Celestron CPC 925 User manual

BAS – Celestron CPC 9.25 Telescope User Guide

This is a brief guide to seng-up and observing with the Celestron CPC 925 Schmi Cassegrain

telescope.

The Safety of You and the Telescope

The telescope is very heavy. And, its storage box is very heavy and awkward to li and place into (or

remove from) vehicles.

BAS strongly recommended any liing of the telescope and its storage box be performed by two

people. Also, the removal of the telescope from the box and placement on the tripod should only be

aempted by two people.

The storage box has wheels and detachable “wheel barrow” handles for easier movement. Or, the

simple rope handle can be substuted for the wheel barrow handles.

Telescope Components

To use the telescope, you will need:

•CPC 9.25 telescope

•Tripod and center support bracket

•Hand controller

•Charged 12v baery and telescope power cable

•Finderscope

•Visual back and diagonal mirror eyepiece holder

•Eyepieces

•A planetarium app (SkySafari or similar app) on a mobile device is also recommended

•Dew shield

Seng Up the telescope

Tripod and aaching the telescope

Place the tripod on rm ground and fully spread the legs. Adjust the length of one, or more, legs if

necessary to level the tripod top. Use the bubble level in the tripod top as the levelling guide.

Ensure the tripod posioning pin is poking up above the top of the tripod (this pin is used to inially

center the telescope on the tripod top).

Before aempng to li the telescope into place, make sure the opcal tube is pointed in the

downward posion aiming at the telescope base (where all the electronics aachment sockets are).

Li (two-person li is strongly recommended) the

telescope from its storage box and place the telescope

base on the tripod top. Maintain a very rm grip on the

telescope. The tripod posioning pin needs to slip into a

hole in the boom of the telescope base. You should

feel the telescope “clunk” down about 1cm when

properly centered on the pin. Maintain a rm hold on

the telescope side handle (the telescope is sll at risk of

falling to the ground). Slowly rotate the telescope base

on the tripod top unl you feel another “clunk” as the

telescope base matches the locaon of the three

mounng bolts that are on the under-side of the tripod head. Screw the three bolts into the

telescope base. The telescope is now aached to the tripod and no longer at risk of falling.

Aaching components to the telescope

Aach the hand controller and 12v

baery power cable.

On the le-side “shoulder” of the

telescope there is a large three-spoked

circular knob moulded into the telescope

fork arm. This is the declinaon

(up/down movement) knob. It

locks/unlocks the free movement of the

opcal tube in the up/down range of

moon. Unscrew the knob and lt the

opcal tube to aim the from corrector plate

lens toward the sky. Reghten the knob.

In the center of the telescope base is a similar

knob (right ascension locking knob) that allows

the telescope to be rotated. If you wish, you

can unscrew this knob and turn the telescope

to face a dierent direcon – and then

reghten the knob.

(Once you have completed the star alignment

procedure (explained below), do not unscrew

either of these knobs to move the telescope to

point in a dierent direcon. If you do so, you

will mess up the star alignment and the

telescope will no longer be able to nd the

objects you ask it to point to.)

Aach the nderscope, visual back and star diagonal

The nderscope is held in a quick-release bracket. Slide this bracket onto the nderscope mounng

bracket on the top of the telescope. Tighten the two bracket aachment screws.

Screw the visual back threaded ring onto the short threaded tube on the back of the telescope. The

threaded ring can be loosened (and then reghtened) at any me during your observing session if

you need to lt the star diagonal and eyepiece to a dierent angle for easier access.

Insert the eyepiece with the largest MM number on it, most likely 25mm. The bigger the mm

number the wider eld of view the eyepiece provides. Having a wide eld of view usually make it

much easier to nd and observe objects than narrow eld eyepieces, such as a 10mm.

Provided the telescope is not aiming anywhere towards the Sun, remove the dustcover from the

front lens.

Aligning the nderscope with the telescope

Make sure you never point the telescope or nderscope towards the sun at any me!

If the nderscope does not point to the same patch of sky as the main telescope it will be very

dicult to complete the 2-star alignment procedure (explained below). In essence, the nderscope

and main telescope would be “cross-eyed”, and aim in dierent direcon.

There are three alignment screws (one is a nylon bolt) on the rear of the nderscope. By screwing

these screws in/out you can move where the crosshairs in the nderscope point. You need to

unscrew one side in order to be able to screw an opposite screw inwards.

Unscrew the declinaon knob and the right ascension knob. Point the main telescope at a disncve

object, such as a power pole, about 100m or more away. Center a disncve point such as an

insulator on the pole top (example A below). Tighten both knobs again to stop the telescope from

moving.

Now look through the nderscope. It may not be poinng exactly at the insulator on the pole

(example B below). But you need to make it do so. Use the three adjustment screws on the rear of

the nderscope to place the crosshairs over the same insulator (example C below) centered in the

main telescope view.

You now have the nderscope properly aligned with the main telescope.

Aach the dew shield

Aaching the dew shield is not essenal. However, it is

recommended in humid weather where the nighme temperature

is expected to drop. It is best to aach the dew shield when the

telescope is rst set up, rather than waing unl dew starts to

condense of the front corrector plate lens. By then it is too late.

The supplied Astrozap dew shield is the 12v DC powered version.

However, the baery supplied with the telescope has insucient

capacity to drive the dew shield. But this is not a problem as even

without power the dew shield can stop the condensaon of dew on

the lens for many hours. Simple t the shield over the front of the

telescope so that ~80% of the shield extends out beyond the front of the corrector plate lens.

Power-on the telescope and input inial sengs

A note about the Hand Controller

There are mes when the hand controller LED screen will display an up/down arrow on the

righthand side. This means you are being asked to select something from a list of opons. You use

the 6 and 9 keys to scroll up or down through the opons list.

The Celestron CPC telescope has a

GPS chip to inform the telescope of

its current locaon. However, this

chip no longer works in the BAS

CPC. So, you need to follow a

slightly dierent inializaon

procedure to that listed in the

telescope user manual. We need to

tell the telescope the current me,

date and internaonal me-zone.

You are strongly recommended to

familiarize yourself with the CPC

Menu Tree (at the end of this

document) before launching into

the next steps.

Inial sengs

Turning GPS OFF and seng the

current date, me and me zone.

Task

Hand Controller Message Displayed

Note

Power-on the telescope

Inializing

CPC Ready

Press ENTER to begin alignment.

Connect the 12v baery cable

to the telescope power socket.

Turn the power switch ON.

Once the controller says “Press

ENTER to begin alignment”

you need to divert away from

the proposed alignment

process and turn the GPS

funcon o (if you don’t the

telescope may automacally

choose the wrong date and

me and frustraon will

result).

Scroll through the

telescope menu system

to the GPS ON/OFF ulity,

and turn GPS OFF.

Press ENTER to begin alignment.

UTILITIES

GPS ON/OFF

Press ENTER to

Turn GPS on

(Do not press ENTER at this

stage.)

Press the MENU buon, which

is also buon 3.

Once you have pressed the

MENU/3 buon you may

immediately land on the

UTILITIES opon or perhaps

some other opon. Use the

Up 6/Down 9 buons to scroll

through the opons unl

UTILITIES is displayed. Once

Ulies is displayed, press the

ENTER buon to enter the

Ulies area.

If you don’t immediately land

on the GPS ON/OFF opon,

use the Up 6/Down 9 buons

to scroll through the opons

unl GPS ON/OFF is displayed.

Press ENTER to enter the GPS

area.

If the hand controller display

reads “Press ENTER to Turn

GPS on” it means the GPS is

already turned o. . This is

prefect. It means you can just

exit this menu area by pressing

the UNDO buon. Press the

UNDO buon a couple of

mes to get back to the CPC

READY screen.

However, if the hand controller

display reads “Press ENTER to

Turn GPS o” you need to do

as instructed and press ENTER.

The GPS is now turned OFF.

Now press the UNDO buon

to exit this menu area. Press

the UNDO buon a couple of

mes to get back to the CPC

READY screen

Scroll through the menu

system to set the current

date, me and me zone.

CPC READY

UTILITIES

SCOPE SETUP

SETUP TIME-SITE

TIME hh:mm:ss

xx:xx:xx

SELECT ONE

STANDARD TIME

SELECT TIME ZONE

ZONE 10

DATE mm/dd/yy

xx:xx:xx

From the CPS READY screen,

press the MENU buon. Use

the Up 6/Down 9 buons to

scroll through the opons unl

SCOPE SETUP is displayed.

Press ENTER to enter this

menu area.

When “Setup Time-Site” is

displayed, press ENTER.

The telescope is now asking

you to key-in the current me

in 24 hour format –

hours:minutes:seconds,

perhaps 19:33:12. Press

ENTER when all digits inserted.

If daylight saving does not

apply, press ENTER to select

standard me.

Queensland is in internaonal

me zone +10. Press ENTER of

“ZONE 10” is displayed, or use

the Up/Down keys to move to

10, then press ENTER.

Key in the current date in

American mm:dd:yy format.

Press ENTER.

2-Star Alignment

You are now ready to align the telescope with the stars in the sky. But to do this you needed to rst

set the correct me, date and me zone in the telescope. But that is now done.

Before you start the alignment process you will need to familiarise yourself with some of the brighter

stars in the sky as the telescope will soon ask you which two stars you want to align it to. At the rear

of this document are four star charts, two for early April and two for early August. One chart for

each month looks towards the northern sky and the other the south. The telescope has a database

of about 50 stars it will accept as alignment stars.

Pick an appropriate star chart and nd two stars highlighted (underlined) on the chart that you can

idenfy in the sky. Having a mobile device with a planetarium app, such as SkySafari, beside you will

make this task easier and more reliable.

Unl you complete the two-star alignment procedure, the telescope has no idea where it is poinng

in the sky or where objects are located. The star alignment procedure gives the telescope the

accurate locaon of two inial stars. From this, it can then determine the locaon of all the

thousands of objects in its database. So, the inial star alignment procedure is crical to a successful

night under the stars.

Task

Hand Controller Message Displayed

Note

Tell the telescope you

want to use the TWO

STAR ALIGNMENT

method.

CPC READY

Press ENTER to begin alignment.

ALIGNMENT

TWO STAR ALIGNMENT

TIME hh:mm:ss

ZONE 10

DATE mm/dd/yy

Press the UNDO buon a

couple of mes unl you get

back to the CPC READY

message.

Press the ENTER buon and

use the Up/Down buons to

select Two-Star Alignment,

press ENTER. (Do not select

the AUTO TWO STAR opon).

The telescope will ask you to

enter the TIME, however, this

should already be correct, so

hit ENTER to accept the

displayed me. Similarly, you

will be asked to set the Zone

and then the DATE. In each

case just press ENTER to

accept the correct informaon

you entered earlier.

Select your rst

alignment star and align

the telescope to it.

Repeat with the second

alignment star

Star 1

Xxxxxx

The telescope will display the

name of a star which it

believes is currently visible in

the sky. If you do not want to

use this specic star as your

rst alignment star you use the

Up/Down keys to scroll

through the list of stars. When

you are happy to use the star

named in the display, hit

ENTER.

Centre the star in the nderscope.

Press ENTER when ready.

Star 2

Xxxxxx

Centre the star in the nderscope.

Press ENTER when ready.

Centre the star in the eyepiece.

Press ALIGN when ready.

Align Success

Now use the le/right &

up/down direcon keys (the

central four controller keys

with black triangles on them)

to move the telescope towards

the named star.

Once you get reasonably close

to the star, start looking

through the nderscope and

connue to move the

telescope up/down/le/right

unl you have the named star

under the nderscope

crosshairs. Then press ENTER.

You now repeat the process.

Inially align the second star.

Use the Up/Down keys if you

want to select a dierent star

to the one prompted by the

telescope.

Centre the second star in the

nderscope crosshairs and

then hit ENTER. Then centre

the star in the telescope

eyepiece and hit ALIGN.

If the telescope math

determines that you have

accurately aligned it on the

selected atars you will see the

message “Align Success”. You

are now ready to observe

objects.

Align Fail

If the alignment fails you need

to repeat the Two Star

Alignment procedure. Start by

clicking the UNDO buon a

coupole of mes to get back to

the CPC Ready message and

then repeat the procedure,

making sure you have aligned

the telescope on the correct

stars. Use your planetarium

app (SkySafari is

recommended) to help idenfy

the alignment stars correctly.

Observing Objects

Some of the hand controller number keys provide direct access to catalogs of objects.

Key 1/M – list the Messier objects. These are bright objects that Charles Messier thought looked at

bit like comets. Press the 1/M key and use the Up/Down keys to select and object. Then press

ENTER and the telescope will slew to the bject.

Key 2/CALD – list the Caldwell objects. It operates the same as key 1/M.

Key 4/NGC – list thousands of NGC list (New General Catalog). Each object has a xxxx four-digit

number. Key in your desired four digits and hit ENTER. The telescope slews to the object.

Key 5/Planets – lists the planets currently visible. The procedure is the same.

Key 7/Star – lists named stars.

Key 8/List – provides a drop-down list of 15 dierent catalogs and types of objects. Use the

Up/Down keys to select a category from the list, press ENTER and then scroll through each detailed

list in the same manner as for the keys outlined above.

The listed opons are: named stars; named objects; asterisms; tour; variable stars; double stars; CCD

objects; Abel objects; IC or Index Catalog; Messier catalog; NGC catalog; SAO catalog; solar system;

constellaons.

Key 0/Tour – lists a selecon of objects that you can observe as a general tour of objects currently

visible.

Key INFO – provides informaon about the object you have asked to telescope to slew to. Click the

key to learn more about the object. Click UNDO when nished.

When you have nished using the telescope, turn the power switch OFF. Carefully pack the

equipment away.

If the telescope and equipment is covered with condensaon, leave the storage box open and

components (such as eyepieces) unpacked for a day or so when you get home to properly dry out.

Packing opcal equipment away while moist causes mold to grow on opcal surfaces. That is a very

bad thing.

Please treat the equipment carefully, as if you own it and paid far too much money for it.

CPC Menu Tree

From the “CPC Ready” posion displayed on the hand controller, there are three secons of the menu system

you can reach via a single buon press. Pressing the MENU or 3 buon takes you to the main MENU opons

(the lehand column of the menu tree). Pressing the ALIGN buon takes you to alignment menu opons.

Pressing the LIST or 8 buon takes you to a list of categorized objects you can slew the telescope to (the

righthand column of the menu tree).

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