Congratulations on your purchase of a high-quality Levenhuk telescope!These instructions will help you set up, properly use, and care for your telescope. Please read them thor-oughly before getting started.
CAUTION! Never look directly at the Sun – even for an instant – through your telescope or nderscope without a professionally made solar lter that completely covers the front of the instrument, or permanent eye damage may result. To avoid damage to the internal parts of your telescope, make sure the front end of the nderscope is covered with aluminum foil or another non-transparent material. Children should use the telescope under adult supervision only.
All parts of the telescope will arrive in one box. Be careful when unpacking it. We recommend keeping the original shipping containers. In the event that the telescope needs to be shipped to another location, having the proper shipping containers will help ensure that your telescope survives the journey intact. Make sure all the parts are present in the packaging. Be sure to check the box carefully, as some parts are small. No tools are needed other than those provided. All screws should be tightened securely to eliminate exing and wobbling, but be careful not to overtighten them, as that may strip the threads.During assembly (and anytime, for that matter), do not touch the surfaces of the optical elements with your ngers. The optical surfaces have delicate coatings on them that can easily be damaged if touched. Never remove lenses or mirrors from their housing, or the product warranty will be null and void.
Telescope assembly
• Slowly loosen the tripod locking knobs and gently pull out the lower section of each tripod leg. Tighten the clamps to hold the legs in place.
• Spread the tripod legs apart to stand the tripod upright.
• Adjust the height of each tripod leg until the tripod head is properly leveled. Note that the tripod legs may not be the same length when the equatorial mount is leveled.
• Place the accessory tray on top of the bracket, and secure it with thumbscrews from underneath.
• Attach the equatorial mount to the tripod head.
• Turn the azimuth adjustment knob up and tighten the knurled knob underneath the tripod head to secure mount to tripod.
• Orient the mount vertically.
• Loosen the Dec. lock knob. Rotate the mount 180°.
• Loosen the R.A. lock knob located on the opposite side. Rotate the mount 180°.
• Loosen the latitude lock knob. Set the angle according to your location latitude. Rotate the mount 180°.
• Retighten the Dec. and R.A. lock knobs.
• Slide the counterweights halfway along the counterweight rod. Holding the counterweights with one hand, screw the counterweight rod into the threaded hole on the mount.
• Tighten locknut on the counterweight rod until it is locked.
• Attach the slow-motion control to the worm gear mechanism.
• Tighten the locking screws to secure the control in place.
• Remove the ring clamps from the telescope by releasing their thumbscrews and opening their hinges.
• Using the bolts provided, fasten the ring clamps to the mount with a wrench.
• Remove the telescope tube from its packaging.
• Place the telescope tube between the rings and balance it.
• Close the hinges around the telescope and retighten the thumbscrews. Do not over tighten.
• Locate the nderscope optical assembly.
• Unthread two screws in the back of the telescope tube (for reectors – in the front of the telescope tube)
• Place the nderscope base above the holes on the tube.
• Lock the nderscope base into position by tightening the screws.
• Unthread the thumbscrews on the end of the focuser tube to remove the black plastic cap.
• Insert the desired eyepiece and secure it by retightening the thumbscrews.
• For refractors: First, insert the diagonal mirror into the focuser tube and retighten the thumbscrews to hold the diagonal in place. Then insert the desired eyepiece into diagonal and secure it by retightening the thumbscrews.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Aligning the nderscope
Optical nderscopes are very useful accessories. When they are correctly aligned with the telescope, ob-jects can be quickly located and brought to the center of the view. Alignment is best done outdoors in day light when it's easier to locate objects. If it is necessary to refocus your nderscope, sight on an object that is at least 500 yards away. For 5x24 and 6x24 nderscopes: turn the scope end to adjust the focus. For 6x30 nderscopes: loosen the locking ring by unscrewing it back toward the bracket. The front lens holder can now be turned in and out to focus. When focus is reached, lock it in position with the locking ring.
Choose a distant object that is at least 500 yards away and point the telescope at the object. Adjust the telescope so that the object is in the center of the view in your eyepiece. Check the nderscope to see if the object is also centered on the crosshairs.For 5x24 and 6x24 nderscopes: use three adjustment screws to center the nderscope crosshairs on the object. For 6x30 nderscopes: adjust two windage screws only.
8
7
Balancing the telescope
Atelescope should be balanced before each observing session. Balancing reduces stress on the telescope mount and allows precise slow-motion movements. Abalanced telescope is especially crucial when using the optional clock drive for astrophotography. The telescope should be balanced after all accessories (eyepiece, camera, etc.) have been attached. Before balancing your telescope, make sure that your tripod is balanced and on a stable surface. For photography, point the telescope in the direction you will be taking photos before performing the balancing steps.
R.A. Balancing
• For best results, adjust the altitude of the mount to between 15º and 30º if possible, by using the altitude
adjustment T-bolt.
• Slowly unlock the R.A. and Dec. lock knobs. Rotate the telescope until both the optical tube and the coun-
terweight rod are horizontal to the ground, and the telescope tube is to the side of the mount.
• Tighten the Dec. lock knob.
• Move the counterweights along the counterweight rod until the telescope is balanced and remains station-
ary when released.
• Tighten the counterweight screws to secure the counterweights.
Dec. Balancing
All accessories should be attached to the telescope before balancing around the declination axis. The R.A. balancing should be done before proceeding with Dec. balancing.
• For best results, adjust the altitude of the mount to between 60º and 75º if possible.
• Release the R.A. lock knob and rotate around the R.A. axis so that the counterweight rod is in a horizontal
position. Tighten the R.A. lock knob.
• Unlock the Dec. lock knob and rotate the telescope tube until it is parallel to the ground.
• Slowly release the telescope and determine in which direction it rotates. Loosen the telescope ring
clamps and slide the telescope tube forward or backward between the rings until it is balanced.
• Once the telescope no longer rotates from its parallel starting position, retighten the tube rings and the
Dec. lock knob. Reset the altitude axis to your local latitude.
Operating the mount
The mount has controls for both conventional altitude (up-down) and azimuth (left-right) directions of mo-tion. These two adjustments are suggested for large direction changes and for terrestrial viewing. To adjust azimuth, loosen the big knob under the mount base and rotate the mount head about the azimuth axis. Use the altitude adjustment T-bolts to set the required altitude.In addition, the EQ2 mount has R.A. (hour angle) and Dec. controls for polar-aligned astronomical observing. Loosen the lock knobs to make large direction changes. Use the slow-motion controls for ne adjustment after the lock knobs have both been locked. An additional scale is included for the altitude axis. This allows polar alignment at your local latitude.
9
Barlow lens
ABarlow lens increases the magnifying power of an eyepiece, while reducing the eld of view. It expands the cone of the focused light before it reaches the focal point, so that the telescope’s focal length appears longer to the eyepiece. In addition to increasing magnication, the benets of using a Barlow lens include improved eye relief, and reduced spherical aberration of the eyepiece. For this reason, a Barlow plus a lens often outperform a single lens producing the same magnication. And the best advantage is that a Barlow lens can potentially double the number of eyepieces in your collection.
10
Focusing
Slowly rotate the focus knobs under the focuser one way or the other until the image in the eyepiece is sharp. The image usually has to be nely refocused over time, due to small variations caused by tempera-ture changes, exures, etc. This often happens with short focal ratio telescopes, particularly when they haven’t yet reached outside temperature. Refocusing is almost always necessary when you change an eye-piece, add or remove a Barlow lens.
11
Polar adjustment
In order for your telescope to track objects in the sky you have to align your mount. This means tilting the head over so that it points to the North (or South) celestial pole. For people in the Northern Hemisphere this is rather easy as the bright star Polaris is very near the North Celestial Pole. For casual observing, rough polar alignment is adequate. Make sure your equatorial mount is leveled and the nderscope is aligned with the telescope before beginning.Look up your latitude on a map, road maps are good for this purpose. Now look at the side of your mount head, there you will see a scale running from 0 to 90°. Loosen the mount latch slightly rotating the lock handle counterclockwise. Athumbscrew located underneath the mount head pushes the latch plate, thus changing the angle. Turn the screw until the pointer on the latitude scale is set at the latitude of your observation site.
Loosen the Dec. lock knob and rotate the telescope tube until the pointer on the setting circle reads 90°. Retighten the Dec. lock knob. Loosen the azimuth lock knob and move the mount so that the R.A. axis points roughly at Polaris. Use the two azimuth adjustment knobs above the “N” to make ne adjustments in azimuth if needed. For more accurate alignment, look through the nderscope and center the Polaris on the crosshairs using the azimuth and latitude adjustment knobs.
After a while you will notice your target drifting slowly North or South depending on the direction of the pole relative to Polaris. To keep the target in the center of the view, turn only the R.A. slow-motion control. After your telescope is polar aligned, no further adjustments in the azimuth and latitude of the mount should be made in the observing session, nor should you move the tripod. Only movements in R.A. and DEC axis should be made in order to keep an object in the eld.In the Southern Hemisphere you must align the mount to the SCPby locating its position with star patterns, without the convenience of a nearby bright star. The closest star is the faint 5.5-mag. Sigma Octantis which is about one degree away. Two sets of pointers which help to locate the SCPare α and β Crucis (in the Southern Cross) and a pointer running at a right angle to a line connecting α and β Centauri.
12
13
Tracking celestial objects
When observing through a telescope, astronomical objects appear to move slowly through the telescope’s eld of view. When the mount is correctly polar aligned, you only need to turn the R.A. slow-motion control to follow or track objects as they move through the eld. AR.A. motor drive can be added to automatically track celestial objects by counteracting the rotation of Earth. If the object is too faint you may want to use setting circles on an equatorial mount. Setting circles allow you to locate celestial objects whose celestial coordinates have been determined from star charts.The telescope’s R.A. setting circle is scaled in hours, from 1 to 24, with small lines in between representing 10 minute increments. The upper set of numbers applies to observations in the Northern Hemisphere, while the numbers below them apply to observations in the Southern Hemisphere. Setting (calibrating) the R.A. setting circle: in order to set your Right Ascension circle you must rst nd a star in your eld of view with known coordinates. Agood one would be the 0.0 magnitude star Vega in the Constellation Lyra. From a star chart we know the R.A. coordinate of Vega is 18h 36m. Loosen the R.A. and DEC. lock knobs on the mount and adjust the telescope so that Vega is centered in the eld of view of the eyepiece. Tighten the R.A. and DEC. lock knobs to lock the mount in place. Now rotate the R.A. setting circle until it reads 18h36m. You are now ready to use the setting circles to nd objects in the sky.
AGerman Equatorial mount has an adjustment, sometimes called a wedge, which tilts the mount’s polar axis so that it points at the appropriate Celestial Pole (NCPor SCP). Once the mount has been polar aligned, it needs to be rotated around the polar axis only to keep an object centered. Do not reposition the mount base or change the latitude setting. The mount has already been correctly aligned for your geographical location (i.e. Latitude), and all remaining telescope pointing is done by rotating the telescope tube around the polar (R.A.) and declination axes.
Aproblem for many beginners is recognizing that a polar-aligned, equatorial mount acts like an alt-azi-muth mount which has been aligned to a celestial pole. The wedge tilts the mount to an angle equal to the observer’s Latitude, and therefore it swivels around a plane which is parallel to the celestial (and Earth’s) equator. This is now its “horizon”; but remember that part of the new horizon is usually blocked by Earth.
15
14
This new “azimuth” motion is called Right Ascension (R.A.). In addition, the mount swivels North (+) and South (-) from the Celestial Equator towards the celestial poles. This plus or minus “altitude” from the celestial equator is called Declination (Dec.).Now, consider pointing the telescope to the western or eastern horizon. If the counterweight is pointing North, the telescope can be swiveled from one horizon to the other around the Dec. axis in an arc that pass-es through the NCP(any Dec. arc will pass through the NCPif the mount is polar-aligned). It can be seen then that if the optical tube needs to be pointed at an object north or south of this arc, it has to be also rotated around the R.A. axis.Pointing in any direction other than due North requires a combination of R.A. and Dec. positions.Telescopes with long focal lengths often have a “blind spot” when pointing near the zenith, because the eyepiece-end of the optical tube bumps into the mount’s legs. To avoid this, the tube can be very carefully slipped up inside the ring clamps. This can be done safely because the tube is pointing almost vertically, and therefore moving it does not cause a Dec. balance problem. It is very important to move the tube back to the Dec. balanced position before observing other sky areas.Something which can also be a problem is that the optical tube often rotates so that the eyepiece, nder-scope and the focusing knobs are in less convenient positions. The diagonal mirror can be rotated to adjust the eyepiece. However, to adjust the positions of the nderscope and focusing knobs, loosen the tube rings holding the telescope tube and gently rotate it. Do this when you are going to observe an area for while, as it is inconvenient to repeat every time you briey go to a new area.Finally, there are a few things to consider to ensure that you are comfortable during the viewing session. First is setting the height of the mount above the ground by adjusting the tripod legs. You must consider the height that you want your eyepiece to be, and if possible plan on sitting on a comfortable chair or stool. Very long optical tubes need to be mounted higher or you will end up crouching or lying on the ground when looking at objects near the zenith. However, a short optical tube can be mounted lower so that there is less movement due to vibration sources, such as wind. This is something that should be decided before going through the effort of polar aligning the mount.
Camera adapter
To attach a camera to your telescope you may need an adapter to get the camera focused. Some reectors require wider motion range than the one allowed by the focuser; some refractors are designed to be used with diagonal mirrors and thus need a longer focal length when used with camera.To achieve that, simply attach an extender to the focuser of your telescope and then attach the camera with a T-adapter to the extender.
• Always purchase the correct size and grade of battery most suitable for the intended use.
• Always replace the whole set of batteries at one time; taking care not to mix old and new ones, or batteries of different types.
• Clean the battery contacts and also those of the device prior to battery installation.
• Make sure the batteries are installed correctly with regard to polarity (+ and -).
• Remove batteries from equipment that is not to be used for an extended period of time.
• Remove used batteries promptly.
• Never attempt to recharge primary batteries as this may cause leakage, re, or explosion.
• Never short-circuit batteries as this may lead to high temperatures, leakage, or explosion.
• Never heat batteries in order to revive them.
• Remember to switch off devices after use.
• Keep batteries out of the reach of children, to avoid risk of ingestion, suffocation, or poisoning.
Care and maintenance
• Never, under any circumstances, look directly at the Sun through this device without a special lter, or look at another bright source of light or at a laser, as this may cause PERMANENTRETINALDAMAGE and may lead to BLINDNESS.
• Take necessary precautions when using the device with children or people who have not read or who do not fully understand these instructions.
• Do not try to disassemble the device on your own for any reason, including to clean the mirror. For repairs and cleaning of any kind, please contact your local specialized service center.
• Protect the device from sudden impact and excessive mechanical force.
• Do not touch the optical surfaces with your ngers. To clean the telescope exterior, use only special cleaning wipes and special optics cleaning tools from Levenhuk.
• Store the device in a dry, cool place away from hazardous acids and other chemicals, away from heat-ers, open re and other sources of high temperatures.
• Replace the dust cap over the front end of the telescope whenever it is not in use. This prevents dust from settling on the mirror or lens surfaces.
• Seek medical advice immediately if a small part or a battery is swallowed.
Levenhuk Limited Warranty
All Levenhuk telescopes, cameras for telescopes, microscopes and binocularsare warranted to be free of defects in
materials and workmanship for three years from date of retail purchase. All Levenhuk accessoriesare warranted to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for six months from date of retail purchase. Levenhuk will repair or replace such product or part thereof which, upon inspection by Levenhuk, is found to be defective in materials or workmanship. As a condition to the obligation of Levenhuk to repair or replace such product, the product must be returned to Levenhuk together with proof of purchase satisfactory to Levenhuk.AReturn Authorization (RA) Number must be obtained in advance of return. Contact the local Levenhuk branch to receive the RAnumber to be displayed on the outside of your shipping container. All returns must be accompanied by a written statement setting forth the name, address and telephone number of the owner, including a description of any claimed defects. Parts or products for which replacement is made will become the property of Levenhuk.The customer will be responsible for all costs of transportation and insurance to and from Levenhuk or its authorized dealers and will be required to prepay such costs.Levenhuk will use reasonable efforts to repair or replace any product covered by this warranty within thirty days of receipt. If a repair or replacement will require more than thirty days, Levenhuk will notify the customer accordingly. Levenhuk reserves the right to replace any product that has been discontinued from its product line with a new product of comparable value and function. This warranty does not apply to any defects or damages resulting from alteration, modication, neglect, misuse, usage of improper power sources, damage in transportation, abuse, or any cause other than normal use, or to malfunction or deterioration due to normal wear.Levenhuk disclaims all warranties, express or implied, whether of merchantability or tness for a particular use, except as expressly set forth herein. The sole obligation of Levenhuk under this limited warranty will be to repair or replace the covered product, in accordance with the terms set forth herein. Levenhuk disclaims liability for any loss of prots, loss of information, or for any general, special, direct, indirect or consequential damages which may result from breach of any warranty, or arising out of the use or inability to use any Levenhuk product. Any warranties which are implied and which cannot be disclaimed will be limited in duration to a term of three years for telescopes, cameras for telescopes, microscopes and binoculars or six months for accessories from the date of retail purchase.Some states/provinces do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations and exclusions may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specic legal rights, and you may have other rights which vary from state to state or province to province.Levenhuk reserves the right to modify or discontinue any product without prior notice.
Loading...
+ 33 hidden pages
You need points to download manuals.
1 point = 1 manual.
You can buy points or you can get point for every manual you upload.