Celestron C8-S manual

A A d d v v a a n n c c e e d d S S e e r r i i e e s s A A d d v v a a n n c c e e d d S S e e r r i i e e s s G G G T T T INSTRUCTION MANUAL C C 5 5 - - S S ● ● C C 8 8 - - S S ● ● C C 9 9 . . 2 2 5 5 - - S S[...]

2 INTROD UCTION ................................................................................................................... .................................................................................4 Warning ........................................................................................................................ ......[...]

3 Get A lt-A z ..................................................................................................................... ............................................................................28 Go to Al t-Az .................................................................................................................... .......[...]

4 Congra tulations on y our purc hase of the Ce lestr on Adv anced Se ries te lescope (A ST)! The A dvance d Series of te lescope s come in standard (non-c omputer ized) and c omputerize d GT models. The Advanced Serie s is made of the highe st quality materials to ensure sta bility a nd dura bility. A ll this adds up to a telesc ope t hat giv es y[...]

5 ASSE 1 Optical Tube 7 Tripod 2 Finderscope 8 Counterweight(s) 3 Finderscope Bracket 9 Counterweight Bar 4 Equatoria l Mount 1 0 Declination Setting Circle 5 Latitude Adju stment Scale 11 Dovetail Mo unting Ba r 6 Tripod Center Leg Brace/Accessory Tray 1 2 Schmidt Corrector Lens Figure 2. 1 – Advan ced Seri es (Advanced C 8-S Sh own) 1 2 1 2 3 4[...]

6 1 Optical Tube 9 Counterweight Bar 2 Finderscope 1 0 Declination Setting Circle 3 Finderscope Bracket 11 Dovetail Mo unting Ba r 4 Equatoria l Mount 1 2 Schmidt Corrector Lens 5 Latitude Adju stment Scale 1 3 Hand Cont rol 6 Tripod Center Leg Brace/Accessory Tray 1 4 R.A. Motor Drive / Contro l Panel 7 Tripod 1 5 Declination M otor Drive 8 Counte[...]

7 This se ctio n cover s the a sse mbly in structi ons for your Cele str on Ad vanced Series T ele scop e (AST ). Yo ur AST telescope should be set up indoor the first time so that it is easy to identify the various p arts and familiarize yourself with the correct assem bly procedure before att empting i t outdoor. #11071 / 11072 #11025 / 11026 #11[...]

8 A A t t t t a a c c h h i i n n g g t t h h e e E E q q u u a a t t o o r r i i a a l l M M o o u u n n t t The equatorial mount allows you to tilt t he telescope’s ax is of rotation so that you can track the stars as they move across the sky. The CG-5 m ount is a German equ atorial mount that attaches t o the tripod head. On one side of the tr[...]

9 I I n n s s t t a a l l l l i i n n g g t t h h e e C C o o u u n n t t e e r r w w e e i i g g h h t t Depending on which AST telescope y ou have, you will receive either one or tw o counterweights. To install the count erwe ight (s): 1. O rient t he mo unt so that t he c ounter wei ght ba r po ints to ward the ground . 2. Remove the coun terwei[...]

10 The knob is a tension fit, so sliding it on holds it in place. As mentioned above, there are tw o R.A. shafts, on e on either side of the mount. It makes no diff erence which shaft you use since both work the same. Use whichever one you f ind more convenient. If , after a few observing sessions , you find the R .A. slow m otion kn ob is m ore ac[...]

11 3. Hold the visual back with the set scre w in a convenient position and rotate the knurled slip ring cloc kwise until tight. Once this is done, y ou 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. I I [...]

12 • Finders cope • Finder Bracket • Ru bber O- ring • Three Ny lon Tipped Thum bscrews (10- 24x1/2") • Two Phillips Head Screws (8-32x1/2" ) To install the finderscope: 1. Attach the bracket to the optical tube. T o do this, place the curved portion of the bracket with the slot over the tw o holes in the rear cell. The bracket [...]

13 M M o o v v i i n n g g t t h h e e T T e e l l e e s s c c o o p p e e M M a a n n u u a a l l l l y y In order to properly balance your telescope, you will need to move your telescope manually at various portions of the sky to observ e diffe rent objects. To m ake roug h adjus tments, loos en the R.A. an d DEC clu tch knobs s lightly and mov e[...]

14 B B a a l l a a n n c c i i n n g g T T h h e e M M o o u u n n t t i i n n D D E E C C Although the telescope do es not track in declination, the telescop e should also be balanced in this axis to pr event any sudden motions when the DEC lock lever is loose. T o balance th e telescope in DEC: 1. Loosen the R.A. clutch lock lever and rotate the [...]

15 For Advanced GT users, it may be helpful to remove the front latitude adj ustment screw completely. This will allo w the mount to reach lower latitudes withou t the screw coming into con tact with the R.A. motor assembly. To rem ove the latitude screw, first us e the rear screw to raise the m ount head all the way up. Then remove the front latit[...]

16 The Advanc ed Ser ies GT , comp uteri zed ve rsi on of ea ch te lesc ope has a ha nd co ntrol ler d esigne d to gi ve you inst ant access to all the fun ctions that your telescope has to off er. With automatic sle wing to over 40,000 ob jects, and common sense menu descriptions, even a beginner can master its variety of f ea tures in just a f ew[...]

17 4. Catalog Keys: T he Advanced Series has ke ys on the hand control to allow direct access to each of the catalogs in its database. The han d control cont ains the following catalogs in its database: Messie r – Complete list of all Messier o bjects. NGC – Complete list o f all the deep-sky obj ects in the Revised Ne w General Catalog. Caldwe[...]

18 A A l l i i g g n n m m e e n n t t P P r r o o c c e e d d u u r r e e s s In order for the t ele scope to accurate ly point to objects in the sky , it must first be align e d to three known posi tions (stars) in the sky. With this information, the telescope can create a model of the sky, which it uses to lo cate any object wi t h known coordi [...]

19 4. Select one of the four alignm e nt meth ods as described below. Note: If incorrect inf ormation is entered into the hand control, the UNDO button acts like a back space bu tton allowing the user to re- e nter the correct data. A A u u t t o o A A l l i i g g n n Auto Align allows the telescope to automatically choose three stars (two on one s[...]

20 4. As with the Auto Al ign procedure, y ou will be asked to cen ter the star in the cross hairs of the finderscope and th en ce nter the star in the eyepiece, pressing ENTER when complete. NOTE: Although the telescope a llow s the user to select the alignment stars, f o r best a ll-sky pointing a ccuracy it is still ne ce ssary to select t wo al[...]

21 O O b b j j e e c c t t C C a a t t a a l l o o g g Selecting an Object Now that the telescope is prop erl y align ed, you can choose an object from any of the catalogs in the telescope's extensive database. The h and control ha s a key (4) desig na ted for each of th e catalo gs in its database. There are tw o ways to select objects f ro m[...]

22 Tour Mode The Advanced Series telescopes include a tour feature which automatically allo ws the user to choose from a list of interesting obj ects based on the date and ti me in which you are o bserving. The automatic tour will displa y only those objects that are within your set filter limits (see Filter Limits in the Setup Procedures section o[...]

23 1 = .5x 6 = 64x 2 = 1x (s idereal) 7 = .5º / sec 3 = 4x 8 = 2º / sec 4 = 8x 9 = 3º / sec 5 = 16x S S e e t t u u p p P P r r o o c c e e d d u u r r e e s s The Advanced G T contains many us er defined setup funct io ns design ed to giv e the user control ov er the telescope's many adv a nced features. All of th e setup and utility featu[...]

24 GoTo Object: To go to any of the user defin ed obj ects st ored in the database, scroll down to either GoTo Sky Obj or Goto Land Obj an d enter the number of the object y ou wish to select and press ENTE R. The telescope will automatically retrieve and display the coordinates before slewing to th e obj ect. Save Sk y Object: Your telescope sto r[...]

25 Precise GoTo The Advanced Series telescopes have a precise g oto function that can assist in finding extremely faint objects and centering objects closer to th e center of the field of view for astrophotography and CCD imaging. Precise Goto automatically searches out the closest brig ht star to the desired object and asks the us er to carefully [...]

26 minimum altitude limit to read +20º . This will make sure that the hand control only displays objects that are higher in altitude than 20º . If you want to explore the entire object database, set the maximum altitude limit to 90º and the minimum limit to – 90º. This will displa y every object in the da tabase lists rega rdless of whether i[...]

27 telescopes azimuth i n this po sition (by looking at Get A lt-Az under th e Utilities menu) you can determine the telescopes azimuth at its most extended position. Enter this azi muth reading for either th e maximum or minimum azimuth slew limit to ens ure that the telescope will not slew b eyond this point. Warning : In order for the telescope [...]

28 Light Control – This feature allows you to turn off both the red key pad light and LCD display for daytim e use to conse rve p ower and to help pre serve your night visio n. Factory Se ttings – Returns the Advanced GT hand control to its o riginal factory settings. Parameters such as backlash compensation val ues, initial date and time, long[...]

29 EQ NORT H EQ SO UT H OFF MOD E SIDEREA L SOLAR LU NAR RA T E TRA CKIN G VIEW TI M E-SIT E SET UP T IM E- SIT E AN TI- BACK LAS H FI LTER LIM IT S DIRECTIO N B UTTONS GOTO APPROAC H AUTOGU IDE RAT E AZIMUTH L IMITS EAST/WEST FI L TE R ING SCOPE SETU P CALIBRA TE GOT O HOME POSITIO N POL AR ALIG N LIG HT CONTROL FACTOR Y SETTIN G VER SIO N GET ALT[...]

30 Figure 4- 1 A A c c u u t t a a w w a a y y v v i i e e w w o o f f t t h h e e l l i i g g h h t t p p a a t t h h o o f f t t h h e e S S c c h h m m i i d d t t - - C C a a s s s s e e g g r r a a i i n n o o p p t t i i c c a a l l d d e e s s i i g g n n Actual i mage ori entati on as see n with the unaide d eye Inverted i mage, as view ed [...]

31 Figure 4-3 The emblem on the end of the focus knob show s the correct rot ational dire ction for focusing your telescope . Focu si ng The Sc hmidt-Cas segrain focus ing mechanism controls the prim ary mirror w hich is mounte d on a ring that slide s back and forth on t h e prim ary baff le tube. The focusi ng knob, w hich move s the prima r y mi[...]

32 Let’s sa y, for exa mple, you are using t he 40 mm Plossl e yepiece. To deter mine the magni fication you simpl y divide t he focal length of y our teles cope (the C8-S f or exam ple has a focal le ngth of 2032m m) by the foc al length of the ey epi ece, 40mm. Dividing 2032 by 40 y ields a m agnification of 51 powe r. Althoug h the powe r is v[...]

33 Up to this poi nt, this m anual covered the a ssembly and ba sic oper at ion of y our telescope . However , to unders tand y our telesc ope more thoroughly , y ou need to know a little about th e night sky. This section de als w ith observational astronom y in g eneral and i n clude s informa tion on the night sk y and polar a lignm ent. The Cel[...]

34 Motion of the Stars The daily motion of the Sun a cross the sky is fam iliar to even the m o st casua l observer. This daily trek is not the Sun mov ing as early as tronomers thoug ht, but the result of the Earth's rotation. The Ea rth's rotation a lso c auses the star s to do the same, scri bing ou t a large circle as the Eart h compl[...]

35 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 ide ntifying certain s tars near it, this meth od works off of a known constant to determine how high the polar axis should be poin ted. The Advan ced Series mount can be adjusted from 30 to 60 [...]

36 4. Center Polaris in the field of the telescope u sing 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 its elf, but the polar axis. The telescope is us ed simply to see where the polar axis is pointing. Like the previous method, this gets [...]

37 Declination Dr ift Method of P olar Alignme nt This method of polar alig nment allows you to get the most accurate alignment on the celestial pole and is required if you want t o do lon g exposure deep-s ky astrophotography through th e telesc ope. The declination drift method requ i res that you monitor the drif t of selected stars. The drift o[...]

38 With y our telescope set up, y ou are re ad y to us e it for observ ing. This section c overs visua l observing hints for both solar sy stem and deep sky objects as w ell as general observ ing conditio ns which w ill affect your a b ility to observe. Observing th e Moon Often, it is tem pting to look at the Moon w hen it is full. At this tim e, [...]

39 Never proj ect an image o f the Sun through t he telesco pe. Because of th e folded op tical d esign, tremend ous heat build- up will result inside the optic al tu be. This can dam age the telescope and/or a n y accessories a ttached to the telescope . For safe solar view ing, use a solar filte r that reduces the inte nsity of the Sun' s li[...]

40 rays from the sa me object arriv e slightly disp laced creatin g an imperfect o r smeared i mage. These at mospheric distu rbances vary from time-to- time and p lace-to-pl ace. The size of the air p arcels compared to your aperture determ ines the "seeing" quality. Under goo d seeing con d itions , fine detail is v isible o n the brig [...]

41 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 prim e focus, eyepiece projection, long ex posure deep sky, terres trial and even CCD imaging. Each of th ese is discuss ed in moderate detail with enough inf or mation[...]

42 • T-Ma x 400 • Any 100 to 400 I SO color sli de film • Fuji Supe r HG 400 • Ektar 25 or 100 2. Ce nter the Moon i n the fie ld of y our teles cope. 3. Focus the te lescope by turning th e focus knob u ntil the imag e is sharp. 4. Set the shutter speed to the appropriate setting (see ta ble below). 5. Trip th e shutter usin g a cable rele[...]

43 act as a sh utter. The card prevents li ght from enterin g the telesco pe while th e shutt er is released. On ce the shu tter has been re leased and the vi bration ha s diminished (a few se conds), move the bla ck card out of the w a y to expos e the film. After th e exposu re is co mplete, place t he card over th e fron t of the teles cope an d[...]

44 There are seve ral techniques f or this type of photog raphy, and the one chosen will dete r mine the standard accessories needed. T he best me thod for lon g exposure deep sky astrophotogr aphy is with a n off-axis guide r. This de vice allows you to phot ograph an d guide through the telescope s imulta neously . Celes tron offers a ve r y spe [...]

45 There is no exposure de termination ta ble to help y ou get star ted. The best way to dete r mine exposure leng th is look at previous ly publishe d photos to see w hat film/ex posure com binations were used. Or take unguided sa mple photos of various parts of the sky while the drive is run n ing. A lways take ex posures of various leng ths to d[...]

46 Telescope Model Standard Cassegrain f/10 With Reducer/Corr ector f/6.3 C5-S 49" (1250mm ) 31" (788mm) C8-S 80" (2032mm ) 50.4" (1280mm) Focal Length & Speed C9.25-S 93" (2350mm ) 58" (1 481mm) C5-S 13 x 10 (arc min) 20.5 x 15. 7 (arc mi n) C8-S 8 x 6.1 (arc min) 12.6 x 9.7 (arc min) ST 237 F.O.V.* C9.25-S 6.9 x [...]

47 F F i i g g u u r r e e 8 8 - - 1 1 The three colli matio n scre ws ar e locat ed on the front of the seco ndary mirror housin g . While your te lescope requires little ma intenance, the re are a few things to remem b er that will ensure y our telescope performs a t its best. Care and Clean ing of the Opti cs Occasional ly, dust an d/or moisture[...]

48 Figure 8- 3 A co llimated te lescope shoul d appe ar symmet ric al wit h the central obstru ction cen tered in th e star' s diffr actio n pattern. To accomplish this, you need to tighten the second ary collim at ion screw(s) that move the star across th e field toward the directio n of the skewed light. Th ese scre ws are located in th e se[...]

49 You will find that additional accessories en hance your viewing ple asure and expand the u sefulness of your telescop e. For ease of refe rence, all t he accessories are listed in alp habetic al order. Adapter A C (#1877 3) - Allow DC (battery powered) telescope s to be conv erted for use w ith 120 volt A C powe r. Auxiliary P ort Accessor y (#9[...]

50 Serie s 2 – #9 4119-20 Deep Y ellow, Red, L ight G reen, ND25% T ( #s 12, 2 5, 56, 9 6 ND-2 5) Serie s 3 – #9 4119-30 Lig ht Red, Blue , Gre en, ND50% T (#s 23A, 38A , 58, 96N D-50) Serie s 4 – #9 4119-40 Yellow , Deep Yellow , Violet, Pal e Blue (#s 8, 47, 82A, N D96-13) Flash light , Night Vi sion - (#93588) - Celestron’s premium m ode[...]

51 Radial G uider (#9 4 1 76) - The Celestron Radial Gui der ® is speci ficall y designed for u se in prim e foc us, deep sky astrophotogr aphy and tak es the pl ace of the T-Adapter. This devic e allows you to phot ograph and gui de simulta neously throug h the optical tu be assem bl y of your teles cope. This ty pe of guiding produce s the best [...]

52 Appendix A – Technical Specifications Advanced Series 11 07 1 / 11 072 11 025/ 11 026 11 04 5/ 11 046 C5-S C8-S C9.25-S Specificati ons: Optical Design 127m m(5") S chmidt- Cassegrai n 203mm ( 8") Sc hmidt-Ca ssegr ain 235mm (9.25" ) Schmi dt-Casseg rain Focal Length 1250m m F/10 2032m m F/10 2350m m F/10 Finderscope 6x30 6 x30 [...]

53 Appendix B - Glossar y of Term s A - Absolute magnitude T he apparent m agnitude that a s tar would have if it w ere observe d from a sta ndard distance of 10 parsecs , or 32.6 light-ye ars. T he absolute magnitude of the Sun is 4. 8. at a dista nce of 10 pars ecs, it would jus t be v isible on Ea rth on a clear moonle ss night a way f rom surf [...]

54 J - Jovian P lan ets Any of the four gas gian t planet s that are at a greater d istance for m the sun th an the terrestrial planet s. K - Kuiper Be lt A region bey ond the or bit of Neptune extendi ng to about 1 000 AU w hich is a source of many short period c omets. L - Light-Year (L Y) A light-year is the dist ance light travers es in a vacu [...]

55 telescop e at this rat e. The rate is 15 arc seco nds per second or 15 degrees per h our. T - Ter minat or The bo undar y line betw een the light a nd dark portion of the moon or a planet. U - Univers e The totality of astronomica l things, events, re lations and energ ies capable of being describe d object ively. V - Variab le Star A star whose[...]

56 A A P P P P E E N N D D I I X X C C L L O O N N G G I I T T U U D D E E S S A A N N D D L L A A T T I I T T U U D D E E S S LONGITUDE LATI TUD E degrees min degrees min AL ABA MA Anniston 85 51 33 34.8 Auburn 85 26.4 32 40.2 Birmingham 86 45 33 34.2 Centrevil le 87 15 32 54 Dothan 85 27 31 19.2 Fort Rucker 85 43.2 31 16.8 Gadsden 86 5.4 33 58.2 [...]

57 LONGITUDE LATI TUD E degrees min degrees min Melbourne 80 37.8 28 6 Miami 80 16.8 25 49.2 Naples 81 4.8 26 7.8 Nasa Shuttle 80 40.8 28 37.2 Orlando 81 19.2 28 25.8 Panam a City 85 40.8 30 12 Patrick AFB 80 3.6 28 13.8 Pensacola 87 19.2 30 21 Ruskin 82 3.6 27 58.2 Saint Peters 82 40.8 27 55.2 Sanford 81 15 28 46.8 Sarasota 82 33 27 24 Tallahassee[...]

58 LONGITUDE LATI TUD E degrees min degrees min Wurtsmith 83 2.4 44 27 Ypsilanti 83 31.8 42 13.8 MINNESOTA Albert Lea 93 22.2 43 40.8 Alexandria 95 22.8 45 52.2 Bemidji M uni 94 55.8 47 30 Brainerd-C rw 94 7.8 46 24 Detroit Laks 95 52.8 46 49.2 Duluth 92 10.8 46 49.8 Ely 91 49.2 47 54 Fairmont 94 25.2 43 39 Fergus Falls 96 4.2 46 18 Grand Rapids 93[...]

59 LONGITUDE LATI TUD E degrees min degrees min OKLAHOMA Altus AFB 99 16.2 34 40.2 Ardm ore 97 1.2 34 18 Bartlesville 96 0 36 45 Clinton 99 1.2 35 21 Enid 97 4.8 36 22.8 Fort Sill 98 2.4 34 39 Gage 99 46.2 36 18 Hobart 99 3 35 0 Lawton 98 25.2 34 34.2 Mcalester 95 46.8 34 52.8 Norm an 97 28.2 35 13.8 Oklahoma 97 3.6 35 24 Page 94 37.2 34 40.8 Ponca[...]

60 LONGITUDE LATI TUD E degrees min degrees min Walla Walla 118 16.8 46 6 Wenatchee 120 1.2 47 24 Whidbey Is 122 39 48 21 Yakima 120 31.8 46 34.2 WEST VIRGINIA Beckley 81 7.2 37 46.8 Bluefield 81 13.2 37 18 Charleston 81 3.6 38 22.2 Clarksburg 80 13.8 39 16.8 Elkins 79 51 38 52.8 Huntington 82 33 38 22.2 Lewisburg 80 2.4 37 52.2 Martinsburg 77 58.8[...]

61 Appendix D - RS-232 C onnecti on You can control your telescope with a co mputer via th e RS-232 port on the compu terized hand control and using an optional R S-232 cab le (#93920). Once connect ed, the te lescope ca n be contr o lled using popular astr onomy s oftware progra ms. Communicati on Protocol: The Advanced GT communi cates at 9 600 b[...]

62 Additional RS23 2 Commands S S e e n n d d A A n n y y T T r r a a c c k k R R a a t t e e T T h h r r o o u u g g h h R R S S 2 2 3 3 2 2 T T o o T T h h e e H H a a n n d d C C o o n n t t r r o o l l 1. Multiply the desi red trackin g rate (arcsecon d s/secon d ) by 4. Exam ple: i f the desired track rate is 150 arcseconds/s econd, then TRACK[...]

63 A P PENDIX E – MAPS OF T IME ZONES[...]

64[...]

65[...]

66[...]

67[...]

68[...]

69[...]

70[...]

CELESTRON TWO YEAR WAR RANTY A. Celes tron warr ants this tele scope to be fr ee from de fects in m aterials and wor kmanship fo r two years . Celestr on will repa ir or repl ace such prod uct or part t hereo f which, upon inspe ction by Celestro n, is found to be defective in material s or w orkmans hip . As a con diti on to th e obli gation of Ce[...]

Celestro n 2835 Colu mbi a Street Torrance, CA 90503 U.S.A. Tel. (310) 3 28-9560 Fax. (310) 2 12-5835 Web site at http//www.celestron.co m Copyri ght 2003 C elest ron All rights reserved. (Products or in structions may chang e without notice or obligation.) Item # 1102 5-INST $10.00 08-03[...]