How to Work a Telestar Meade Telescope

Find a dark observing site. Street lights, porch lights and other types of light pollution reduce your eye's ability to see faint detail in astronomical objects. Observing sites located in rural areas, away from the light pollution found in large cities, offer the best conditions for astronomy.

Lay the tripod flat on the ground. Loosen the thumbscrew on each of the three legs. Extend each leg to the same length and tighten the thumbscrews. Stand the tripod upright.

Loosen the lock knob on the telescope mounting bracket. Slide the telescope into the mounting bracket and tighten the lock knob.

Aim the telescope at an astronomical object. Pick a bright object, such as the moon or a star, if you've never used a telescope before. Move the telescope left or right and up or down by pushing the optical tube. With the telescope pointed in the general direction of the target, look through the finder scope. Fine tune the telescope's orientation to center the object in the finder scope's field of view.

Insert the 25mm eyepiece into the focuser. Look through the eyepiece and adjust the focus knob until the object appears sharp in the eyepiece. Observe the object at 28X before moving on to higher magnifications.

Remove the 25mm eyepiece and insert the 9mm eyepiece. Look through the eyepiece and focus the telescope. Observe the object at 78X magnification before moving on to higher powers.

Remove the 9mm eyepiece. Insert the 2X Barlow lens, and then insert the 9mm eyepiece into the Barlow lens. Look through the eyepiece and turn the focus knob to adjust focus.