INSTRUCTION MANUAL ® Orion StarBlast™ #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.
1 4 5 3 6 7 8 10 11 9 12 Figure 1. The StarBlast.
Congratulations on your purchase of an Orion StarBlast telescope. Your new StarBlast is easy to use and requires very little assembly. The StarBlast will give you breathtaking views of the Moon, planets, and even deep sky objects like the Orion Nebula. These instructions will help you set up and use your StarBlast telescope, please read them thoroughly. StarBlast parts: 1 2 17mm Explorer II eyepiece The eyepiece is the part of the telescope that you actually look through to see things.
Table of Contents Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Using Your Telescope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Care and Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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 looking through the eyepiece first with your glasses on and then with them off, to see if the glasses restrict the view to only a portion of the full field.
To use the EZ Finder II, turn the power knob clockwise until you hear a “click” indicating that power has been turned on. With your eye positioned at a comfortable distance, look through the back of the reflex sight with both eyes open to see the red dot. The intensity of the dot can be adjusted by turning the power knob. For best results when stargazing, use the dimmest possible setting that allows you to see the dot without difficulty.
“Seeing” and Transparency Atmospheric conditions vary significantly from night to night. “Seeing” refers to the steadiness of the Earth’s atmosphere at a given time. In conditions of poor seeing, atmospheric turbulence causes objects viewed through the telescope to “boil”. If, when you look up at the sky with your naked eyes, the stars are twinkling noticeably, the seeing is bad and you will be limited to viewing with low powers (bad seeing affects images at high powers more severely).
piece, if you wish. This is recommended for small and bright objects, like planets and double stars. The Moon also takes higher magnifications well. The best rule of thumb with eyepiece selection is to start with a low power, wide-field eyepiece, and then work your way up in magnification. If the object looks better, try an even higher magnification eyepiece. If the object looks worse, then back off the magnification a little by using a lower-power eyepiece.
sometimes it is visible to the naked eye during full daylight! Ironically, Venus appears as a thin crescent, not a full disk, when at its peak brightness. Because it is so close to the Sun, it never wanders too far from the morning or evening horizon. No surface markings can be seen on Venus, which is always shrouded in dense clouds. Specifications D. The Stars Mirror coatings: Aluminum with SiO2 overcoat Stars will appear like twinkling points of light.
paper or wall. Also placing a piece of white paper in the telescope tube opposite the focuser (in other words, on the other side of the secondary mirror) will also be helpful in collimating the secondary mirror. Using a 2mm hex key, loosen the three small alignment set screws in the center hub of the 4-vaned spider several turns.
Aligning the Primary Mirror The final adjustment is made to the primary mirror. It will need adjustment if, as in Figure 10d, the secondary mirror is centered under the focuser and the reflection of the primary mirror is centered in the secondary mirror, but the small reflection of the secondary mirror (with the “dot” of the collimation cap) is off-center.
oxidizing. These coatings normally last through many years of use before requiring re-coating, which is easily done. To clean the secondary mirror, it must be removed from the telescope. Do this by holding the secondary mirror holder stationary with your fingers (don’t touch the mirror itself) while unthreading the Phillips head screw in the center hub of the 4vaned spider. Completely unthread the screw from the holder, and the holder will come loose in your fingers.
