Celestron NexStar 60 Instruction Manual
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Celestron NexStar 60 Instruction Manual

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See also: Owner's Manual , User Manual
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Summary of Contents for Celestron NexStar 60

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    INTRODUCTION ................................4 Warning...................................4 ASSEMBLY..................................7 Assembling the NexStar ..............................7 Attaching the Telescope to the Tripod.........................8 The Hand Control................................8 The Star Diagonal................................9 The Eyepiece ................................9 The Star Pointer Finderscope ............................10 Star Pointer Installation ............................10 Star Pointer Operation ............................11 NEXSTAR ST..................................12 Moving the NexStar ST..............................12 NEXSTAR HC................................14 Powering the NexStar................................14 The Hand Control................................14...
  • Page 3 Planetary Observing Hints.............................30 Observing the Sun ..............................30 Solar Observing Hints ............................30 Observing Deep Sky Objects..........................30 Star Hopping .................................30 Seeing Conditions..............................31 Transparency .................................31 Sky Illumination ..............................31 Seeing..................................31 TELESCOPE MAINTENANCE............................33 Care and Cleaning of the Optics............................33 Collimation..................................33 OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES ............................34 APPENDIX A - TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ....................36 APPENDIX B - GLOSSARY OF TERMS........................37 APPENDIX C –...

  • Page 4: Introduction

    This manual is broken up into three major sections. The assembly section details all the steps necessary to assemble any of the NexStar series of telescopes. The assembly section covers the procedures that are common to the NexStar 60, 80 and 114 telescopes.
  • Page 5 Refractor Telescope Objective Lens Focuser Knob Fork Arm Star Diagonal Hand Control (for GT model) Eyepiece Accessory Tray Star Pointer Finderscope Tripod Tube Ring...
  • Page 6 Reflecting Telescope Lens Cover Hand Control (for GT Model) Optical Tube Collimation Adjustment Knobs Fork Arm Tube Ring Tripod Focuser Accessory Tray Star Pointer Finderscope...

  • Page 7: Assembly

    The Sky™ Level I Astronomy Software The Sky™ Level I Astronomy Software The Sky™ Level I Astronomy Software Deluxe Accessory Tray Deluxe Accessory Tray Deluxe Accessory Tray NexStar 60 HC NexStar 80 HC NexStar 114 HC Hand Control Hand Control Hand Control...

  • Page 8: Attaching The Telescope To The Tripod

    Remove the tripod from the box and spread the legs apart until the center leg brace is fully extended. Locate the accessory tray, and place it on top of the tripod center support brace in between the tripod legs (see figure 2-1).

  • Page 9: The Star Diagonal

    (For 60mm and 80mm Models Only) The star diagonal diverts the light at a right angle from the light path of the telescope. For astronomical observing, this allows you to observe in positions that are more comfortable than if you were to look straight through. To attach the star diagonal: Star Pointer Eyepiece...

  • Page 10: The Star Pointer Finderscope

    The Star Pointer is the quickest and easiest way to point your telescope exactly at a desired object in the sky. It's like having a laser pointer that you can shine directly onto the night sky. The Star Pointer is a zero magnification pointing tool that uses a coated glass window to superimpose the image of a small red dot onto the night sky.

  • Page 11: Star Pointer Operation

    Star Pointer Operation The star pointer is powered by a long life 3-volt lithium battery (#CR2032) located underneath the front portion of the Star Pointer. Like all finderscopes, the Star Pointer must be properly aligned with the main telescope before it can be used. This is a simple process using the azimuth and altitude control knobs located on the side and bottom of the Star Pointer.

  • Page 12: Nexstar St

    The NexStar ST is a precision scientific instrument designed to grow as your interest in astronomy grows. Equipped with manual altitude and azimuth motion controls, your standard model NexStar can be used to quickly star hop to the stars and planets.
  • Page 13 To move the telescope towards a desired object in the sky there are two options. For large and quick movements, loosen the altitude and azimuth locks by rotating the knobs counterclockwise and manually moving the telescope tube towards your desired object. You should roughly align the selected object with the red dot as seen through the Star Pointer finderscope.

  • Page 14: Nexstar Hc

    The NexStar HC telescope is a precision scientific instrument 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 HC allows you to remotely move your telescope to desired objects quickly and accurately.

  • Page 15: Attaching The Hand Control

    Figure 4-2 The NexStar HC Hand Control The NexStar HC hand control has a phone jack type connector at the end of its cord. Plug the phone jack connector into the outlet at the base of the telescope’s fork arm. Push the connector into the outlet until it clicks into place and put the hand control into its holder on the tripod as described previously in the Assembly section of the manual.

  • Page 16: Utility Features

    The NexStar HC hand control comes with a Star function key that allows you to change certain parameters of the hand controls functions, such as the directional logic of the arrow keys, backlash compensation of the motor gears and azimuth tracking. Direction Buttons: When looking at a star through an eyepiece or star diagonal, the direction that the star moves when the Up and Down arrow buttons are pressed will be reversed from when the same object is being centered in the Star Pointer Finderscope.
  • Page 17 Telescope Model – Select your telescope model from the drop-down list. Location – Click the Change Location button to choose the city closest to your location. Time – The software will use the current time setting from your computer, however you must indicate your time zone and whether Daylight Savings is in effect.

  • Page 18: Nexstar Gt

    The NexStar GT ushers in a whole new generation of computer automated technology. Simple and friendly to use, the NexStar GT (GOTO) is up and running after centering just two alignment stars selected by the NexStar. If you are new to astronomy, you may wish to start off by using the NexStar's built-in Sky Tour feature, which commands the NexStar to find the most interesting objects in the sky and automatically slews to each one.
  • Page 19 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Window: Has a dual-line, 16 character display screen that is backlit for comfortable viewing of telescope information and scrolling text. Align: Instructs the NexStar to use a selected star or object as an alignment position. Direction Keys: Allows complete control of the NexStar in any direction. Use the direction keys to move the telescope to the initial alignment stars or for centering objects in the eyepiece.

  • Page 20: Hand Control Operation

    Info: Displays coordinates and useful information about objects selected from the NexStar database. Tour: Activates the tour mode, which seeks out all the best objects for a given month and automatically slews the NexStar to those objects. Enter: Pressing Enter allows you to selects any of the NexStar functions and accept entered parameters. Undo: Undo will take you out of the current menu and display the previous level of the menu path.

  • Page 21: Third Star Alignment

    • Select the time zone that you are observing from. Again, use the Up and Down buttons (10) to scroll through Helpful the choices. To enter a numeric time zone, select Zone and enter the number for the appropriate time zone. Hint For time zone information, refer to the Time Zone map in the appendix of this manual.

  • Page 22: Object Catalog

    star that is in the eastern part of the sky will improve your pointing accuracy, especially on objects in that part of the sky. When trying to locate a very faint or small object that may be difficult to find in the eyepiece, you can improve your pointing accuracy by aligning to a third star that is nearest to the object you are trying to find.

  • Page 23: Tour Mode

    altitude of any object before slewing to it. To do this simply select the object you wish to observe and press the INFO button while the object is displayed. The hand control screen will display the altitude of the selected object. If the altitude is a negative number the object is still below the horizon and not visible.

  • Page 24: Set Up Procedures

    Note: The EQ North and EQ South tracking modes are only needed with telescopes that can be polar aligned, such as the NexStar 4, 5 and 8. The NexStar 60, 80 and 114 are exclusively Alt-Az mounted telescopes and do not require equatorial tracking.

  • Page 25: Get Ra/Dec

    Save Sky Object: The NexStar stores celestial objects to its database by saving its right ascension and declination in the sky. This way the same object can be found each time the telescope is Save Save Sky Save aligned. Once a desired object is centered in the eyepiece, simply scroll to the "Save Obj"...

  • Page 26: Demo

    If you have a NexStar 114 or 4", enter the number 1059334 and press ENTER. Now enter the same number for altitude as you did for azimuth, Alt = 0726559 (for NexStar 60 or 80) or Alt = 1059334 (for NexStar 114 or 4") and press ENTER.
  • Page 27 N exStar R ead y M E N U ALIG N M E N T LIS T NAM ED STARS T R A C K IN G M O D E A U T O A L IG N NAM ED O BJECTS DO UBLE STARS ALT-AZ NO RTH &...

  • Page 28: Telescope Basics

    The image orientation of any telescope changes depending on how the eyepiece is inserted into the telescope. When observing through the NexStar 60 or 80 using a diagonal, the image will be right side up, but reversed from left to right. When observing straight through, with the eyepiece inserted directly into the telescope, the image will be inverted.

  • Page 29: Determining Field Of View

    1.3° by 52.5. This produces a linear field width of 68.3 feet at a distance of one thousand yards. The apparent field of each eyepiece that Celestron manufactures is found in the Celestron Accessory Catalog (#93685).

  • Page 30: Celestial Observing

    See the "Seeing Conditions" section later in this section. To increase contrast and bring out detail on the planetary surface, try using Celestron eyepiece filters.

  • Page 31: Observing The Sun

    This can damage the telescope and/or any accessories attached to the telescope. For safe solar viewing, use a Celestron solar filter that reduces the intensity of the Sun's light, making it safe to view. With a filter you can see sunspots as they move across the solar disk and faculae, which are bright patches seen near the Sun's edge.

  • Page 32: Seeing Conditions

    Viewing conditions affect what you can see through your telescope during an observing session. Conditions include transparency, sky illumination, and seeing. Understanding viewing conditions and the effect they have on observing will help you get the most out of your telescope. Transparency is the clarity of the atmosphere which is affected by clouds, moisture, and other airborne particles.
  • Page 33 The conditions described here apply to both visual and photographic observations. Figure 6-1 Seeing conditions directly affect image quality. These drawing represent a point source (i.e., star) under bad seeing conditions (left) to excellent conditions (right). Most often, seeing conditions produce images that lie some where between these two extremes.

  • Page 34: Care And Cleaning Of The Optics

    Do not over tighten the screw. If your telescope is out of collimation, the best way to re-collimate it is with a good collimation tool. Celestron offers a Newtonian Collimation Tool (#94183) with detailed instructions that make it an easy chore.
  • Page 35 24mm and 60º at 8mm. Eye relief ranges from 15mm to 19mm. Filters, Eyepiece - To enhance your visual observations of solar system objects, Celestron offers a wide range of colored filters that thread into the 1-1/4" oculars. Available individually are: #12 deep yellow, #21 orange, #25 red, #58 green, #80A light blue, #96 neutral density - 25%T, #96 neutral density - 13%T, and polarizing.
  • Page 36 18%. Hand Control, Upgrade (#93961) – Plugs into your NexStar 60 HC, NexStar 80 HC or NexStar 114 HC to give you instant access to over 4,000 celestial objects. Combined with your telescope’s built-in slew motors, your NexStar will have the ability to automatically find all the Messier objects, dozens of double stars and all the planets at a touch of a button.
  • Page 37 NexStar 60mm NexStar 80mm NexStar 114mm Design Refractor Refractor Reflector Aperture 60mm 80mm 114mm Focal Length 700mm 400mm 1000mm F/ratio of the Optical System Objective Coatings Multi Coated Multi Coated Aluminum Highest Useful Magnification 175x ( ~ 4mm eyepiece) 189x (~2.5mm eyepiece) 269x (~4mm eyepiece) Lowest Useful Magnification ( ~ 32mm eyepiece)

  • Page 38: Collimation

    Absolute magnitude The apparent magnitude that a star would have if it were observed from a standard distance of 10 parsecs, or 32.6 light-years. The absolute magnitude of the Sun is 4.8. at a distance of 10 parsecs, it would just be visible on Earth on a clear moonless night away from surface light. Airy disk The apparent size of a star's disk produced even by a perfect optical system.
  • Page 39 Jovian Planets Any of the four gas giant planets that are at a greater distance form the sun than the terrestrial planets. Kuiper Belt A region beyond the orbit of Neptune extending to about 1000 AU which is a source of many short period comets.
  • Page 40 Universe The totality of astronomical things, events, relations and energies capable of being described objectively. Variable Star A star whose brightness varies over time due to either inherent properties of the star or something eclipsing or obscuring the brightness of the star. Waning Moon The period of the moon's cycle between full and new, when its illuminated portion is decreasing.

  • Page 41: Appendix C - Maps Of Time Zones

    – –...
  • Page 49 CELESTRON ONE YEAR WARRANTY Celestron International (CI) warrants this telescope to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for one year. CI will repair or replace such product or part thereof which, upon inspection by CI, is found to be defective in materials or workmanship.
  • Page 50 Celestron International 2835 Columbia Street Torrance, CA 90503 Tel. (310) 328-9560 Fax. (310) 212-5835 Web site at http//www.celestron.com Copyright 2000 Celestron International All rights reserved. (Products or instructions may change without notice or obligation.) This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rule. Operation is subject to the...

This manual is also suitable for:

Nexstar 80Nexstar 114

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