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ENGLISH I 19
COOLING THE TELESCOPE
Telescopes require at least 10 minutes to cool down to outside air temperature. This may take longer if there is a big
difference between the temperature of the telescope and the outside air. This minimizes heat wave distortion inside the
telescope tube (tube currents).
ADAPTING YOUR EYES
If you are planning to observe deep sky objects at a dark sky site, it is best if you allow your eyes to fully adapt to the dark
by avoiding exposure to white light sources such as flashlights, car headlights, streetlights, etc. It will take your pupils about
30 minutes to expand to their maximum diameter and build up the levels of optical pigments to help your eyes see the faint
light from a distant target. If you need light to help setup your telescope in the dark, try using a red LED flashlight at as low a
brightness setting as possible and avoid looking straight at the light source. This will give you the best chance of capturing
those faint deep sky objects.
When observing, it is important to observe with both eyes open. This avoids eye fatigue at the eyepiece. If you find this too
distracting, cover the unused eye with your hand or an eye patch. The center of your eye works well in bright daylight, but is
the least sensitive part of the eye when trying to see subtle detail at low light levels. When looking in the eyepiece for a faint
target, don’t look directly at it. Instead look toward the edge of the field of view and the object will appear brighter.
ASTROIMAGING
One of the first questions most people have about their new telescope is “How can I take images with it?”. Your telescope is
capable of imaging the Moon and planets, but deep-sky objects would require a more advanced telescope and mount with
finely geared motorized tracking. There are a few different methods for using your telescope for imaging:
• Smart Devices or Point-and-Shoot Cameras- This is the easiest and most straight forward method and works well
for images of the Moon and planets. Simply hold your device’s camera up to the eyepiece and take the image. While you
can use this with any eyepiece, it is generally easier to get an image using a lower power (longer focal length) eyepiece.
You will need a steady hand to hold the phone to the eyepiece but you can get good results.
• DSLR- Celestron offers adapters that will allow you to attach a Canon or Nikon DSLR body to the telescope in place
of the eyepiece. You would be effectively using your telescope as a telephoto lens. This will require a T-adapter for the
telescope and a T-ring for the camera body. For more information on the adapters for your specific model of telescope,
please go to www.celestron.com.
• CMOS Planetary Imagers- These are specialized cameras that replace the eyepiece in your telescope. It would connect
to your laptop via a USB port. The camera records video of the planet, then the included software breaks up the video file
into individual still frames. The software then combines the individual frames into a single image that contains more detail
than was visible in any single frame. This method will provide you the best possible lunar and planetary images, but does
require that you have a laptop at the scope. For more information on the planetary camera, please go to www.celestron.com.
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