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Congratulations on your purchase of the Orion Mini 50mm
Guide Scope – a "new breed" of simple, compact, and light-
weight guide scope designed for use with the Orion StarShoot
AutoGuider, Orion StarShoot Planetary Imager & AutoGuider,
or similar, sensitive small-chip CCD cameras. It's ideal for
guiding long-exposure astrophotographs with short to medium
focal length telescopes up to 1500mm focal length. Its bright,
wide-field optics serve up lots of potential guide stars on your
autoguider's CCD sensor, and it's small enough to stash in an
accessory case!
Lock ring
Objective
lens cell
O-ring
(not visible)
Adapter plate
Socket head
screws (x2)
#8-32 Screws
Hex nuts
Dovetail base
Figure 1.
The Mini 50mm Guide Scope and included components
2
Adjustment
thumbscrews (x3)
Thumbscrews,
camera
attachment
Bracket
1.25"
Holder
Dovetail foot
1.5mm
Allen
wrench
1.25" Parfocal ring
Parts list
1 Guide scope optical tube assembly
1 Dovetail bracket
1 Dovetail base
2 #8-32 x 3/8" flat (countersunk) Phillips head screws, and 2 hex nuts
2 #8-32 x ½" length flat (countersunk) Phillips head screws
1 Adapter plate
1 Socket head screw, ¼"-20 x 1"
1 Socket head screw, ¼"-20 x 1/2"
1 Parfocal ring, 1.25"
1 Allen wrench, 1.5mm
assembly
The Mini Guide Scope comes fully assembled and mounted in the dovetail
bracket. Refer to Figure 1 to familiarize yourself with the features and parts of the
guide scope.
Mounting the Mini Guide Scope
The Mini 50mm Guide Scope's mounting bracket has a dovetail foot that fits the
Orion dovetail finder scope base included on many Orion telescopes. The guide
scope also comes with a separate dovetail base (Orion part #7214), with two
#8-32 x 3/8" flat Phillips-head screws and two hex nuts, for custom installations.
To mount the Mini 50mm Guide Scope on a dovetail plate such as Orion's Wide or
Narrow Universal mounting plates, or similar plates produced under other brands,
we've included an adapter plate that makes it easy. The Mini Guide Scope can
then be piggybacked on top of your main instrument's tube rings, or on a side-by-
side saddle plate, for autoguiding.
On the adapter plate there are three threaded holes. The two outer ones are for
attaching the dovetail base to the adapter plate, using the two included #8-32 x
½" length flat (countersunk) Phillips head screws. (These are the longer of the
four #8-32 screws.) Once the dovetail base is securely attached, you can mount
the adapter plate onto a dovetail mounting bar or plate by inserting one of the
supplied 1/4"-20 socket head screws up through an unthreaded hole or slot in the
dovetail plate and into the ¼"-20 hole in the center of the adapter plate. Tighten
with a 3/16" Allen wrench (user supplied). We have provided two different socket
head screws for your convenience, one is ½" long, the other 1" long. Choose the
one that best fits your mounting bar or plate.
3
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