Meade RCX400 Instruction Manual

[Page 1] Meade RCX400

Instruction Manual 16", 20" RCX400 ™ Advanced Ritchey-Chrétien Telescopes with The Max Mount MEADE.COM ...

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DANGER Read this manual carefully before attempting to assemble the MAX mount and attaching the OTA. Follow steps as outlined in this manual in order to assemble the telescope safely. Failure to follow steps may result in injury or death, and/or da...

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Telescope Features ...................................................... 4 A utostar II Features ........................................................11 Assembly ........................................................................14 Tripod ...

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4 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. TELESCOPE FEATURES Components of MAX MAX f eatures a unique modular design tha...

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5 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. Pedestal Assembly MAX's Pedestal assembly can be configured to cover thre...

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6 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. Right Ascension Housing Assembly The RA Housing mates to the Pedestal easily, ...

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7 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. Declination Housing Assembly The Dec Housing mates to the RA Housing using ano...

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8 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. Counterweights The MAX counterweights are beautifully crafted with sure lockin...

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9 Optical Tube Assembly MAX is sold stand alone, or it is available bundled with Meade's 16” RCX400 ™ or 20” RCX400™ Optical Tube Assemblies. RCX OTA's integrate seamlessly with MAX. Together you get pinpoint stars from Meade's...

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10 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. Off/On USB Port AUX port 12vDC In 12VDC Switched 12VDC Switched Out HBX por...

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Fig. 2: The Autostar II Handbox. Tour the Cosmos with Just the Push of a Button Control of Max and RCX400 telescope models is through the operation of the standard Autostar II system. Nearly all functions of the telescope are accomplished with just a...

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12 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. The A utostar II system provides control of virtually every telescope functio...

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4 FOCUS: Toggles between two functions. The first press allows you to change the focus and focus speed. The next press allows you to create presets that tell the telescope where to f ocus. 5 SS: Press to display the Solar System library. 6 STAR: Pr...

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14 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. 5 4 3 2 1 A Phillips screwdriver will be useful during assembly. Refer to ima...

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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. 15 9 10 11 A 7 8 Tighten (rotate) the lock knobs below the Pedestal to a "t...

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12 13 14 15 A 16 THE RA ASSEMBLY Slide the RA assembly onto the Pedestal dovetail. CAUTION: MAKE SURE THAT YOUR FINGERS ARE CLEAR OF THE TRACK BEFORE YOU SLIDE THE RA ASSEMBLY INTO THE PEDESTAL TRACK. THE RA ASSEMBLY REQUIRES TWO PEOPLE TO LIFT. Tigh...

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17 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. 15 B 16 17 18 ...Slide down to the hard stop. Slide safety pin into the hole....

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18 19 21 20 A 20 B ATTACH COUNTERWEIGHTS Line up a fixed counterweight's 4 bolts with the four threaded holes in the Dec assembly base. The weights can only be positioned with indentations lined up in a vertical orientation. Slide the bolts into...

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23 24 22 A 22 B 19 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. Put on adjustable counterweights (three for 20 inch models, t...

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20 25 26 A 26 B 26 C 26 D ATTACH OPTICAL TUBE TO THE DEC SADDLE Adjust the clamps so that there is NOT a gap. The OTA should have its dust cover attached when left stored on the ground in an upright position. A minimum of four people are needed to li...

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31 21 Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversible damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun. Do no t look thr ough the t elescope as it is mo ving. 27 28 29 30 ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS Attach the OTA cable to the saddle ...

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22 HOME POSITION AND BALANCING THE OTA After power is applied and Autostar has initialized, press MODE to move to the vertical home position (32). CAUTION: BEFORE DISASSEMBLING, THE TELE- SCOPE MUST BE PUT INTO THE HOME POSITION. Before using the tel...

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23 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. When the display readout is close to "1" (perhaps .99 or 1.01) and...

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24 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. To Attach the handbox holder: Remove the handbox holder from the plastic bag....

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Focusing the Telescope All focusing is performed digitally, using AutoStar II’s Focus key (n umber key 4). The Focus key functions as a toggle key: J Press the Focus key the first time to focus the telescope eyepiece and to control the speed at w...

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scope), you can use Autostar to control both the RCX and the microfocuser. Make sure you have connected the saddle plate to the RCX and the microfocuser to your tele- scope and also the saddle plate's F ocuser port. Follow this procedure: • Pr...

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27 Aligning for the First Time If you wish to have precise pointing accuracy, the first time you align your telescope y ou will need to align it to using A utomatic Alignment and Drift Alignment. You will then electronically collimate the telescope,...

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28 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. How to Drift Align Max (Northern Hemisphere) Important Note: You will need a ...

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29 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. Follow these steps for collimation of the optical system: The only adjustment...

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30 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. Calibrate Home: After aligning your telescope, select this menu and the align...

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31 It is important to understand that menu selections are set in a loop (Fig. 44 ). This means that pressing the Scroll Down key cycles down through all the available options within a given category, then returns to the first option. The Scroll Up ke...

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4. Press the Scroll Down key once to display the "Sunset" option in the Event menu. 5. Press the ENTER key to choose the "Sunset" option and move down another level. 6. Autostar II calculates the Sunset time based on the current d...

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33 AUTOSTAR II's MENUS Figure 46: The Complete A utostar II Men u Tree Str ucture. Hold down MODE for two seconds and the following data displays: • Right Ascension and Declination coordinates • Altitude and Azimuth coordinates • Local ...

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34 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. Object Menu Almost all observing with Autostar II is performed using the Obje...

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35 Browse: Allows you to search the library for objects with certain parameters, much like a search engine. "Edit Parameters" lets you set various parameters for the search, such as: Object Type, Minimum Elevation, Largest, etc. Once you h...

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OTA Fan: Allows you to turn the fan off or on if you have an RCX model. The fan assists with the stabilization of the optics. The fan should be activated at the begin- ning of an observing session and run until the optics have achieved an equilibrium...

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37 Important Note: When the "Park Scope" option is chosen and the display prompts y ou to turn off the telescope's power, Autostar II is unable to be returned to operation without turning the power off and then back on. Setup Menu Ther...

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Tip: If the "ENTER to Sync" f ea - ture is accessed by mistake (holding the ENTER key for more than 2 seconds), press MODE to return to the previous screen. J Train Drive: All telescopes have a certain amount of "backlash" (loosen...

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39 Da ylight Saving : Enables or disables the Daylight Savings time setting. Note: Daylight Savings Time may be referred to by different names in vari- ous areas of the world. Check local time to verify. Smart Mount: See page 55 for detailed informat...

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Statistics: Provides basic statistical data about Autostar II, including: J Characters Free: Displays how much room is available in user-defined object memory. J Version: Displays the current version of the Autostar II software. J Serial Number: Disp...

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ADVANCED AUTOSTAR II FEATURES Before trying out the examples in this section, familiarize yourself with the basic oper- ations of A utostar II described earlier in this manual. The following examples assume that you have a basic knowledge of Autostar...

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42 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. 11. Press MODE. "Site: Edit" displays. 12. Using the Arrow keys, sc...

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Observing Satellites In this procedure, you will prepare your telescope to observe a satellite pass. 1. Navigate to the "Object: Satellite" menu option and press ENTER. 2. Use the Scroll keys to scroll through the list of satellites. 3. Sel...

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44 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. 2. Navigate to the "Object: Identify" option and press ENTER. 3. &q...

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Note: Autostar II locates align- ment stars based on the date, time, and location entered. The alignment stars may change from night to night. All that is required is for the observer to center the selected stars in the eyepiece when prompted. Tip: T...

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computer control panel/ Plug the other end into a USB por t of your PC Next, you will install the Autostar Suite software from the CD ROM. This software pro- vides a men u that allows you to download the latest version of Autostar II software into t...

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47 OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES A wide assortment of professional Meade accessories is available for the RCX400 tel- escope models. The premium quality of these accessories is well-suited to the quality of the instr ument itself. Consult the Meade General Ca...

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Series 4000 Nebular Filters: A modern boon to the city-dwelling deep-space observer, the interference nebular filter effectively cancels out the effects of most urban light pollution, while leaving the light of deep-space nebular emissions virtual- l...

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49 filter . The filter increases visual and photographic contrast, decreases glare, and helps to penetrate haze. RCX AC Wall Adapter: Permits powering from a standard home (115v AC) outlet. Cigarette Lighter Adapter: Powering the RCX400 telescope by ...

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MAINTENANCE RCX400 telescopes are precision optical instruments designed to yield a lifetime of rewarding applications. Given the care and respect due any precision instrument, your RCX400 will rarely, if ever, require factory servicing. Maintenance ...

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51 Total instrument capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 lbs. Aperture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16" & 20" Optical design . . . . . . . . . ....

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52 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. W eights and Dimension Weights Dimensions RA Housing Assembly 66 pounds L = 2...

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53 APPENDIX A: LATITUDE CHART Latitude Chart for Major Cities of the World To aid in the polar alignment procedure, latitudes of major cities around the world are listed below. To determine the latitude of an observing site not listed on the chart, ...

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54 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. APPENDIX B: THE MOON The Moon option of the Object menu allows you to observe...

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APPENDIX C: Smart Mount Intr oduction Smart Mount improves the pointing accuracy of your RCX400 telescope's "Go to" sys- tem. Despite careful efforts to calibrate and align telescopes, they may fail to precisely center objects. Smar...

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56 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. • Save your model, using a good, descriptive name, using the “Save As” ...

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14-7753-00 8/06 A MEADE LIMITED WARRANTY Every Meade telescope, spotting scope, and telescope accessory is warranted by Meade Instruments Corporation (“Meade”) to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of ONE YEAR from the d...