User manual ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS STARBLAST

[. . . ] INSTRUCTION MANUAL Orion StarBlastTM #9814 4. 5" Altazimuth Reflector Tabletop 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 201 Rev. A 08/02 2 1 4 5 3 6 7 8 10 11 9 12 Figure 1. The StarBlast. 2 Congratulations on your purchase of an Orion StarBlast telescope. [. . . ] Moderate magnifications are what give the best views. It is better to view a small, but bright and detailed image than a dim, unclear, oversized image. craters, marias, and even mountain ranges can all be clearly seen from a distance of 238, 000 miles away!With its everchanging phases, you'll get a new view of the Moon every night. The best time to observe our one and only natural satellite is during a partial phase, that is, when the Moon is NOT full. During partial phases, shadows are cast on the surface, which reveal more detail, especially right along the border between the dark and light portions of the disk (called the "terminator"). A full Moon is too bright and devoid of surface shadows to yield a pleasing view. Make sure to observe the Moon when it is well above the horizon to get the sharpest images. Use an optional Moon filter to dim the Moon when it is very bright. It simply threads onto the bottom of the eyepieces (you must first remove the eyepiece from the focuser to attach a filter). You'll find that the Moon filter improves viewing comfort, and also helps to bring out subtle features on the lunar surface. B. The Sun You can change your nighttime telescope into a daytime Sun viewer by installing an optional full-aperture solar filter over the front opening of the StarBlast. The primary attraction is sunspots, which change shape, appearance, and location daily. Sunspots are directly related to magnetic activity in the Sun. Many observers like to make drawings of sunspots to monitor how the Sun is changing from day to day. Important Note: Do not look at the Sun with any optical instrument without a professionally made solar filter, or permanent eye damage could result. Do not use the EZ Finder when solar viewing either. What to Expect So what will you see with your telescope?You should be able to see bands on Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, craters on the Moon, the waxing and waning of Venus, and many bright deep-sky objects. Do not expect to see color as you do in NASA photos, since those are taken with long-exposure cameras and have "false color" added. Our eyes are not sensitive enough to see color in deep-sky objects except in a few of the brightest ones. Remember that you are seeing these objects using your own telescope with your own eyes!The object you see in your eyepiece is in real-time, and not some conveniently provided image from an expensive space probe. Each session with your telescope will be a learning experience. [. . . ] You do not need to remove the secondary mirror from its holder for cleaning. Follow the same procedure described below for cleaning the primary mirror. To clean the primary mirror, carefully remove the mirror cell from the telescope. To do this, you must remove the three screws that connect the mirror cell to the steel tube. [. . . ]