Orion 4.5 EQ Care and Maintenance, B.The Planets, B.The Sun, D.The Stars, E. Deep-SkyObjects

B.The Planets

The planets don’t stay put like the stars, so to find them you should refer to Sky Calendar at OrionTelescopes.com, or to charts published monthly in Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, or other astronomy magazines. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are the brightest objects in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. Other planets may be visible but will likely appear star-like. Because planets are quite small in apparent size, optional high- er-power eyepieces are recommended and often needed for detailed observations.

B.The Sun

You can change your nighttime telescope into a daytime Sun viewer by installing an optional full-aperture solar filter over the front opening of the StarBlast 4.5 EQ. The primary attraction is sunspots, which change shape, appearance, and location daily. Sunspots are directly related to magnetic activity in the Sun. Many observers like to make drawings of sunspots to monitor how the Sun is changing from day to day.

Important Note: Do not look at the Sun with any optical instrument without a professionally made solar filter, or permanent eye damage could result.

D.The Stars

Stars will appear like twinkling points of light. Even powerful tele- scopes cannot magnify stars to appear as more than a point of light. You can, however, enjoy the different colors of the stars and locate many pretty double and multiple stars. The famous “Double-Double” in the constellation Lyra and the gorgeous two- color double star Albireo in Cygnus are favorites. Defocusing a star slightly can help bring out its color.

E. Deep-Sky Objects

Under dark skies, you can observe a wealth of fascinating deep- sky objects, including gaseous nebulas, open and globular star clusters, and a variety of different types of galaxies. Most deep- sky objects are very faint, so it is important you find an observing site well away from light pollution.

To find deep-sky objects with your telescope, you first need to become reasonably familiar with the night sky. Unless you know how to recognize the constellation Orion, for instance, you won’t have much luck locating the Orion Nebula. A simple planisphere, or star wheel, can be a valuable tool for learning the constella- tions and seeing which ones are visible in the sky on a given night. Once you have identified a few constellations, a good star chart or atlas will come in handy for helping locate interesting deep-sky objects to view within the constellations.

Do not expect these objects to appear like the photographs you see in books and magazines; most will look like dim gray smudg- es. Our eyes are not sensitive enough to see color in deep-sky objects except in a few of the brightest ones. But as you become more experienced and your observing skills get sharper, you will be able to ferret out more and more subtle details and structure.

8. Care and Maintenance

If you give your telescope reasonable care, it will last a lifetime. Store it in a clean, dry, dust-free place, safe from rapid changes

in temperature and humidity. Do not store the telescope out- doors, although storage in a garage or shed is OK. Small com- ponents like eyepieces and other accessories should be kept in a protective box or storage case. Keep the dust cover on the front of the telescope when it is not in use.

Your StarBlast 4.5 EQ requires very little mechanical mainte- nance. The optical tube has a smooth painted finish that is fairly scratch-resistant. If a scratch does appear on the tube, it will not harm the telescope. If you wish, you may apply some auto touch- up paint to the scratch. Smudges on the tube can be wiped off with a soft cloth and household cleaning fluid.

Cleaning Eyepieces

Any quality optical lens cleaning tissue and optical lens cleaning fluid specifically designed for multi-coated optics can be used to clean the exposed lenses of your eyepieces and reflex sight. Never use regular glass cleaner or cleaning fluid designed for eyeglasses

Before cleaning with fluid and tissue, blow any loose particles off the lens with a blower bulb or compressed air. Then apply some cleaning fluid to a tissue, never directly on the optics. Wipe the lens gently in a circular motion, then remove any excess fluid with a fresh lens tissue. Oily fingerprints and smudges may be removed using this method. Use caution; rubbing too hard may scratch the lens.

Cleaning Mirrors

You should not have to clean the telescope’s mirrors very often; normally once every year or so is fine. Covering the front open- ing of the telescope with the dust cover when it is not in use will prevent dust from accumulating on the mirrors. Improper clean- ing can scratch the mirror coatings, so the fewer times you have to clean the mirrors, the better. Small specks of dust or flecks of paint have virtually no effect on the visual performance of the telescope.

The large primary mirror and the elliptical secondary mirror of your telescope are front-surface aluminized and over-coated with hard silicon dioxide, which prevents the aluminum from oxi- dizing. These coatings normally last through many years of use before requiring re-coating (which is easily done).

To clean the secondary mirror, first remove it from the tele- scope. Do this by keeping the secondary mirror holder station- ary while completely unthreading the Phillips-head screw in the center hub of the spider vane assembly (see Figure 10). Do not touch the mirror surface when doing this. Be careful, there is a spring between the secondary mirror holder and the Phillips head screw; be sure it does not fall into the optical tube and onto the primary mirror. Once the Phillips-head screw is unthreaded, the secondary mirror and its holder can be removed from the telescope. Then follow the same procedure described below for cleaning the primary mirror.The secondary mirror does not need to be removed from its holder for cleaning.

To clean the primary mirror, first carefully remove the mirror cell from the telescope. For the StarBlast 4.5 EQ, you must com- pletely unthread the three screws on the exterior perimeter of the mirror cell (Figure 15). Then pull the cell away from the tube.You will notice the primary mirror is held in the mirror cell with three

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