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How to Use a Meade CCD Camera

Looking through a telescope at the night sky can be a fun and educational activity. With the proper equipment, you can turn the images you see through a telescope into images that you can enjoy regardless of the time of day. The Meade CCD camera is a device that allows you to take deep space images using a telescope and a personal computer. Once the device is set up, learning to use the camera is an easy process.

Instructions

- 1
  Turn on your computer and wait for the operating system to boot up. Insert the installation disc that came with your Meade CCD camera into the CD drive of your computer. An installation wizard will appear. Click "Install Autostar
  
  Suite" on the menu and select a location to install the software on the next screen. Click "Next" and then "Start Installation" to install the software and drivers for the device. Click "Finish" when the status bar has reached 100 percent.
- 2
  Connect the USB cable from the Deep Sky Imager camera to an open USB port on your computer. A "Found New Hardware" message will appear on the taskbar. Click on it to open the installation wizard. Click "Next" and the program will search for and begin to install the drivers for the camera. Click "Finish" when the installation is complete.
- 3
  Connect the USB cable from your Meade telescopes remote control to another open USB port on your computer. Connect the six-pin cable from the remote control to the remote control port at the bottom of the telescope. You can now use the arrow keys on the control and the "Focus" knob on the telescope to view the sky as normal.
- 4
  Open the Autostar Suite software that you have installed on your computer. This software will display what is being viewed by your telescope along with a set of controls that correspond to the controls on the remote control. When you want to take a picture of the image in the telescope, click on the "Camera" button to take a snapshot. You will be prompted to choose a location to save the image.

Astronomy