instruction Manual Orion StarBlast 4.5 EQ ® ™ #9798 Equatorial Newtonian Reflector Telescope Customer Support (800)‑676-1343 E-mail: support@telescope.com Corporate Offices (831)‑763-7000 Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076 IN 260 Rev.
EZ Finder II reflex sight Eyepiece Focuser Tube rings Optical tube Declination setting circle Right ascension setting circle Primary mirror cell Counterweight lock knob Counterweight Declination slow-motion control Counterweight shaft Right ascension slow-motion control Latitude adjustment T-bolt Azimuth lock knob Accessory tray bracket Accessory tray Declination lock knob Declination setting circle t gh n Ri nsio xis ce a As .A.
Congratulations on your purchase of an Orion telescope.Your new StarBlast 4.5 EQ is a terrific starter instrument for exploring the exotic wonders of the night sky. Designed to be compact and easy to use, it will provide many hours of enjoyment for the whole family. If you have never owned a telescope before, we would like to welcome you to amateur astronomy. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the night sky. Learn to recognize the patterns of stars in the major constellations.
Washer Wingnut sion (R.A.) axes will need re-positioning (rotation) as well. Be sure to loosen the R.A. and Dec. lock knobs before doing this. Retighten the R.A. and Dec. lock knobs once the equatorial mount is oriented as shown in Figure 1b. 7. Thread the counterweight shaft into the equatorial mount at the base of the declination axis until tight. Screw head Screw end Washer Figure 2. Attach the tripod legs to the mount with the screws that come installed in the tops of the tripod legs.
4a. 4b. 4c. 4d. Figure 4. Proper usage of the equatorial mount requires the telescope tube to be balanced on both the R.A. and Dec. axes. (a) With the R.A. lock knob released, slide the counterweight along the counterweight shaft until it just counterbalances the tube. (b) When you let go with both hands, the tube should not drift up or down. (c) With the Dec. lock knob released, loosen the tube ring lock clamps a few turns and slide the telescope forward or back in the tube rings.
Do You Wear Eyeglasses? If you wear eyeglasses, you may be able to keep them on while you observe. In order to do this, your eyepiece must have enough “eye relief” to allow you to see the entire field of view with glasses on. You can try this by looking through the eyepiece first with your glasses on and then with them off, and see if the glasses restrict the view to only a portion of the full field.
of astronomical objects, thereby keeping them from drifting out of the telescope’s field of view while you’re observing. This is accomplished by slowly rotating the telescope on its right ascension (R.A.) axis, using only the R.A. slow-motion cable. But first the R.A. axis of the mount must be aligned with the Earth’s rotational (polar) axis—a process called polar alignment.
Understanding the Setting Circles The setting circles on an equatorial mount enable you to locate celestial objects by their “celestial coordinates”. Every object resides in a specific location on the “celestial sphere”. That location is denoted by two numbers: its right ascension (R.A.) and declination (Dec.). In the same way, every location on Earth can be described by its longitude and latitude. R.A. is similar to longitude on Earth, and Dec. is similar to latitude. The R.A. and Dec.
a b c d Figure 8. This illustration show the telescope pointed in the four cardinal directions (a) north (b) south (c) east (d) west. Note that the tripod and mount have not been moved; only the telescope tube has been moved in the R.A. and Dec. axes. 6. Collimating the Optics Collimating is the process of adjusting the mirrors so they are aligned with one another. Your telescope’s optics were aligned at the factory, and should not need much adjustment unless the telescope is handled roughly.
The Collimating Cap and Primary Mirror Center Mark Your StarBlast 4.5 EQ comes with a collimating cap. This is a simple cap that fits on the focuser drawtube like a dust cap, but has a hole in the center and a silver bottom. This helps center your eye so collimating is easy to perform. Figures 9b through 9e assume you have the collimating cap in place. In addition to the collimating cap, you’ll notice a small ring label on the exact center of the primary mirror.
Once the secondary mirror is centered in the focuser drawtube, and the primary mirror reflection is centered in the secondary mirror, the secondary mirror is properly aligned, and no further adjustments to it should be needed. Aligning the Primary Mirror The final adjustment is made to the primary mirror.
when much of the heat absorbed by the Earth during the day has radiated off into space. Especially important for observing faint objects is good “transparency”—air free of moisture, smoke, and dust. All tend to scatter light, which reduces an object’s brightness. Transparency is judged by the magnitude of the faintest stars you can see with the unaided eye (6th magnitude or fainter is desirable). Cooling the Telescope All optical instruments need time to reach “thermal equilibrium.
B. The Planets The planets don’t stay put like the stars, so to find them you should refer to Sky Calendar at OrionTelescopes.com, or to charts published monthly in Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, or other astronomy magazines. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are the brightest objects in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. Other planets may be visible but will likely appear star-like.
clips held by two screws each. Loosen the screws and remove the clips. You may now remove the primary mirror from its cell. Do not touch the surface of the mirror with your fingers. Lift the mirror carefully by the edges. Set the mirror on a clean soft towel. Fill a clean sink free with room temperature water, a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent, and if possible, a capfull of 100% isopropyl alcohol.
