User manual ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS ATLAS8 EQREVB

[. . . ] INSTRUCTION MANUAL Orion Atlas 8 EQ TM ® #9873 Equatorial Reflector Telescope Customer Support (800) 676-1343 E-mail: support@telescope. com Corporate Offices (831) 763-7000 Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 P. O. Box 1815, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 IN 213 Rev. B 01/03 Finder scope Finder scope bracket Eyepiece Focus knob Tube rings Tube ring mounting plate Tube ring mounting plate lock knobs (2) Declination setting circle Declination lock lever Counterweight shaft lock lever Counterweight shaft Counterweights Right ascension setting circle Right ascension lock lever Mirror cell Counterweight lock knobs "Toe Saver" Tripod leg Latitude scale Latitude adjustment L-bolts Center support shaft (not shown) Hand controller Tripod support tray Leg lock lever Figure 1. The Atlas 8 EQ. 2 Congratulations on your purchase of a quality Orion telescope. [. . . ] Collimating (Aligning The Mirrors) 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. Accurate mirror alignment is important to ensure the peak performance of your telescope, so it should be checked regularly. Collimating is relatively easy to do and can be done in daylight. To check collimation, remove the eyepiece and look down the focuser drawtube. You should see the secondary mirror centered in the drawtube, as well as the reflection of the primary mirror centered in the secondary mirror, and the reflection of the secondary mirror (and your eye) centered in the reflection of the primary mirror, as in Figure 14a. If anything is off-center, as in Figure 14b, proceed with the following collimating procedure. Note About the 2" Focuser The Atlas 8 EQ's 2" focuser can be collimated by 3 pairs of push-pull screws located on the ring at the base of the focuser (Figure 4). The focuser was collimated at the factory and should never need to be adjusted. Focuser collimating is only required under very rare circumstances but has been made available for this telescope should such a need arise. The Collimation Cap and Mirror Center Mark Your Atlas 8 EQ comes with a collimation 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 that collimating is easy to perform. Figures 14b through 14e assume you have the collimation cap in place. In addition to the collimation cap, the primary mirror is marked with a circle at its exact center. This "center mark" allows you to achieve a precise collimation of the primary mirror; you don't have to guess where the center of the mirror is. You simply adjust the mirror position (described below) until the reflection 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, its presence in no way adversely affects the optical performance of the telescope or the image quality. That might seem counterintuitive, but its true!Aligning the Secondary Mirror With the collimation cap in place, look through the hole in the cap at the secondary (diagonal) mirror. [. . . ] You do not need to remove the secondary mirror from its holder when cleaning. To clean the primary mirror, carefully remove the mirror cell from the telescope. To do this means you must remove the six screws on the side of the tube near the mirror cell. You do not need to remove the collimation screws on the bottom of the mirror cell. [. . . ]