Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product 8 EQ Orion
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INSTRUCTION MANUAL IN 213 Rev . A 12/02 Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 Customer Support (800) 676-1343 E-mail: support@telescope.
2 Figure 1. The Atlas 8 EQ. T ube ring mounting plate T ube ring mounting plate lock knobs (2) Declination setting circle Declination lock le ver Counterweight shaft loc k lev er Counterweight shaft C.
3 T able of Contents 1. Unpacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. P ar ts List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. Balancing the T elescope . . . . . . .
4 3. Assembly Assembly should tak e no more than 30 minutes. Refer to Figure 1 during assembly . Assembling the telescope requires no tools other than the ones provided. 1. Stand the tripod legs upright and spread the legs out as far as they will go .
5 place to keep the hand controller out of the w a y when not in use. Place the “hooks” str ip of n ylon adhesive on the bac k of the hand controller and the “loops” str ip on a tripod leg or on the mount where it will be in a conv eniently reached spot.
6 5. With one hand on the telescope optical tube, loosen the Dec. lock le v er . The telescope should now be ab le to rotate freely about the declination axis.
7 3a). Back the lock ring off by a f ew turns, f or now . Refocus the finder scope on a distant object by threading the objectiv e lens cell in or out of the finderscope body . Precise focusing will be achie ved by f ocusing the finder scope on a bright star .
8 Polar Alignment F or Nor thern Hemisphere obser v ers , appro ximate polar align- ment is achie ved by pointing the mount ’ s r ight ascension axis at the Nor th Star , or P olaris. It lies within 1 ° of the nor th celes- tial pole (NCP), which is an e xtension of the Ear th ’ s rotational axis out into space.
9 quick and easy . T o align the mount using the polar axis finder scope, f ollow these instructions: 1. Approximately polar-align the mount as outlined in the pro- cedure pre viously . 2. Loosen the Dec. lock le ver and rotate the optical tube on the declination axis so that the tube is at a 90 ° to the right ascension axis (Figure 10).
10 hand controller to “ N ” if you liv e in the norther n hemisphere, or “ S ” if you liv e in the souther n hemisphere. When you flip the power s witch, the pow er indicator light on the mount will glow red and the power indicator light on the hand controller will glow green.
Dec. setting circle until the pointer reads e xactly 90 ° .R e - tighten the setting circle thumbscrew . Calibrating the Right Ascension Setting Circle 1. Identify a bright star in the sky near the celestial equator (declination = 0 ° ) and look up its coordinates in a star atlas.
7. Collimating (Aligning The Mirr ors) Collimating is the process of adjusting the mirrors so they are aligned with one another . Y our telescope ’ s optics were aligned at the f actor y , and should not need much adjustment unless the telescope is handled roughly .
13 of the secondar y mirror . This is done by alternately loosening one of the three alignment set screws while tightening the other two , as depicted in Figure 16. The goal is to center the primar y mirror reflection in the secondar y mirror , as in Figure 14d.
14 Star-T esting the T elescope When it is dark, point the telescope at a br ight star and accu- rately center it in the e yepiece ’ s field-of-view . Slowly defocus the image with the f ocusing knob. If the telescope is correctly collimated, the e xpanding disk should be a perfect circle (Figure 19).
15 an hour or more. In the winter , stor ing the telescope outdoors in a shed or garage greatly reduces the amount of time need- ed f or the optics to stabilize. It also is a good idea to k eep the scope cov ered until the Sun sets so the tube does not heat greatly abov e the temperature of the outside air .
16 Important Note: Do not look at the Sun with any optical instrument without a prof essionally made solar filter , or permanent eye dama ge could result.
17 object, the lower its magnitude . Choose an object with a visu- al magnitude of 9 or lower . Many beginners star t with the Messier objects, which represent some of the best and bright- est deep-sky objects, first catalogued about 200 y ears ago by the F rench astronomer Charles Messier .
18 era ’ s shutter is now ready to be opened. A remote shutter release must be used or the image will be b lurred beyond recognition. T r y e xposure times between 1 and 10 seconds, depending upon the brightness of the planet to be pho- tographed and the ISO of the film being used.
19 with hard silicon dio xide, which prev ents the aluminum from o xidizing. These coatings nor mally last through man y y ears of use bef ore requir ing re-coating (which is easily done). T o clean the secondar y mirror , first remov e it from the tele- scope.
20 One-Y ear Limited W arranty This Orion Atlas 8 EQ is warranted against def ects in materials or workmanship for a period of one year from the date of purchase .
An important point after buying a device Orion 8 EQ (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought Orion 8 EQ yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data Orion 8 EQ - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, Orion 8 EQ you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get Orion 8 EQ will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of Orion 8 EQ, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime Orion 8 EQ.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Orion 8 EQ. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Orion 8 EQ along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
