Bushnell Enjoying Your New Telescope Instruction Manual

Enjoying Your New Telescope

1. First determine your targeted object. Any bright object
in the night sky is a good starting point. One of the
favorite starting points in astronomy is the moon. This is
an object sure to please any budding astronomer or
experienced veteran. When you have developed
proficiency at this level, other objects become good
targets. Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus are good
second steps to take. As a reminder, the moon is best

viewed with the 20mm lens due to the closeness to the
earth.

2. The first thing you need to do after assembling the
telescope as planned is center the desired object in the
Finderscope’s crosshairs. Provided you did a reasonable
job aligning the Finderscope, a quick look through the
main telescope tube with the low power (20mm) lens
should reveal the same image. With the lowest power
eyepiece (the one with the largest number printed on it)
you should be able to focus the same image that you saw
through the Finderscope. Avoid the temptation to move
directly to the highest power. The low power eyepiece
will give you a wider field of view, and brighter
image—thus making it very easy to find your target
object. At this point with a focused image in both scopes,
you’ve passed the first obstacle. If you don’t see an
image after attempting to focus it in, you might consider
aligning your Finderscope again. Once you pass this
step, you will enjoy the time spent ensuring a good
alignment. Every object you center in the Finderscope
will be easily found in the main telescope tube, which is
important for continuing your exploration of the night
sky.

3. The low power eyepieces are perfect for viewing the full
moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae, and even
constellations. These should build your foundation.
However, for more detail, try bumping up in
magnification to higher power eyepieces on some of
these objects. During calm and crisp nights, the
light/dark separation line on the moon (called the
"Terminator") is best viewed at high power. Similarly,
you can move up to higher magnifications when viewing
the planets and nebulae. Due to their distance and limited
brightness, star clusters and individual stars are best
viewed through the low power lens.

4. The recurring astronomical theater we call the night sky
is an ever-changing billboard. In other words, the same
movie doesn’t play all the time. Rather, the positions of
the stars change not only hourly as they seem to rise and
set, but also throughout the year. As the earth orbits the
sun our perspective on the stars changes on a yearly
cycle. The reason the sky seems to move daily just as
the sun and the moon "move" across our sky is that the
earth is rotating about its axis. As a result you may notice
that after a few minutes or a few seconds depending on
what power lens you are using, the objects in your
telescope will move. At higher magnifications you will
notice that the planets and stars will "race" right out of
the field of view. To compensate, just move your
telescope to "track" it in the necessary path.