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INSTRUCTION MANUAL
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
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INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 4 W WA AR RN NI IN NG G ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 QUICK SETUP .................................................................................................................................. 7 Assembling the NexStar ...............
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ASTRONOMY BASICS................................................................................................................... 28 The Celestial Coordinate System........................................................................................................... 28 Motion of the Stars................................................................................................................................. 29 Polar Alignment (with optional Wedge) .................................
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Congratulations on your purchase of the Celestron NexStar! The NexStar i-series telescopes are precision scientific instruments that will allow you to enjoy viewing numerous objects in the night sky — planets, nebulae, star clusters, galaxies and more. Equipped with high speed motors and hand control, the NexStar-i allows you to remotely move your telescope to desired objects quickly and accurately. At a touch of a button, you can move your telescope across the sky in a matter of seconds
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12 1 2 3 11 10 4 5 9 6 8 7 Figure 1-A - The NexStar 8i SE 1 Optical Tube 7 Accessory Tary 2 Star Pointer Finderscope 8 Tripod 3 Eyepiece 9 ON/OFF Switch / 12v power 4 Star Diagonal 10 Fork Arm 5 Focuser Knob 11 Hand Control 6 Battery Compartment 12 Schmidt Corrector Plate (not shown) 5
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StarPointer Finderscope 3 1 Eyepiece Star Diagonal Remove the NexStar from its packaging and Visual Back attach the base to the tripod. Remove the accessories from their individual boxes. Rotate A) Attach the included accessories. Loosen the the optical tube so that you can access the thumb screws on the side of the visual back battery compartment. and remove the protective plastic cap. Insert the star diagonal and eyepiece into the barrel of the visual back and tighten down all thu
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5 7 Direction Buttons Up and Down Scroll Buttons With the NexStar powered on, press ENTER to Once the SELECT STAR 1 message appears on the begin an alignment. display, use the Up and Down scroll keys (10) to select the star you wish to use for the first alignment star. Press ENTER. Use the direction buttons to slew the telescope to the alignment star and carefully center the star in the finderscope and eyepiece. Once centered in the eyepiece press ALIGN. 8 6 APPENDIX C LONGI
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The NexStar comes completely pre-assembled and can be operational in a matter of minutes. The NexStar and its accessories are conveniently packaged in one reusable shipping carton that contains the following accessories: • 25mm Plossl Eyepiece – 1¼" • Star Diagonal - 1¼" • Star Pointer Finderscope and Mounting Bracket • Visual Back - 1¼" (attached to the optical tube) • Computerized Hand Control A As ss se em mb blliin ng g t th he e N Ne ex xS St ta ar r Start by removing the telescope
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P Po ow we er riin ng g t th he e N Ne ex xS St ta ar r The NexStar can be powered by eight user supplied AA batteries or with an optional AC adapter or cigarette lighter adapter. The battery compartment is located in the center of the telescope's base (see figure 1-3). To power the NexStar with batteries: 1. Slowly rotate the optical tube upwards so that you have easy access to the battery compartment. Battery Compartment 2. Remove the battery cover from the center of the base by gen
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T Th he e E Ey ye ep piie ec ce e The eyepiece, or ocular, is the optical element that magnifies the image focused by the telescope. The eyepiece fits into either the visual back directly or the star diagonal. To install the eyepiece: 1. Loosen the thumbscrew on the star diagonal so it does not obstruct 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 thumbscrew to hold the eyepiece in place. To rem
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2. Locate the square dovetail bracket that has the proper curvature for the NexStar tube and align the holes with the two holes in the telescope body. 3. Use the two 8-32 x ¼" screws to tighten down the bracket to the rear cell. 4. Once the bracket is mounted, slide the mounting track at the bottom of the Star Pointer over the dovetail portion of the bracket. It may be necessary to loosen the two screws on the side of the mounting track before sliding it over the dovetail. The end of the
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The NexStar Computerized Hand Control gives you instant access to all the functions 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 features 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 is backlit for comforta
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4. Catalog Keys: The NexStar has keys on the hand control to allow direct access to each of the catalogs in its database. The NexStar 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 – A combination of the best NGC and IC objects. Planets - All 8 planets in our Solar System plus the Moon and Sun. Stars – A compiled list of the brightest stars from th
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Alignment Procedures Alignment Procedures In order for the NexStar to accurately point to objects in the sky, it must first be aligned to two 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 the NexStar with the sky depending on what information the user is able to provide: Auto Two-Star Align will ask the user to input date and location informatio
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Based on this information, the NexStar will automatically select a second bright star that is above the horizon and slew towards it. At this point the telescope is only roughly aligned, so the alignment star should only be near the field of view of the Star Pointer finderscope. Once finished slewing, the display will ask you to use the arrow buttons to align the selected star with the red dot in the center of the Star Pointer. If for some reason the chosen star is not visible (perhaps beh
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EQ North / EQ South Alignment EQ North and EQ South Alignments assist the user in aligning the telescope when polar aligned on an optional equatorial wedge. Just as with the Altazimuth alignments described earlier, the EQ alignments gives you the choice of performing an AutoAlign or a Two-Star alignment. • The EQ AutoAlign follows many of the same steps as the Alt-Az Auto Two-Star Align, except it will ask you to position the tube so that the index markers are aligned, and then rotate
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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 Helpful through the catalog to the desired object. Hint When scroll
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Direction Buttons Direction Buttons The NexStar has four direction buttons (3) in the center of the hand control which control 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 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
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EQ North Used to track the sky when the telescope is polar aligned using an equatorial wedge in the Northern Hemisphere. EQ South Used to track the sky when the telescope is polar aligned using an equatorial wedge 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, the NexStar will con
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To replace the contents of any of the user defined objects, simply save a new object using one of the existing identification numbers; NexStar 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. Scope Setup Features Scope Setup Features MENU Setup Time-Site - Allows the user to customize th
