5
7. Thread the counterweight shaft into the equatorial mount
at the base of the declination axis until tight.
8. Remove the screw and washer on the bottom of the coun-
terweight shaft and slide the counterweight onto the shaft.
Make sure the counterweight lock knob is adequately loos-
ened to allow the counterweight shaft to pass through the
hole. Position the counterweight about halfway up the shaft
and tighten the lock knob. Replace the screw and washer
on the end of the shaft.
9. Remove the two wingnuts from the threaded shafts on the
mounting plate that is on the optical tube assembly. Then
place the optical tube assembly onto the equatorial mount
so that the threaded shafts on the mounting plate go
through the holes at the top of the mount. Thread the
wingnuts back onto the threaded shafts to secure the opti-
cal tube to the mount. Refer to Figure 1 for the orientation
of the tube.
10. Attach the two slow-motion cables to the R.A. and Dec.
worm gear shafts of the equatorial mount by positioning
the thumbscrew on the end of the cable over the indented
slot on the worm gear shaft and then tightening the thumb-
screw. We recommend that the shorter cable be used on
the R.A. worm gear shaft and the longer cable on the Dec.
worm gear shaft as shown in Figure 1.
11. Place the finder scope in the finder scope bracket. Do this
by loosening the three alignment thumbscrews until the
are flush with the inside of the bracket. Then insert the
small end (the eyepiece end) of the finder scope into the
end of the bracket that does not have the alignment
thumbscrews next to it. Bring the finder scope into the
bracket until an inch of finder scope’s tube is through the
bracket. Secure the finder scope in the finder scope brack-
et by tightening the three finder scope alignment
thumbscrews evenly until it is secure.
12. Loosen and remove the two finder scope bracket securing
thumbnuts from the optical tube assembly. Place the holes
on the bottom of the finder scope bracket over the two
threaded shafts coming out of the optical tube. Replace
the thumbnuts to secure the finder scope bracket to the
optical tube. Refer to Figure 1 for the orientation of the
finder scope and finder scope bracket.
13.Insert the 25mm Explorer II eyepiece into the focuser
drawtube and secure it in place with the thumbscrew.
Your telescope is now fully assembled and should appear as
it does in Figure 1.
4. Getting Started
Balancing the Telescope
To insure smooth movement of the telescope, it should be prop-
erly balanced. This is done by positioning the counterweight on
its shaft at a point where it is balanced on the R.A. axis.
1. Keeping one hand on the optical tube, loosen the R.A. lock
knob. Make sure the declination lock knob is locked. The
telescope should now be able to rotate freely about the
R.A. axis. Rotate it until the counterweight shaft is parallel
to the ground (i.e., horizontal).
2. 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).
3. Retighten the counterweight lock knob.
The telescope is now balanced in the R.A. axis. The telescope
is already balanced in the Declination axis. Now when you
loosen the lock knob on one or both axes and manually point
the telescope, it should move without resistance and should
not drift from where you point it.
Figure 3. Proper operation of the equatorial
mount requires balancing the telescope tube on
the R.A. axis. (a) With the R.A. lock knob released,
slide the counterweight along the counterweight
shaft until it just counterbalances the tube. (b)
When you let go with both hands, the tube should
not drift up or down.
a.
b.