ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS Atlas 10 EQ 9874, Instruction Manual

Page 1: ...onal Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 Customer Support 800 676 1343 E mail support telescope com Corporate Offices 831 763 7000 P O Box 1815 Santa Cruz CA 95061 INSTRUCTION MANUAL Orion Atlas 10 EQ 9874 Equatorial Reflector Telescope ...

Page 2: ...shaft lock lever Counterweight shaft Counterweights Counterweight lock knobs Toe Saver Tripod leg Leg lock lever Finder scope Finder scope bracket Eyepiece Focus knob Tube rings Right ascension setting circle Right ascension lock lever Mirror cell Latitude scale Latitude adjustment L bolts Center support shaft not shown Hand controller Tripod support tray ...

Page 3: ... 1 9x50 Finder scope 1 Finder scope bracket with O ring 1 Collimation cap 1 Camera adapter 1 Dust cover 3 Assembly 1 Stand the tripod legs upright and spread the legs out as far as they will go Make certain that the leg lock levers are tightened Assembly should take no more than 30 min utes Refer to Figure 1 during assembly Assembling the telescope requires no tools other than the ones provided 2 ...

Page 4: ...plate with the tube rings attached in the dove tail slot on top of the equatorial mount Position the mount ing plate so that it is centered on the dovetail slot Re tight en the mounting plate securing knobs until the mounting plate is secure 8 Open the tube rings and lay the telescope optical tube in the rings at about the midpoint of the tube s length Rotate the tube so that the focuser is at a c...

Page 5: ...e to rotate freely about the right ascension axis Rotate it until the counter weight shaft is parallel to the ground i e horizontal 2 Now loosen the counterweight lock knobs and slide the weights along the shaft until they exactly counterbalance the telescope Figure 5a That s the point at which the shaft remains horizontal even when you let go with both hands Figure 5b 3 Retighten the counterweigh...

Page 6: ...ner moves in and out to keep the finder scope secure in the bracket The finder scope must be aligned accurately with the tele scope for proper use To align it first aim the main telescope in the general direction of an object at least a 1 4 mile away the top of a telephone pole a chimney etc Loosen the R A and Dec lock levers and move the telescope until it is point ing toward the desired object T...

Page 7: ...e the eyepiece with the new one by sliding it gently into the holder Re tighten the thumbscrew and refocus for your new magnification Using 2 eyepieces The Atlas 10 EQ s focuser is capable of accepting optional 2 eyepieces To use 2 eyepieces you must remove the 1 25 adapter from the focuser by loosening the two thumbscrews that hold it in place Figure 4 Once this adapter is removed insert a 2 eyep...

Page 8: ...ved only about its R A and Dec axes Using the Polar Axis Finder Scope The Atlas EQ mount comes with a polar axis finder scope Figure 9 housed inside the right ascension axis of the mount When properly aligned and used it makes accurate polar alignment quick and easy to do Alignment of the Polar Axis Finder Scope 1 Loosen the Dec lock lever and rotate the optical tube on the declination axis so tha...

Page 9: ...ion the star Polaris inside the tiny circle marked Polaris on the finder s reticle You must first loosen the knob underneath the equatorial mount on the center sup port shaft to use the azimuth adjustment knobs Once Polaris is properly positioned within the reticle you are precisely polar aligned If you do not have a clear view of Polaris from your observing site you will not be able to use the po...

Page 10: ...uttons on the hand controller will be reversed The reversal switches allow you to orient the push buttons to the direction of the apparent movement of a guide star in a guide scope for astrophotography Understanding the Setting Circles The setting circles on an equatorial mount Figure 12 enable you to locate celestial objects by their celestial coordinates Every object resides in a specific locati...

Page 11: ...scope overhead or in other directions In Figure 1 the telescope is pointed north as it would be during polar alignment The counterweight shaft is oriented down ward But it will not look like that when the telescope is point ed in other directions Let s say you want to view an object that is directly overhead at the zenith How do you do it DO NOT make any adjustment to the latitude adjustment L bol...

Page 12: ...n of the hole in the collimation cap is centered in the ring The center mark is also required for best results when using other collimating devices such as Orion s LaserMate Laser Collimator obviating the need to remove the primary mirror and mark it yourself Note The center ring sticker need not ever be removed from the primary mirror Because it lies directly in the shadow of the secondary mirror...

Page 13: ... cal tube bottom of the primary mirror cell these are the larg er thumbscrews The other three smaller thumbscrews lock the mirror s position in place these thumbscrews must be loosened before any collimation adjustments can be made to the primary mirror To start turn the smaller thumbscrews that lock the primary mirror in place a few turns each Figure 17 Use a screwdriv er in the slots if necessar...

Page 14: ...icantly distorting the incoming light and views at high magnifications will not appear sharp If the stars appear steady and do not twinkle seeing conditions are probably good and higher magnifica tions will be possible Also seeing conditions are typically poor during the day This is because the heat from the Sun warms the air and causes turbulence Good transparency is especially important for obse...

Page 15: ...sky objects however typically look better at medium or low magnifications This is because many of them are quite faint yet have some extent apparent width Deep sky objects will often disappear at higher magnifications since greater magnification inherently yields dimmer images This is not the case for all deep sky objects however Many galax ies are quite small yet are somewhat bright so higher pow...

Page 16: ...r enjoy the different colors of the stars and locate many pretty double and multiple stars The famous Double Double in the constellation Lyra and the gorgeous two color double star Albireo in Cygnus are favorites Defocusing a star slightly can help bring out its color E Deep Sky Objects Under dark skies you can observe a wealth of fascinating deep sky objects including gaseous nebulas open and glo...

Page 17: ...e focuser drawtube Figure 22a Then screw the camera adapter into the focuser drawtube Figure 22b Now attach the T Ring to your camera and thread it onto the camera adapter Figure 22c Use the camera s viewfinder to frame the picture Use the telescope s focuser to focus the image You may want to con sider using a remote shutter release instead of the shutter release on the camera touching the camera...

Page 18: ...quire expo sures on the order of 10 minutes To hold the camera s shut ter open this long you will need a lock shutter release cable Set the camera s shutter to the B bulb setting Depress the locking shutter release cable and lock it You are now expos ing your first deep sky object While exposing through the camera lens you will need to monitor the accuracy of the mount s tracking by looking throug...

Page 19: ...inized face up in the water and let it soak for a few minutes or hours if it s a very dirty mirror Wipe the mirror under water with clean cotton balls using extremely light pressure and stroking in straight line across the mirror Use one ball for each wipe across the mirror Then rinse the mirror under a stream of lukewarm water Any particles on the surface can be swabbed gently with a series of co...

Page 20: ...tsonville CA 95076 If the product is not registered proof of purchase such as a copy of the original invoice is required This warranty does not apply if in Orion s judgment the instrument has been abused mishandled or modified nor does it apply to normal wear and tear This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state For further warrant...