bete Procyon Canis Major e 62 March April Sky Cassiopela Navi Cepheus ES 63 May June Sky e Qo i M Delphinus Alberio CO O Denebola Arcturus e 5 T Serpens Ophiuchus Nun gt A Libra 0 Hydra 64 July August Sky e Auriga a Perseus Polaris W s E Triangulum 4 Andromeda e Draco m Deneb Arcturus B Corona _ j Vega Orealls e e Cygnus Serpens j Hercules eN caput 2 imi Dephinu PN Aquarius 4 i Ophiuchus 65 September October Sky DOR Gemini 66 November December Sky 67 CELESTRON TWO YEAR WARRANTY A Celestron warrants this telescope to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for two years Celestron will repair or replace such product or part thereof which upon inspection by Celestron is found to be defective in materials or workmanship As a condition to the obligation of Celestron to repair or replace such product the product must be returned to Celestron together with proof of purchase satisfactory to Celestron B The Proper Return Authorization Number must be obtained from Celestron i
120. y is the best way to begin recording celestial objects It is done with the camera attached to the telescope without an eyepiece or camera lens in place To attach your camera you need the Celestron T Adapter 93633 A and a T Ring for your specific camera 1 e Minolta Nikon Pentax etc The T Ring replaces the 35mm SLR camera s normal lens Prime focus photography allows you to capture the majority of the lunar disk or solar disk To attach your camera to your telescope 1 Remove all visual accessories 2 Thread the T Ring onto the T Adapter 3 Mount your camera body onto the T Ring the same as you would any other lens 4 Thread the T Adapter onto the back of the telescope while holding the camera in the desired orientation either vertical or horizontal With your camera attached to the telescope you are ready for prime focus photography Start with an easy object like the Moon Here s how to do it 1 Load your camera with film that has a moderate to fast speed 1 e ISO rating Faster films are more desirable when the Moon is a crescent When the Moon is near full and at its brightest slower films are more desirable Here are some film recommendations e T Max 100 38 9 T Max 400 Any 100 to 400 ISO color slide film Fuji Super HG 400 e Ektar 25 or 100 2 Center the Moon in the field of your telescope 3 Focus the telescope by turning the focus knob until the image is sharp 4 Set the shutter speed to the appr
121. zodiac is the portion of the Celestial Sphere that lies within 8 degrees on either side of the Ecliptic The apparent paths of the Sun the Moon and the planets with the exception of some portions of the path of Pluto lie within this band Twelve divisions or signs each 30 degrees in width comprise the zodiac These signs coincided with the zodiacal constellations about 2 000 years ago Because of the Precession of the Earth s axis the Vernal Equinox has moved westward by about 30 degrees since that time the signs have moved with it and thus no longer coincide with the constellations 52 APPENDIX C LONGITUDES AND LATITUDES ALABAMA Anniston Auburn Birmingham Centreville Dothan Fort Rucker Gadsden Huntsville Maxwell AFB Mobile Mobile Aeros Montgomery Muscle Shoal Selma Troy Tuscaloosa ALASKA Anchorage Barrow Fairbanks Haines Hrbor Homer Juneau Ketchikan Kodiak Nome Sitka Sitkinak Skagway Valdez ARIZONA Davis M AFB Deer Valley Douglas Falcon Fld Flagstaff Fort Huachuc Gila Bend Goodyear GrandCanyon Kingman Luke Page Payson Phoenix Prescott Safford Awrs Scottsdale Show Low Tucson Williams AFB Winslow Yuma Yuma Mcas Yuma Prv Gd ARKANSAS Blytheville Camden EI Dorado Fayetteville Ft Smith Harrison Hot Springs Jonesboro Little Rock Pine Bluff Springdale Texarkana Walnut Ridge CALIFORNIA Alameda Alturas Arcata Bakersfield Beale AFB Beaumont Bicycle Lk Big Bear Bishop Blue C

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