Meade Infinity 60mm User Manual - Page 14

exposure. f/5 is faster than f/10. The faster the ratio, the faster exposure time 12 is needed when a camera is hooked up to the telescope. Your telescope has slower focal ratio at f/8.5. Sometimes, astronomers use focal reducers to make slow exposure telescopes have faster focal ratios. Alt-azimuth mounting simply means your telescope moves up and down (altitude or "alt"), and side to side, (azimuth or "az"). Other mounting configurations are available for other telescopes, such as equatorial mounting. USE THE SPECIFICATIONS TO CALCULATE THE MAGNIFICATION OF YOUR EYEPIECE The power of a telescope is how much it magnifies objects. For a Infinity 70, the 26mm eyepiece magnifies an object 27 times. The 9mm eyepiece magnifies objects 78 times. If you obtain other eyepieces, you can calculate how much magnification they have with your telescope. Just divide the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece. Focal Length of the Telescope ÷ Focal Length of the Eyepiece = Magnification Look at the specifications. For the Infinity 70, you will see that the focal length of your scope is 700mm. Let's say that you have obtained a 13mm eyepiece. You can tell that what the focal length of your eyepiece is as it is always printed on the side of an eyepiece. Divide: 700 ÷ 13, which equals 54.85. Round this off to the nearest whole number Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversible damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through the telescope as it is moving. and your new eyepiece magnifies objects 55 times. A great accessory for your telescope is a Barlow lens If you use a Barlow lens with one of your eyepieces, it doubles the magnification of your eyepiece. Other types of Barlows can triple or further increase the power of an eyepiece. To find out how much the magnification is when you use a Barlow, multiply your eyepiece's magnification by two. Eyepiece's magnification x 2 = Magnification with a 2X Barlow lens For the Infinity 70 the 26mm low-power eyepiece magnifies an object 27 times. Multiply 27 by 2 and you get 54 times magnification with a Barlow. It's worth repeating: Keep in mind that a bright, clear, but smaller image is more interesting than a larger, dimmer, fuzzy one. Using too high a power eyepiece is one of the most common mistakes made by new astronomers. So don't think that higher magnification is necessarily better-quite