Orion ATLAS EQ-G Manual
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Orion ATLAS EQ-G Manual

Equatorial mount
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Equatorial Mount

#9996
customer support (800)‑676‑1343
E‑mail: support@telescope.com
Corporate Offices (831)‑763‑7000
89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076
Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975
IN 279 Rev. C 01/09

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Summary of Contents for Orion ATLAS EQ-G

  • Page 1: Equatorial Mount

    Manual orion atlas EQ‑G ® ™ Equatorial Mount #9996 customer support (800)‑676‑1343 E‑mail: support@telescope.com Corporate Offices (831)‑763‑7000 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076 Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 IN 279 Rev. C 01/09...
  • Page 2 Counterweight shaft lock lever Latitude scale Counterweight shaft Latitude adjustment L-bolts Counterweights Center support shaft Counterweight lock knobs Tripod center support tray “Toe-saver” GoTo hand controller GoTo hand controller cable Tripod leg Leg lock levers Figure 1. The Atlas EQ-G mount.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    The internally housed, dual-axis stepper motors provide smooth slewing and tracking of any celestial object. With a little practice, you’ll find that the Atlas EQ-G mount is an invaluable tool for getting the most out of your astronomical observing sessions.

  • Page 4: Attaching A Telescope

    (GoTo) of this manual. viewing. Close the tube rings and tighten them. Note: The Atlas EQ-G mount is very heavy. Alone it weighs 54 4. attaching a telescope lbs. With a large optical tube and counterweights it can easily weigh over 100 lbs.

  • Page 5: Setting Up And Using The Equatorial Mount

    L-bolts Figure 5. The Atlas EQ-G mount. Dec. axis (Figure 4d). 8. Retighten the knurled ring clamps. When you look at the night sky, you no doubt have noticed that the stars appear to move slowly from east to west over time.

  • Page 6: Polar Alignment

    Polar axis Finder scope to revolve around the NCP. The Atlas EQ-G mount comes with a polar axis finder scope To find Polaris in the sky, look north and locate the pattern (Figure 7) housed inside the right ascension axis of the of the Big Dipper (Figure 6).
  • Page 7 The reticle of the polar axis finder scope for the Atlas EQ-G has a tiny star map printed on it that makes precise polar align-...

  • Page 8: The Atlas Eq-G Dual Axis Hand Controller

    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 The Atlas EQ-G should be powered by a 12V DC power sup- it with the counterweights down as pictured in Figure 1. Again,...
  • Page 9 (see “Setting the Guiding Speed”). If tracking is deactivated, pressing the Guide button will set the Atlas EQ-G to slew at 32x sidereal rate; this speed is too fast for guiding during imaging.

  • Page 10: The Atlas Eq-G Goto Hand Controller

    Atlas EQ-G mount, the Dec. motor will enter a “sleep” mode if left idle for a period of 15 seconds. In “sleep” mode, the Dec. In order to set the guiding speed of your Atlas EQ-G, use the motor stops completely and the amount of used power drops button following button combinations: by about 40%.
  • Page 11 The Atlas EQ-G GoTo hand controller comes with two cables; you are viewing. one for usage with the Atlas EQ-G mount, while the other is for use with the Sirius EQ-G mount. Feel free to discard the You can reduce the chances of getting your hand controller cable for the Sirius EQ-G, as it will not be needed.

  • Page 12: Initial Setup

    The directional buttons allow the user to have complete motion both the R.A. and Dec. lock levers engaged. control of the Atlas EQ-G mount at almost any step in opera- tion. These controls are locked out when the mount is slewing 3.
  • Page 13 Note: Longitude and latitude coordinates must be entered in degrees and arcminutes. If your map or atlas gives coor- dinates in decimal values (i.e. latitude = 36.95 N) you must convert into degrees and arcminutes (i.e. latitude 36.95 N = latitude 36°57’...
  • Page 14 three‑star alignment piece and adjust the position of the telescope (again using the directional buttons) so the chosen star is centered in 1. From the alignment screen, select “3-Star Align” using the the field of view of the eyepiece. Press ENTER to confirm scroll buttons.

  • Page 15: Selecting An Object

    Pointing accuracy Enhancement (PaE) NGC - 7,840 of the brightest deep sky objects from the NGC 2000.0 database (edited by Roger W. Sinnott, copyright by The three-star alignment should provide excellent point- Sky Publishing Corp., used with permission). ing accuracy for visual observation. For other applications, such as CCD imaging, even better pointing accuracy can be IC - 5,386 objects from the Index Catalog.
  • Page 16 Park Scope: Moves the telescope to the “home” position. This -Solar Rate: Activates tracking at solar rate. allows you to power off the Atlas EQ-G mount while saving -PEC + Sidereal: Activates sidereal rate tracking with alignment and PEC training data. When subsequently pow- Periodic Error Correction.

  • Page 17: Auto Guiding

    Press tion and be used to control the Atlas EQ-G mount. Look for 1 (RA-Dec) or 2 (AzAlt) to make your selection. software that is compatible with the Celestron NexStar 5i/8i or NexStar GPS, like Starry Night Pro.
  • Page 18 2. Go to the website www.OrionTelescopes.com, and access it will take much longer for the firmware to load into the hand the support page for the Atlas EQ-G mount. controller. 3. Download and save the Firmware Loader program to the folder you have created on your computer.

  • Page 19: Specifications

    9. technical specifications Tracking rates: Sidereal (default), lunar, solar, PEC + sidereal Mount: German equatorial Tracking modes: R.A. tracking Tripod: Steel Alignment method: One-star alignment, two- star alignment, three-star Weight: 54lbs. alignment Counterweights: Quantity 2, 11 lbs. each Database: 25 user-defined objects, Polar axis latitude adjustment: 10°...
  • Page 20 atlas EQ‑G Goto Hand controller Menu tree...

  • Page 21: Appendices

    Atlas EQ-G. Incorrect star alignment, 7. Using the Dec. direction button on the hand controller, loose R.A. or Dec. lock-knobs, or cone error. If the Atlas EQ-G adjust the telescope in Dec. so Polaris lies on the R.A.
  • Page 22 Figure 18a‑b. Rotate the telescope 180° about the R.A.axis. piece field of view. Adjustment in Dec. axis using the hand controller may be necessary. 9. Loosen the R.A. lock knob and carefully rotate the tele- scope 180° about the R.A. axis (Figure 18a &18b) This should be done as accurately as possible referencing the R.A.
  • Page 23 2. Manually point or electronically slew the telescope mount- en the adjustment screws closer to the front of the tube ed on the Atlas EQ-G to a star with a small value Dec. (Figure 20b). Look into the eyepiece. Adjust the adjust- coordinate (Dec.
  • Page 24 Note: The Atlas EQ-G will continue to track in the PEC + sidereal mode until another tracking mode is selected. If the power is turned off while the Atlas EQ-G is in the PEC + side- real mode, the hand controller loses synchronization with the R.A.
  • Page 25 4. The number 35 is returned from the hand controller. Sending a Slow-GoTo Command The Atlas EQ-G mounts equipped with the GoTo hand control- ler are designed to receive commands sent from a computer’s 1. Convert the angle position to a 24 bit number. Example: RS-232 COM port (via the computer interface cable).
  • Page 27 Orion Warranty Repair, 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076. If the product is not registered, proof of purchase (such as a copy of the original invoice) is required.

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