Astronomers Without Borders AWB 130 NEWTONIAN User manual

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Astronomers
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AWB 1 30 NEWTONIAN
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
31100

The AWB 130 Newtonian is sold in the US exclusively by Astronomers Wrthout Borders to raise funds to support its astronomy
programs connecting people worldwide through a common interest
in astronomy. Celestron imports the AWB 130 Newtonian for
Astronomers Without Borders as part of Celestron's commitment to supporting global astronomy programs. Astronomers
Without Borders is a
US charitable non-profit organization (501 (c)(3)).
For more information go to www.astronomerswithoutborders.org.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TELESCOPE ASSEMBLY . ..... .
OPERATING YOUR TELESCOPE .
Positioning the telescope . . . . . . . . ..... .
Using the Tension Control Knob
......... .
Focusing
........................ .
.3
.4
.4
.4
.4
. ... 4
Using the Red Dot Finder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Removing the telescope tube . . . . .
.......... 4
Pointing the Dobsonian . . . . . . .
Calculating the magnification
....
Field of view . . . . . . . . . . . . .
... 4
.4
.4
OBSERVING THE SKY . ........................................ 7
Sky Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Selecting
an Observing Site . . . . .
Choosing the Best Time
to Observe .
Cooling the Telescope. . .
Adopting Your Eyes . . . .
.... 7
.
... 7
· .... 7
... 7
... 7
PROPER CARE FOR YOUR TELESCOPE . .......................... 8
Collimation . . . . . . . . . . . . .
..... 8
Cleaning Your Telescope .................................................... 9
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Read the entire manual carefully before beginning. Your telescope should be assembled during daylight hours.
Choose a large, open area
to work to allow room for all parts to be unpacked.
CAUTION!
NEVER USE YOUR TELESCOPE TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN. PERMANENT EYE DAMAGE WILL RESULT. USE A
PROPER SOLAR
FILTER FOR VIEWING THE SUN. WHEN OBSERVING THE SUN, REMOVE YOUR FINDERSCOPE TO
PROTECT
IT FROM EXPOSURE. NEVER USE AN EYEPIECE-TYPE SOLAR FILTER AND NEVER USE YOUR TELESCOPE
TO PROJECT SUNLIGHTONTO ANOTHER SURFACE, THE INTERNAL HEAT BUILD-UP
WILL DAMAGETHETELESCOPE
OPTICAL ELEMENTS.

,--------------------- Red Dot finder
r------------------- Eyepiece
~--- Dovetail locking Screw
Carrying Handle
All-Azimuth Base
Tension Control Knob
2 I

TELESCOPE ASSEMBLY
1 . Remove the telescope and accessories from the pack-
age.
2. Locate the red dot finder. Slightly loosen the screws on
the side ofthe finder. (Fig.a)
Fig.a
Slightly loosen these screws
3. Locate the small red dot finderscope base near the front
opening ofthe tube. Slide the red
dot finder onto the
base and tighten the screws
to secure it in place. Do not
over-tighten the screws. (Fig.b)
Fig.b
4. Locate the eyepiece. Loosen the eyepiece lock screws
and slide the eyepiece into the holder. Slightly tighten the
screws
to hold the eyepiece in place. Do not over-tighten
the screws. (Fig.c)
Fig.c
5. Fig.d should be how the telescope is stored when not in
use. To extend the telescope tube, loosen the two slider
lock screws and pull the top part ofthe telescope assem-
bly up until it clicks
in place. (Fig.e) Tighten the slider lock
screws. Do not over-tighten.
Fig.d
loosen the two slider
locking screws
6. Remove the dust cap before viewing.
7. Position the telescope as in Fig. f with the tube
horizontal. Hold the tube firmly and loosen the tension
control knob until there is no longer friction holding the
tube
in place. If the telescope is not balanced the tube
will begin
to move. To balance the telescope, loosen the
dovetail locking screw and slide the tube to a point where
the tube no longer moves on its own. Tighten the dovetail
locking screw to hold the tube
in place. Do not over-tight-
en the screw. Tighten the tension control knob until the
tube requires a slight effort
to move to provide a small
amount
of friction to hold the telescope in place. Do not
over-tighten the knob. The tube should still move smoothly
with very little effort.
Fig.e
Fig.!
I 3

4 I
OPERATING YOUR TELESCOPE
POSITIONING THE TELESCOPE
To position the telescope to the desired angle, simply move
the telescope tube up and down
in altitude or swivel the
telescope around the base
in azimuth. (Fig.f)
USING THE TENSION CONTROL
KNOB
Loosen or tighten the tension control knob to add just
enough friction
to allow the tube to move easily when
nudged but
to stay in position when not. It may be neces-
sary to re-adjust the tension control knob when lightweight
accessories are added to,
or removed from, the tube.
When heavier accessories are used, it may be better to
rebalance the scope as described
in step 7 on page 3.
FOCUSING
Slowly turn the focus wheel (Fig.g), one way or the other,
until the image
in the eyepiece is sharp. The image usually
has to be finely refocused over time, due
to small variations
caused by temperature changes, flexures, 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 eyepiece or
add or remove a Barlow lens.
Fig.g
USING THE RED DOT FINDER
The Red Dot Finder 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. The Red Dot Finder
is equipped with a variable brightness control, azimuth
adjustment control, and altitude adjustment control (Fig.h).
The Red Dot Finder is powered by a 3-volt lithium battery
located underneath at the front.
To use the Finder, simply
look through the sight tube and move your telescope until
the red dot merges with the object. Make sure
to keep both
eyes open when sighting.
Fig.h
Altitude
Adjustment
Control
Azimuth Adjustment
Control
Aligning the Red Dot Finder
Sigh!Tube
Like all finderscopes, the Red Dot Finder must be properly
aligned with the main telescope before use. This is a simple
process using the azimuth and altitude control knobs.
1. Open the battery cover by pulling it down (you can gently
pry at the 2 small slots) and remove the plastic shipping
cover over the battery.
2. Turn on the Red Dot Finder by rotating the variable bright-
ness control clockwise until you hear a "click". Continue
rotating the control knob to increase the brightness level.
3. Insert a low power eyepiece into the telescope's focuser.
Locate a bright object and position the telescope so that
the object is
in the centre of the field of view.
4. With both eyes open, look through the sight tube at the
object. If the red dot overlaps the object, your Red Dot
Finder is perfectly aligned. If not. turn its azimuth and
altitude adjustment controls until the red
dot is merged
with the object.
5.
Turn the Red Dot Finder offafter use by rotating the vari-
able brightness control counter-clockwise until you hear a
"click".

REMOVING THE TELESCOPE TUBE
The telescope tube can be removed from the mount for
Fig.i
storage. Hold the telescope tube in one hand while loosen-
ing the dovetail locking knob with the other. Carefully slide
the tube off the mount. The telescope tube can be installed
on any telescope mount with a dovetail mounting system.
You may also install a different short-tube telescope on this 1
portable table-top Dobson ian mount.
POINTING THE DOBSONIAN
Pointing an altitude-azimuth (alt-az) mounted telescope,
such as a Dobsonian, is relatively
easy. With the mount level,
you can swivel the telescope around on a plane parallel
to
your horizon and then tilt it up and down from there (Fig.f).
You can think of it as turning your telescope in azimuth until
it is pointed toward the horizon below a celestial object
you want
to view, and then tilting it up to the altitude ofthe
object. However, the Earth rotates and therefore the stars
are constantly moving, so to track with this mount you have
to constantly nudge the optical tube in both azimuth and
altitude
to keep the object in the field.
In reference material for your local position, the altitude will
be listed as ±degrees (minutes, seconds) above
or below
your horizon. Azimuth may be listed by the cardinal compass
points such as
N, SW, ENE, etc., but it is usually listed in
360 degree (minutes, seconds) steps clockwise from North
(0°), with East, South and
West being 90°, 180° and 270 °,
respectively (Fig.j).
Fig.j Zenith
I
....
'
....
....
'
/ '/ '
/ " Mertdian line
' '
I '
I
N
~
Rotate in Azimuth
Nadir
I 5

6 I
CALCULATING THE
MAGNIFICATION (POWER)
The magnification produced by a telescope is determined
by the focal length of the eyepiece that is used with it. To
determine a magnification for your telescope, divide its focal
length by the focal length of the eyepieces you are going to
use. For example, a 1 Omm focal length eyepiece will give
65X magnification with a 650mm focal length telescope.
Focal length of the telescope 650mm
·magnification = =
-- = 65x
Focal length of the eyepiece 1
Omm
When you are looking at astronomical objects, you are look-
ing through a column of air that reaches to the edge of space
and that column seldom stays still. Similarly, when viewing
over land you are often looking through heat waves radiating
from the ground, house, buildings, etc. Your telescope may
be able to give very high magnification but, depending on
the conditions at the time, you may end up magnifying is all
the turbulence between the telescope and the subject. The
highest usable magnification for this telescope when the sky
is very steady is approximately 250x.
FIELD OF VIEW
The amount of sky you can see through your telescope de-
pends on the design
of the eyepiece. Your telescope comes
with a 25mm eyepiece that has a field
of view of 1.9 degrees
and a 1
Omm eyepiece that has a field of view of 0.7 degrees.
To put this into perspective, the whole moon is about 0.5 de-
grees
in diameter. The 1 Omm eyepiece, with its 0.7 degree
field of view would allow you to frame the whole face of the
moon in your view with a little room to spare. Remember, too
much magnification and too small a field of view can make
it very hard to find things. It is usually best to start at a lower
magnification with its wider field and then increase the mag-
nification when you have found what you are looking for. First
find the moon then look at the shadows
in the craters!

OBSERVING THE SKY
SKY CONDITIONS
Sky conditions can significantly affect the performance of
your telescope in three ways.
· Steadiness of the air: On windy days, images ofthe
moon and planets will appear
to wave or jump around in
the eyepiece; as if you are looking t them through moving
water. Nights where winds are calm will offer the best
higher magnification views ofthe planets and the moon.
The best way to judge the stability ofthe atmosphere is
to
look at bright stars with the naked eye. If they are "twin-
kling" or rapidly changing colors, the air is unstable and you
are better off using lower powers and looking for deep sky
objects. If the stars are sharp and not twinkling, the air is
stable and should offer great high magnification planetary
views.
· Transparency: How clear is the air you are looking
through? If there is a high amount
of humidity in the air, the
faint light from galaxies and nebulae can be scattered and
diffused before reaching your telescope, causing a loss
of
brightness in your image. Debris in the air from local forest
fires
or even distant volcanic eruptions can contribute to
large loss of brightness. Sometimes this humidrrJ or debris
can help stabilize the
air, making for good planetary and
lunar images, but the loss of light would make it difficult
to
see fainter deep-sky objects.
· Sky Brightness: The amount of ambient light in the atmo-
sphere can also effect deep-sky observing.
How dark the
sky is can depend on your local surroundings.
In the middle
of a city, sky-glow caused by city lights being reflected
back
to earth from the sky can overpower the faint light
from distant galaxies. Getting away from the bright lights of
a major city can make the difference between seeing a faint
deep-sky object and missing it altogether. Planets and the
moon are plenty bright enough on their own so the effect
on observing them is minimal.
SELECTING AN OBSERVING SITE
If you are going to be observing deep-sky objects, such
as galaxies and nebulae, you should consider traveling
to
a dark sky site that is reasonably accessible. It should be
away from city lights, a relatively unobstructed view
of the
horizon, and upwind
of any major source of air pollution.
Always choose as high
an elevation as possible as this
can lowerthe effects of atmospheric instability and can
ensure that you are above any ground fog. While it can be
desirable to take your telescope to a dark sky site, it is not
always necessary. Ifyou plan
to view the planets, the moon
or even some of the brighter deep-sky objects, you can do
this from any location, such as your own backyard. Try to
setup the scope in a location that is out of the direct path
of streetlights or house lights to help protect your night
vision.
Try to avoid observing anything that lies within 5 to
10 degrees over the roof of a building. Roofs absorb heat
during the day and radiate this heat qut at night. This can
cause a layer of turbulent air directly over the building that
can degrade your image. It is best ifyou set your telescope
up directly on a dirt or grassy surface. Setting up on any
raised platform such as a wooden
deck or a hard surface
like concrete
or a sidewalk, movements you make may
cause the telescope
to vibrate.
Observing through a
window is not recommended because
the
window glass will distort images considerably. And an
open window can be even worse, because warmer indoor
air will escape out the window, causing turbulence which
also affects images. Astronomy is
an outdoor activity.
CHOOSING THE BEST TIME
TO OBSERVE
Try not to view immediately after sunset. After the sun goes
down, the Earth is still cooling, causing air turbulence. As the
night goes on, not only will seeing improve, but air pollution
and ground lights will often diminish. Some
of the best ob-
serving time is often
in the early morning hours before dawn.
Objects are best observed as they cross the meridian, the
imaginary line that runs from north
to south through a point
directly over your head. This is the point at which objects
reach their highest points
in the sky and your telescope is
looking through the least amount
of atmosphere possible.
Objects that are rising
or setting near the horizon will suffer
more atmospheric turbulence since you are looking through a
much longer column
of air. It is not always necessary to have
cloud-free skies if you are looking at planets
or the moon.
Often broken cloud conditions provide excellent seeing.
COOLING THE TELESCOPE
Telescopes require at least 10 minutes to cool down to
outside air temperature. This may take longer if there is a big
difference between the temperature ofthe telescope and
the outside
air. This minimizes heat wave distortion inside
telescope tube (tube currents).
ADAPTING YOUR EVES
Ifyou are planning to observe deep sky objects at a dark
sky site, it is best ifyou allow your eyes to fully adapt to the
dark by avoiding exposure
to white light sources such as
flashlights, car headlights, streetlights, etc. It will take your
pupils about
30 minutes to expand to their maximum diam-
eter and build up the levels
of optical pigments to help your
eyes see the faint light from a distant target. Ifyou need light
to help setup your telescope
in the dark, try using a red LED
flashlight at as low a brightness setting as possible and avoid
looking straight at the light source. This will give you the best
chance of capturing those faint deep sky objects.
When observing, it is important
to observe with both eyes
open. This avoids eye fatigue at the eyepiece. Ifyou find
this too distracting, cover the unused eye with your hand
or an eye patch. The center of your eye works well in bright
daylight, but is the least sensitive part ofthe eye when trying
to see subtle detail at low light levels. When looking in the
eyepiece for a faint target, don't look directly at it. Instead
look toward the edge ofthe field
of view and the object will
appear brighter.
I 7

8 I
PROPER CARE FOR YOUR TELESCOPE
COLLIMATION
Collimation is the process of aligning the mirrors of your tele-
scope so that they work
in concert with each other to deliver
properly focused light to your eyepiece. By observing out-
of-focus star images, you can test whether your telescope's
optics are aligned. Place a star
in the centre of the field of
view and move the focuser so that the image is slightly out
offocus. If the seeing conditions are good, you will see a
central circle
of light (the Airy disc) surrounded by a number
of diffraction rings. If the rings are symmetrical about the Airy
disc, the telescope's optics are correctly collimated (Fig.g).
If you do not have a collimating tool, we suggest that you
make a "collimating cap" out
of a plastic 35mm film canister
(black with gray lid). Drill
or punch a small pinhole in the
exact center
of the lid and cut offthe bottom of the canis-
ter. This device will keep your eye centered of the focuser
tube. Insert the collimating cap into the focuser
in place of a
regular eyepiece.
Collimation is a painless process and works like this:
Pull offthe lens
cap which covers the front of the telescope
and look down the optical tube.
At the bottom you will see
the primary mirror held
in place by three clips 120° apart, and
at the top the small oval secondary mirror held
in a support
and tilted
45° toward the focuser outside the tube wall
(Fig.h).
The secondary mirror is aligned by adjusting the three small-
er screws surrounding the central bolt. The primary mirror is
adjusted by the three adjusting screws at the back
of your
scope. The three locking screws beside them serve to hold
the mirror
in place after collimation. (Fig.i)
Aligning the Secondary Mirror
Point the telescope at a lit wall and insert the collimating cap
into the focuser
in place of a regular eyepiece. Look into the
focuserthrough your collimating cap.
You may have to twist
the focus knob a
few turns until the reflected image of the
focuser is out ofyour view. Note: keep your eye against the
back ofthe focus tube if collimating without a collimating
cap. Ignore the reflected image of the collimating cap or
your eye for now, instead look for the three clips holding the
primary mirror
in place. If you can't see them (Fig.j), it means
that you will have to adjust the three bolts on the top ofthe
secondary mirror holder, with possibly
an Allen wrench or
Phillip's screwdriver. You will have to alternately loosen one
and then compensate for the slack by tightening the other
two.
Stop when you see all three mirror clips (Fig.k). Make
sure that all three small alignment screws are tightened to
secure the secondary mirror
in place.
Fig.g
Correctly aligned
Fig.h
Primary mirror
Fig.i
Fig.j
Fig.k
Primary mirror clip
I
~
Needs collimation
~Focuser
~for
;a:mlary mirror
Primary mirror ~
Primary mirror clip

Aligning the Primary Mirror
There are 3 large bolts and 3 small screws at the back of
your telescope. The large bolts are the adjusting screws
and the small screws are the locking screws (Fig.p). Loosen
the large bolts by a
few turns. Now run your hand around
the front ofyour telescope keeping your eye
to the focuser,
you will see the reflected image ofyour hand. The idea here
being to see which way the primary mirror is defected, you
do this by stopping at the point where the reflected image of
the secondary mirror is closest to the primary mirrors' edge
(Fig.q).
When you get
to that point, stop and keep your hand there
while looking at the backend
of your telescope, is there an
adjusting screw there? Ifthere is you will want
to loosen it
(turn the screw
to the left) to bring the mirror away from that
point. If there isn't a adjusting screw there, then go across to
the other side and tighten the adjusting screw on the other
side. This will gradually bring the mirror into line until it looks
like Fig.r.
(It helps to have a friend to help for primary mirror
collimation. Have your partner adjust the adjusting screws
according
to your directions while you look in the focuser.)
After dark
go out and point your telescope at Po!a:is. the
North Star. With
an eyepiece in the focuser, take the image
out
of focus. You will see the same image only now, it will be
illuminated by starlight. If necessary, repeat the collimating
process only keep the star centered while tweaking the
mirror.
CLEANING YOUR TELESCOPE
Replace the dust cap over end of telescope whenever not
in use. This prevents dust from settling on mirror or lens
surface. Do not clean mirror
or lens unless you are familiar
with optical surfaces. Clean finderscope and eyepieces with
special lens paper only. Eyepieces should be handled with
care, avoid touching optical surfaces.
Fig.p
Fig.q
Adjusting screws
Locking screws
Secondary mirror
Primary mirror
Both mirrors aligned
with collimating cap in
Stop and keep your
hand here
Both mirrors aligned with
eye looking in focuser
I 9

CAUTION!
NEVER USE YOUR TELESCOPE TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN. PERMANENT EYE DAMAGE WILL RESULT. USE A
PROPER SOLAR FILTER FOR VIEWING THE SUN. WHEN OBSERVING THE SUN, REMOVE YOUR FINDERSCOPE TO
PROTECT IT FROM EXPOSURE. NEVER USE AN EYEPIECE-TYPE SOLAR FILTER AND NEVER USE YOUR TELESCOPE
TO PROJECT SUNLIGHT ONTO ANOTHER SURFACE, THE INTERNAL HEAT BUILD-UP WILL DAMAGE THE TELESCOPE
OPTICAL ELEMENTS.