User manual ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS EQ-2 MOUNT

[. . . ] INSTRUCTION MANUAL Orion EQ-2 Equatorial Mount ® #9828 Equatorial Mount Customer Support (800) 676-1343 E-mail: support@telescope. com Corporate Offices (831) 763-7000 Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 P. O. slow-motion control cable Counterweight Counterweight lock knob Accessory tray Accessory tray bracket Accessory tray bracket attachment point Leg lock knob Figure 1. EQ-2 Mount Congratulations on your purchase of a quality Orion product. Your new EQ-2 Equatorial Mount was designed to work with many different telescope optical tubes. [. . . ] To find Polaris in the sky, look north and locate the pattern of the Big Dipper (Figure 4). The two stars at the end of the "bowl" of the Big Dipper point right to Polaris. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere aren't so fortunate to have a bright star so near the south celestial pole (SCP). The star Sigma Octantis lies about 1° from the SCP, but it is barely visible with the naked eye (magnitude 5. 5). For general visual observation, an approximate polar alignment is sufficient. Level the equatorial mount by adjusting the length of the three tripod legs. Turn the latitude adjustment tbolt 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. For example, if your latitude is 35° North, set the pointer to 35. The latitude setting should not have to be adjusted again unless you move to a different viewing location some distance away. This is because the telescope cannot be repositioned as it can when tube rings are used. Assuming you will be using tube rings, we will first balance the telescope with respect to the R. A. Rotate it until the counterweight shaft is parallel to the ground (i. e. , horizontal). Now loosen the counterweight lock knob and slide the weight along the shaft until it exactly counterbalances the telescope (Figure 3a). That's the point at which the shaft remains horizontal even when you let go of the telescope with both hands (Figure 3b). If you position the counterweight all the way at the end of the shaft (near the retaining bolt and washer) and it still does not counterbalance the telescope, you will need to purchase an additional counterweight. Understanding the Setting Circles The setting circles on an equatorial mount enable you to locate celestial objects by their "celestial coordinates". Every object resides in a specific location on the "celestial sphere". That location is denoted by two numbers: its right ascension (R. A. ) and declination (Dec. ). In the same way, every location on Earth can be described by its longitude and latitude. values for celestial objects can be found in any star atlas or star catalog. setting circle is scaled in hours, from 1 through 24, with small marks in between representing 10-minute increments (there are 60 minutes in 1 hour of R. A. ). [. . . ] lock knob and rotate the telescope until it is pointing straight overhead. Similarly, to point the telescope directly south, the counterweight shaft should again be horizontal. What if you need to aim the telescope directly north, but at an object that is nearer to the horizon than Polaris?You can't do it with the counterweight down as pictured in Figure 1. [. . . ]