4
3. Assembly
Assembling the telescope for the first time should take about 20
minutes. No tools are needed. All bolts should be tightened
securely to eliminate flexing and wobbling, but only tighten them
“finger tight.” Be careful not to over-tighten so as not to strip the
threads. Refer to Figure 1 during the assembly process.
During assembly (and anytime, for that matter), DO NOT
touch the surfaces of the telescope mirrors or the lenses of
the finder scopes or eyepieces with your fingers. The optical
surfaces have delicate coatings on them that can easily be
damaged if touched inappropriately. NEVER remove any lens
assembly from its housing for any reason, or the product war-
ranty and return policy will be voided.
1. Lay the equatorial mount on its side. Attach the tripod legs,
one at a time, to the base of the mount by sliding the tripod
leg attachment bolt into the slot in the mount and lightly
tightening the knob finger-tight. Note that the hinged acces-
sory tray bracket on each leg should face inward.
2. Tighten the leg lock bolts at the base of the legs. For now,
keep the legs at their shortest (fully retracted) length; you
can extend them to a more desirable length later, after the
scope is completely assembled.
3. With the tripod legs now attached to the equatorial mount,
stand the tripod upright (be careful!) and spread the legs
apart enough to attach the accessory tray to the three
hinged tray brackets on the legs. Position the brackets
underneath the tray and use the three small accessory tray
screws and wing nuts to attach the tray to the brackets. Do
not tighten the wing nuts yet.
4. Now, with the accessory tray attached loosely, spread the
tripod legs apart as far as they will go, until the accessory
tray brackets are taut. Then tighten the wing nuts.
5. Next, tighten the tripod leg attachment bolts at the base of
the equatorial mount, so the legs are securely fastened. The
assembled tripod should now be stable and solid. If it is
not, a bolt or screw may need further tightening.
6. Remove the retaining nut from the bottom end of the coun-
terweight shaft. Slide both counterweights onto the shaft,
then replace the retaining nut. The retaining nut will pre-
vent the counterweights from slipping off the shaft and
possibly onto your foot if the counterweight lock knobs
should come loose!
7. At the top end of the counterweight shaft, note the cast
metal shaft collar. Rotate the collar so as much of the
threaded end of the shaft as possible is visible. Now, with
the counterweight lock knobs loose, grip the counterweights
with one hand and thread the shaft into the equatorial
mount (at the base of the declination axis) with the other
hand. When it is threaded as far in as it will go, twist the
shaft collar clockwise to secure the shaft. Position the coun-
terweights about halfway up the shaft and tighten the
counterweight lock knobs.
8. Orient the equatorial mount as it appears in Figure 1, at a
latitude of about 40°, i.e., so the pointer next to the gold-
colored latitude scale is pointing to the hash mark at “40.”
To do this, loosen the latitude lock lever (on the side of the
mount opposite the gold latitude scale), and turn the lati-
tude adjustment knob until the pointer and the “40” line up.
Then tighten the latitude lock lever. Also tighten the decli-
nation (Dec.) and right ascension (R.A.) lock levers.
9. Remove the caps from the narrow end of the polar scope and
the polar scope port in the equatorial mount (behind the R.A.
setting circle). Insert the narrow end of the polar scope into
the open port. While gripping the wide end of the polar scope
(but not the eyepiece at the very end), thread it clockwise into
the port until it is secure.
10. Attach the two tube rings to the equatorial head, using the
captive tube ring bolts preinstalled in the equatorial head.
Open the tube rings.
11. Lay the telescope optical tube in the felt-lined tube rings
at about the midpoint of the tube’s length. Rotate the tube
in the rings so the focuser is angled somewhere between
horizontal and straight up. Close the rings over the tube
and tighten the knurled ring clamps finger-tight to secure
the telescope in position.
12. Now attach the two slow-motion cables to the R.A. and Dec.
worm gear shafts of the equatorial mount by positioning the
setscrew on the end of the cable over the indented slot on
the worm gear shaft, then tightening the setscrew. The
cables can be attached to either end of the shafts, whichev-
er is most convenient for you. But we recommend that the
Dec. cable extend toward the front end of the telescope (as
in Figure 1), since that’s where you’ll be standing.
13. To install the finder scope bracket on the optical tube
(adjacent to the focuser), first remove the round nuts on
the two mounting screws. Do not loosen the small hex nuts
on the mounting screws. Place the finder scope bracket
over the two screws. Replace the round nuts and tighten
finger-tight.
14. Thread each of the six round, knurled nuts onto each of
the six finder scope alignment screws, then thread each
alignment screw into a hole in the finder scope bracket’s
rings. There are three holes on each of the bracket’s rings.
15. Place the finder scope in the finder scope bracket by first
backing off all six alignment screws until the screw tips are
flush with the inside diameter of the bracket. Slide the find-
er scope through the bracket’s rings with the larger
(objective) end pointing in the same direction as the open
end of the main telescope. Line up the groove on the eye-
piece end of the finder scope with the rear ring of the
bracket. Tighten the six alignment screws equally to secure
the finder scope in place; you may need to loosen the
round, knurled nuts on the alignment screws to do this.
16. Remove the cap on the focuser drawtube and insert the
25mm Plössl eyepiece; secure it in place with the thumb-
screw on the drawtube.
