background image

i n s t r u c t i o n   M a n u a l

IN 388 Rev. C 06/12

customer support (800) 676-1343 • E-mail: [email protected]

Corporate Offices (831) 763-7000 • 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076

© 2010-2012 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars

Orion

®

 SkyQuest

 XTg 

GoTo Dobsonians

#10134 XT8g, #10135 XT10g, #10136 XT12g

Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975

OrionTelescopes.com

Summary of Contents for 10134

Page 1: ...3 E mail support telescope com Corporate Offices 831 763 7000 89 Hangar Way Watsonville CA 95076 2010 2012 Orion Telescopes Binoculars Orion SkyQuest XTg GoTo Dobsonians 10134 XT8g 10135 XT10g 10136 XT12g Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 OrionTelescopes com ...

Page 2: ... motor housing 12 5mm Illuminated Plössl 1 25 eyepiece Eyepiece rack Dobsonian base Polyethylene foam dust guard EZ Finder II 28mm DeepView 2 eyepiece 2 Dual speed Crayford focuser Optical tube Handle Handle Tube connecting knob GoTo hand controller Azimuth motor housing not shown ...

Page 3: ... that your telescope will sur vive the journey intact Before beginning assembly unpack each box and confirm that all of the parts in the Parts List below are present The parts are listed by the box they should arrive in but some of the parts may be in different boxes than indicated below Be sure to check all boxes carefully as some parts are small If anything appears to be missing or broken immedi...

Page 4: ... Qty Description 1 Primary mirror 1 Mirror cell 3 Collimation knobs 3 Nylon washers 3 4 outer diameter 3 Springs Figure 3 SkyQuest XTg base components The XT12g base also includes two side braces not shown Figure 5 Polyethylene foam dust guard between ground baseplates DO NOT REMOVE Figure 6 Starter holes for feet Figure 4 Base hardware for SkyQuest XTg Left panel with altitude motor Ground basepl...

Page 5: ...m baseplate Figure 6 Insert the screws through the feet and thread them into the predrilled starter holes Figure 7 with the supplied Phillips screwdriver until tight 2 Connect the side panels to the front panel Figure 8 Use the coarse thread socket head screws for this There are unthreaded pilot holes without the metal collar to align these pieces Orient the side panels so the oval XTg label is fa...

Page 6: ... altitude motor Locate the two small pilot holes and attach the holster using the small screws until just tight Do not over tighten these screws 7 Now install the azimuth motor connection cable It is a flat cable that has an 8 pin RJ 45 plug on both ends Plug one end into the jack on the azimuth motor housing on the top baseplate plug the other end into the jack labeled AZ MOTOR on the altitude mo...

Page 7: ...e the large diameter and thin alumi num of the tube will cause the tube to become somewhat out of round once the end ring is removed To assemble the rear end ring with mirror and mirror cell now con nected to the tube stand the tube up vertically so the raw edge of the tube is facing upwards Line up the threaded holes in the edge of the mirror cell end ring with the holes in the end of the tube Th...

Page 8: ...mply slide the dovetail mount ing bracket into the telescope s dovetail mounting base and tighten the thumbscrew on the base to secure the mounting bracket Operating the EZ Finder II The EZ Finder II works by projecting a tiny red dot it is not a laser beam onto a lens mounted in the front of the unit When you look through the EZ Finder II the red dot will appear to float in space helping you to p...

Page 9: ...ail outlets Remove the old battery by inserting a small flat head screwdriver into the slot on the battery casing Figure 20 and gently prying open the case Then carefully pull back on the retaining clip and remove the old battery Do not overbend the retaining clip Then slide the new battery under the battery lead with the positive end facing down and replace the battery casing Using Eyepieces The ...

Page 10: ...and controller are three ports a wide RJ 45 port for the cable that connects the hand control ler to the GoTo base an RJ 12 port that is used to connect the hand controller to a PC with provided RS 232 cable for firmware updates and a DC power jack which allows inde pendent use of the hand controller for browsing the database or updating the firmware without connecting to the telescope Figure 22b ...

Page 11: ...lease review carefully the two setup methods outlined below Once you have completed your initial setup you will need to perform an alignment procedure for GoTo pointing or activate AutoTracking Setup for AutoTracking or GoTo Mode 1 Place the telescope on a level surface Having the tele scope on level ground will aid tracking accuracy However you will still be able to take advantage of these featur...

Page 12: ...on correctly on the hand controller Note The hand controllerís backlit display will become dimmer and the button Illumination will turn off if left idle for 30 seconds Pressing any button will re illuminate the display 6 Alignment for GoTo Operation Once the initial setup is complete if you wish to take advan tage of the GoTo functionality to accurately locate and point the telescope to objects in...

Page 13: ...oll keys and refer to the appropriate star chart in the back of this manual to choose a second alignment star Ideally you want this star to be about 60 degrees i e about six fist widths held at arm s length away from the first alignment star in azimuth and pref erably at roughly the same altitude The more distance between the two alignment stars the better accuracy the alignment will produce Once ...

Page 14: ...through the selections then press ENTER to choose one The coordi nates of the selected object will be displayed Other informa tion such as constellation magnitude and size can be dis played by using the scroll buttons Pressing ENTER a second time will prompt the telescope to slew to the object M NGC IC These shortcut buttons give you access to the most popular celestial catalogs Messier Catalog Re...

Page 15: ...e UTILITY 3 button on the hand controller or scroll to Utility Func on the Choose Menu screen using the scroll keys Show Position This displays the coordinates of the location where the telescope is currently pointed Use the scroll keys to toggle between Right Ascension Declination Altitude Azimuth and Ax1 Ax2 where Ax1 and Ax2 stand for the angular readings of the eleva tion and azimuth axes resp...

Page 16: ...otion For improved pointing accuracy it is important that the back lash value is set to be equal or greater than the actual amount of backlash between the gears The default setting is 0 00 00 degree arcminute arcsecond Use the numeric keys to set the values and press the RIGHT directional key to pro ceed to the next digit First set the value for R A backlash then press ENTER to set the value for D...

Page 17: ...nt procedure 3 Use the scroll keys to select one of the previous align ment stars or select another star to recalibrate the axis encoders Then press ENTER to confirm 4 After selecting the star as the reference star to recalibrate the axis encoders the telescope will slew to the select ed reference star When the telescope stops slewing it should be pointing somewhere close to the reference star Use...

Page 18: ... LCD will dis play a User Object number such as 03 Use the scroll keys to change to the number you wish to represent the coordinates and press ENTER 7 The prompt View Object and the User Object number you just entered will be displayed Press ENTER to go to the object or ESC to return to the Edit Coordinates menu Warning The User Object number displayed may not be an unassigned one If you are unsur...

Page 19: ...ion website OrionTelescopes com System Requirements SynScan AZ GoTo hand controller version 3 0 or greater Windows95 or later An available RS 232 COM port on the PC Computer interface cable supplied DC power supply 7 5V to 15V 100mA or greater out put with 2 1mm tip positive plug Preparing the Computer for the Update 1 Create a folder where you will store the files necessary for the update 2 On th...

Page 20: ... The cap helps cen ter your eye so that collimating is easier to perform Figures 25b e assume you have the collimation cap in place As an additional aid in collimating the primary mirror of the XTg has a tiny adhesive ring marking its exact center This center ring will not affect the images you see when observ ing with the telescope in any way since it lies directly in the shadow of the secondary ...

Page 21: ...in the eyepiece s field of view Slowly defocus the image with the focusing knob If the telescope is correctly collimated the expanding disk should be a perfect circle Figure 31 If the image is unsymmetrical the tele scope is out of collimation The dark shadow cast by the sec ondary mirror should appear in the very center of the out of focus circle like the hole in a doughnut If the hole appears of...

Page 22: ...d acceptable images if atmospheric conditions are favorable More typically useful magnifications will be limited to 200x or less regardless of aperture This is because the Earth s atmosphere distorts light as it passes through On nights of good seeing the atmosphere will be still and will yield the least amount of distortion On nights of poor seeing the atmo sphere will be turbulent which means di...

Page 23: ... conditions that are hindering your viewing Cooling the Telescope All optical instruments need time to reach thermal equilibrium to achieve maximum stability of the lenses and mirrors which is essential for peak performance Images will be unstable if the optics are not in equilibrium with the outdoor temperature When moved from a warm indoor location outside to cooler air or vice versa a telescope...

Page 24: ... the brightest objects in the sky after the Sun and the Moon Your XTg is capable of showing you these planets in some detail Other planets may be visible but will likely appear star like Because planets are quite small in apparent size optional higher power eyepieces are recom mended and often needed for detailed observations Not all the planets are generally visible at any one time Jupiter The la...

Page 25: ...ns On larger lenses clean only a small area at a time using a fresh lens tissue on each area Never reuse tissues Cleaning Mirrors You should not have to clean the telescope s mirrors very often normally once every few years or so Covering the tele scope with the dust cover when it is not in use will prevent dust from accumulating on the mirrors Improper cleaning can scratch mirror coatings so the ...

Page 26: ... named stars 55 well known double stars 20 well known variable stars 25 user defined objects SkyQuest XT10g Primary mirror 254mm diameter parabolic center marked Focal length 1200mm Focal ratio f 4 7 Focuser Dual speed Crayford 11 1 accepts 2 and 1 25 eyepieces with included adapter Optical tube material Rolled steel Azimuth bearing Thrust needle bearing Altitude bearing Ball bearing Eyepieces 28m...

Page 27: ...rror 70mm Optical tube weight 48 9 lbs Base weight 52 9 lbs Tube length 58 Tube outer diameter 14 Motor drives Dual axis GoTo computerized internally housed Operation Northern or Southern hemisphere Power requirement 12V DC 2 1 Amp tip positive Motor type DC servo with optical encoders for altitude and azimuth axes Slew speeds Rate 0 1 0X Rate 1 2X Rate 2 16X Rate 3 32X Rate 4 50X Rate 5 200X Rate...

Page 28: ...28 Menu Tree ...

Page 29: ...29 Appendix A Time Zones of the World ...

Page 30: ...ackRateLowByte 0 0 b Negative Azm tracking 80 3 16 7 TrackRateHighByte TrackRateLowByte 0 0 c Positive Alt tracking 80 3 17 6 TrackRateHighByte TrackRateLowByte 0 0 d Negative Alt tracking 80 3 17 7 TrackRateHighByte TrackRateLowByte 0 0 4 The number 35 is returned from the hand controller Sending a Slow GoTo Command 1 Convert the angle position to a 24 bit number Example if the desired position i...

Page 31: ...31 Star Charts ...

Page 32: ...32 ...

Page 33: ...33 ...

Page 34: ...34 ...

Page 35: ...35 ...

Page 36: ...36 ...

Page 37: ...37 ...

Page 38: ...38 ...

Page 39: ...39 ...

Page 40: ... 89 Hangar Way Watsonville CA 95076 Proof of purchase such as a copy of the original receipt is required This warranty does not apply if in Orion s judgment the instrument has been abused mishandled or modified nor does it apply to normal wear and tear This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state For further warranty service inform...

Reviews: