Meade 4500 manual

© 1995 Rev . B 4/95 Instruction Manual Model 4500: 4.5" Equatorial Reflecting T elescope 0 3 0 60 9 0 3 0 6 0 9 0 MEADE AD V ANCED PRODUCTS DIVISION Meade Instruments Corporation World’ s Leading Manuf acturer of Astronomical T elescopes for the Serious Amateur 6001 Oak Canyon, Irvine, California 92618 ■ (949) 451-1450 F AX: (949) 451-146[...]

– 2 – W ARNING NEVER A TTEMPT TO OBSER VE THE SUN THROUGH YOUR MEADE TELESCOPE! OBSERVING THE SUN, EVEN FOR THE SHORTEST FRACTION OF A SECOND, WILL CAUSE INST ANT AND IRREVERSIBLE EYE DAMAGE. WHEN OBSERVING DURING THE DA YTIME, DO NOT POINT THE TELESCOPE EVEN CLOSE TO THE SUN. Meade Limited W arranty Every Meade telescope, spotting scope, and b[...]

– 3 – T ABLE OF CONTENTS A. Introducing the Meade Model 4500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 1. This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 2. Standard Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 B. Unpacking and Assembly . . . . . . . . .[...]

– 4 – 1. T ripod legs 2. Equatorial mount 3. R.A. flexible cable control 4. Dec. flexible cable control 5. Counterweight 6. Counterweight shaft 7. Counterweight lock 8. Safety washer/thumbscrew 9. Latitude lock 10. Polar axis 1 1. Latitude adjustment knob 12. Optical tube assembly 13. Optical tube saddle plate 14. Cradle rings 15. Cradle ring l[...]

– 5 – Fig. 1: Meade Model 4500: 4.5" Equatorial Reflecting T elescope 0 3 0 60 90 3 0 60 90 MEADE 2 4 3 40 41 42 43 1 38 39 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 20 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37[...]

– 6 – A. Introducing the Meade Model 4500 The Model 4500 is an easy-to-operate, high performance 4.5" (1 14mm) reflecting telescope, intended for astronomical observing. Equipped with a deluxe equatorial mount and aluminum tripod, the telescope’s motion is continuously adjustable for tracking celestial objects. Y our telescope comes to y[...]

– 7 – • Release the latitude lock (9) of the equatorial mount, and tilt the polar axis (10) of the telescope to roughly a 45 ° angle by turning the latitude adjustment knob (1 1). With the polar axis thus tilted, firmly re-tighten the latitude lock. • Loosen the lock knobs (15) of the cradle rings (14) and open the cradle rings to position[...]

– 8 – Fig. 2: Celestial Sphere 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 0 1 12 11 10 9 8 7 5 6 4 3 2 13 Earth ’ s Rotation 0 ° Dec. South Celestial Pole Right Ascension Star Celestial Equator -90 ° Dec. +90 ° Dec. North Celestial Pole (Vicinity of Polaris) D e c l i n a t i o n C. Understanding Celestial Movements and Coordinates Understanding where [...]

(which passes, for example, through the constellations Orion, Virgo and Aquarius) is specified as having 0 ° 0'0" Declination. The Declination of the star Polaris, located very near the North Celestial Pole, is +89.2 ° . The celestial equivalent to Earth longitude is called “ Right Ascension, ” or “ R.A. ” and is measured in hou[...]

– 10 – • T o center an object in the main telescope, loosen the telescope ’ s R.A. lock (22) and Dec. lock (23). The telescope can now turn freely on its axes. Use the aligned viewfinder to first sight-in on the object you wish to observe; with the object centered on the viewfinder ’ s crosshairs, re-tighten the R.A. and Dec. locks. • I[...]

– 11 – • The Moon: A veritable treasury of craters, mountain ranges and fault lines. The best contrast for viewing the Moon is during its crescent phase. The contrast during the full Moon phase is low due to the angle of illumination. • Deep-Space: Nebulae, galaxies, multiple star systems, star clusters – hundreds of such objects are visi[...]

– 12 – H. Maintenance 1. Cleaning As with any quality instrument, lens or mirror surfaces should be cleaned as infrequently as possible. Front surface aluminized mirrors, in particular , should be cleaned only when absolutely necessary . In all cases avoid touching any mirror surface. A little dust on the surface of a mirror or lens causes negl[...]

– 13 – falls directly through the center of the focuser drawtube (17, Fig. 1). These mirror tilt adjustments are made with the diagonal assembly (Fig. 5) and the primary mirror cell (Fig. 6), and will be discussed later . T o inspect the view of the mirror collimation, look down the focuser drawtube with the eyepiece removed. The edge of the fo[...]

– 14 – b. Spider vane adjustments If the diagonal mirror (1, Fig. 8) is left or right of center within the drawtube (2, Fig. 8), loosen the spider vane adjustment/lock knobs (1, Fig. 5) located on the outside surface of the main tube and slide the entire diagonal assembly up or down the tube along the slotted holes, until the diagonal mirror is[...]

– 15 – spot dead center within the out-of-focus star disk (this is the shadow of the secondary mirror), as shown in Fig.1 1C. (An improperly aligned telescope will reveal elongated circles (Fig. 1 1A), with an off-center dark shadow .) • If the out-of-focus star disk appears elongated (Fig. 1 1A), you will need to adjust the primary mirror Ph[...]

AD V ANCED PRODUCTS DIVISION Meade Instruments Corporation World’ s Leading Manuf acturer of Astronomical T elescopes for the Serious Amateur 6001 Oak Canyon, Irvine, California 92618 ■ (949) 451-1450 F AX: (949) 451-1460 ■ www .meade.com[...]