User manual ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS EQTABLETOP MOUNT

[. . . ] INSTRUCTION MANUAL Orion® Tabletop Equatorial Mount #9055 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 180 Rev. A 12/01 Congratulations on your purchase of a quality Orion product. Your new Tabletop Equatorial Mount is extremely portable and can be taken with you conveniently wherever you go to observe. The tabletop mounting system allows easy attachment of a wide variety of different telescope optical tubes. [. . . ] To polar-align the table top EQ mount: 1. Make certain the mount is on level surface. Turn the latitude adjustment T-bolt and tilt the mount until the pointer on the latitude scale is set at the latitude of your observing site. If you don't know your latitude, consult a geographical atlas to find it. Aligning and Using the Equatorial Mount When you look at the night sky, you no doubt have noticed that the stars appear to move slowly from east to west over 4 De c. Ax is Dec. Setting Circle . A R is Ax . R. A. Lock Knob Latitude Scale Latitude Adjustment T-Bolt Figure 5: The equatorial mount ple, if your latitude is 35° North, set the pointer to 35. Then retighten the latitude lock t-bolt. The latitude setting should not have to be adjusted again unless you move to a different viewing location some distance away. lock knob and rotate the telescope optical tube until it is parallel with the R. A. Loosen the azimuth lock knob at the base of the equatorial mount and rotate the mount so the telescope tube (and R. A. If you cannot see Polaris directly from your observing site, consult a compass and rotate the mount so the telescope points North. The equatorial mount is now polar aligned. From this point on in your observing session, you should not make any further adjustments in the azimuth or the latitude of the mount, nor should you move the tripod. The telescope should be moved only about its R. A. slow-motion control cables allow fine adjustment of the telescope's position to center objects within Latitude Lock T-bolt Little Dipper (in Ursa Minor) Figure 6. To find Polaris in the night sky, look north and find the Big Dipper. Extend an imaginary line from the two "Pointer Stars" in the bowl of the Big Dipper. Go about five times the distance between those stars and you'll reach Polaris, which lies within 1° of the north celestial pole (NCP). Big Dipper (in Ursa Major) N. C. P. Polaris Cassiopeia tars ter S Poin 5 the field of view. Before you can use the cables, you must manually "slew" the mount to point the telescope in the vicinity of the desired target. lock knobs and moving the telescope about the mount's R. A. Once the telescope is pointed somewhere close to the object to be viewed, retighten the mount's R. A. [. . . ] lock knob and rotate the telescope until it is pointing straight overhead. The counterweight shaft is still horizontal. Then retighten both lock knobs. 7 Similarly, to point the telescope directly south, the counterweight shaft should again be horizontal. Then you simply rotate the scope on the Dec. [. . . ]