Orion Premium 102mm f/7.0 ED Refractor, 9012 Instruction Manual

INSTRUCTION MANUAL

Premium 102mm f/7.0 ED Refractor

#9012 Optical Tube Assembly

Tube rings

Extendable lens shade

Rotation lock
thumbscrew

Dovetail mounting plate

Focus wheel

Figure 1. The Premium 102mm f/7.0 ED Refractor optical tube assembly

Congratulations on your purchase of an Orion Premium

102mm f/7.0 ED refractor optical tube. Your telescope has been

designed with high quality optics and excellent mechanical con­struction. The ED glass in the objective lens means you’ll enjoy
images with far less color distortion than those seen in a stan­dard refractor, and the smooth dual-speed Crayford focuser will
make getting sharp images a breeze. These instructions will
help you set up and use your telescope.

Getting Started

The Premium 102mm f/7.0 ED comes fully assembled from
the factory. The telescope’s optics have been installed and col­limated, so you should not have to make any adjustments to
them.

Please keep the original shipping box! In the unlikely event
you should need to ship the telescope back to Orion for war­ranty repair service, you should use the original packaging.
The box also makes a very good container for storing the tele­scope when it is not in use.

Mounting the Telescope

The Premium 102mm ED refractor can be mounted on Orion
equatorial mounts using the included tube rings and dovetail
mounting plate. The dovetail mounting plate connects directly
to the equatorial mount’s dovetail holder. The dovetail holder
has two securing knobs to keep the dovetail plate securely in

Focus lock
thumbscrew

place. Be sure to loosen these two knobs prior to connecting
the telescope to the mount. While grasping the telescope firm­ly, place the dovetail mounting plate into the mount’s dovetail
holder and tighten the clamping knobs to secure the optical
tube.

An equatorial mount is desirable for astronomical viewing
as it allows easy manual and/or motorized electronic track­ing of celestial objects as the Earth rotates. Setting circles on
equatorial mounts also enable you to locate objects by their
celestial coordinates (right ascension and declination), which
can be found in many observing books and star atlases.

The Premium 102mm ED refractor can also be easily mounted
on altazimuth mounts like the Orion VersaGo which utilizes a
dovetail holder like Orion equatorial mounts. Follow the previ­ous directions to couple the telescope to the VersaGo mount’s
dovetail holder.

Extendable Lens Shade

The Premium 102mm ED refractor features an extendable lens
shade that can help prevent dew accumulation on the objec­tive lens as well as block stray light or glare from entering the
telescope. Once you have mounted the telescope, gently pull
forward on the lens shade to extend it. Be careful to not touch
the objective lens. The lens shade should be retracted during
storage or at times when the telescope is not in use.

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IN 318 Rev B 02/09

Finder base
mounting
holes

Rotation
lock thumb­screw

Focus wheel

Thumbscrew

Focus wheel

Fine focus wheel

Millimeter scale

1.25" adapter thumbscrew

Drawtube thumbscrew

Figure 2. The 2" dual-speed Crayford focuser

Use of Optional Eyepieces, Diagonal, and Finder
Scope

The Premium 102mm ED does not come with a finder scope,
diagonal or eyepieces in order to grant the user the greatest
versatility in customizing the instrument to suit their tastes.
However, certain rules for using accessories still apply.

You can attach an optional Orion dovetail mounting base to
the telescope in order to attach a finder scope. To install the
dovetail mounting base, remove the two screws located off to
the side of the focuser (Figure 2). Position the dovetail finder
scope base above the exposed threaded holes, and attach
the base to the tube using the two flat head Phillips machine
screws provided with the refractor. Any Orion finder scope with
a dovetail bracket will fit into the dovetail mounting base.

The Premium 102mm ED refractor can use almost any 2"
diagonal and eyepiece. To install a diagonal, unthread the
thumbscrew on the focuser drawtube (Figure 2) until the
internal brass ring is flush with the interior of the drawtube.
Insert the diagonal and secure it with the thumbscrew, which
will compress the brass ring around the inserted barrel of
the diagonal. Then insert an eyepiece into the diagonal and
secure it with the thumbscrew(s) on the diagonal.

Use of 1.25" Eyepieces and Diagonals

If you wish to use 1.25" eyepieces and/or a 1.25" diagonal
with the Premium 102mm ED, the 1.25" eyepiece adapter is
required (Figure 3). 1.25" eyepieces usually allow higher mag­nification than 2" eyepieces. This is especially desirable for
high power observation of objects in our solar system such as
the Moon and planets.

To use 1.25" accessories, simply insert the 1.25" eyepiece
adapter into the drawtube as you would a 2" accessory. Be
sure to secure the adapter in place with the thumbscrew on

Figure 3. The 1.25" eyepiece adapter

the drawtube. You can now insert a 1.25" accessory into the
adapter for use.

The 2" Dual-Speed Crayford Focuser

The Premium 102mm ED comes equipped with a dual-speed
Crayford focuser. The Crayford design allows for smooth,
precise focusing without any image shift that typical rack-and­pinion designs experience.

The focuser features dual-speed adjustment with the fine
focus wheel (Figure 2). This small black wheel allows precise
focus adjustment at a ratio of 11:1, meaning eleven turns of
the fine focus wheel equals one turn of the focus wheel. Use
the focus wheels to achieve rough focus on your target object,
then use the fine focus wheel for the most precise focus in
order to coax out even more image detail. You’ll be amazed at
the amount of detail fine focus adjustments allow you to view
on targets such as the lunar surface, planets, star clusters,
and other celestial objects.

If you find that the focus wheels are too tight or too loose, you
can make adjustments to the drawtube tension by using the
drawtube tension adjustment set screw located on the bottom
of the focuser between the focus wheels. Make adjustments
to this set screw with the provided hex key until the focuser
motion feels comfortable. Please note that you must have at
least some tension applied to the focuser drawtube or else it
will not move when you turn the focus wheels.

Once you have achieved focus, you can lock the focuser in
place by tightening the focus lock thumbscrew located on the
bottom of the focuser between the focus wheels (Figure 1).
Locking the focuser in place can be especially useful for imag­ing applications. Be sure to loosen the focus lock thumbscrew
before making additional focus adjustments.

The focuser drawtube is labeled with a millimeter scale to be
used as a reference (Figure 2). This scale can be useful to
quickly reach focus on previously viewed objects. When initial­ly observing (or imaging) an object with the Premium 102mm
ED, make a note of the scale marker position once the object
is in focus. When you view the same object during a different

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