Orion StarBlast Color

Orion StarBlast Color
The color of the new Orion StarBlast Dobsonian telescope is a remarkable story to behold

Many white OTA telescopes had flooded the market in the past and white became so common that many telescope makers began using alternate black color.

After a number of years of stumbling over and into black telescopes in the darkness of night, black was deemed no longer creative and Orion began looking for new colors of originality for the lineup.

Signature red was of course taken up by Edmunds red Astroscan telescope and Celestron made a popular line of orange Schmidt-cassegrain telescopes.

The most creative and unusual esteemed and royal colors were sought after and reviewed. Teal was a new web color formulated in 1987.

In the 1990's Teal was a cyan-green fad color for sports and it was adopted by many teams for the color of their uniforms. The color is believed to originate from the common Teal, a member of the duck family whose eyes are surrounded by this color.

Teal green is a darker shade of teal with more green and is a variable color averaging a dark bluish green that is green, darker, and stronger than invisible green or pine tree. Teal green is most closely related to the Crayola crayon color Deep Space Sparkle. Air New Zealand picked Teal green as their signature airline color.

In 2003, the California-based Orion Telescopes and Binoculars introduced the StarBlast, a 4.5-inch Newtonian reflector grab and go telescope with a Dobsonian mount. The telescope became popular with both kids and adults and even libraries have some for checkout. When Orion Telescope Company formulated the signature StarBlast OTA color, they went a step further than white or black and formulated metal teal pearl color. The tube finishes were embedded with scintillating sparkles of a metal appearance (a borrowed technique of creating finer car finishes).  Under certain lighting it looked like tiny pinpoint stars making up the tube finish, a fantastic and very original sight to behold.

Laser Calibrating the Orion StarBlast Telescope

Laser Calibrating the Orion StarBlast Telescope using the Svbony Next Generation Adjustable Deluxe Laser Collimator

First make a mount to hold, test and calibrate the laser collimator using some everyday common household items. Supplies and tools include a bag of aquarium gravel, peanut butter jar, extra peanut butter jar lid, duct tape, scissors, wire cutters, emory stick, and the wrench for the laser collimator. 

Left: the laser collimator is set on top of the homemade mount as shown. Turn on the laser and point it to the opposing wall about 3 meters or 12-feet away. Slowly rotate the collimator and observe the red dot. If it stays in the same position, the collimator is ready for use.

Fill the peanut butter jar with aquarium gravel to give it weight. Cut two opposing V notches in the extra jar lid. Sand smooth with the emory stick. Duct tape the lids together as shown. On the collimator, remove the threaded collar to expose the adjustment set screw. Turn on the collimator and point to the opposing wall about 9 meters or 12 feet away. Rotate the collimator and observe the red dot. If the dot remains in the same location, the laser is collimated. If not, use the allen wrench and adjust the set screw until the dot remains centered. The laser collimator is now ready to adjust the StarBlast telescope and other Newtonian telescopes.

Left: the Svbony collimator includes the adjusting allen wrench, a 2-inch adapter, a preinstalled battery and
instruction manual.

      

Orion StarBlast Telescope Differences

Orion StarBlast Telescope Differences
The purchase was for two identical Orion StarBlast telescopes of 4.5-inch aperture at f/4. Only the mounts are different, so we thought. This page will describe the actual  differences between the two.

BIG BLUE
Nicknamed Big Blue because of its beautiful blue metal tube and larger footprint created by the mount style, this telescope is shown on the right in the photo. The Orion Starblast II EQ with motor drive has many obvious differences when compared to the Dobsonian mounted version. With a total weight of 20.7 lbs it comes with a German Equatorial mount and requires some assembly. A motorized clock drive moves the telescope in right ascension using one motion control knob and a single 9-volt battery. It also has manual slow motion controls for right ascension and declination. Setting circles are provided. Differences also include the primary mirror  - Orion specifications say it's made of soda lime plate glass. Also different are the two eyepieces, both Plossl design at 10mm and 25mm focus. The telescope comes with a Moon map. The product manual must be downloaded. Assembly instructions are in the manual or found on Youtube with Orion's video.

LITTLE GREEN

Nicknamed Little Green because of its beautiful green metal tube and small footprint compared to its sibling, this Orion StarBlast is Dobsonian mounted and is a true grab and go tabletop telescope. Weighing only 13 lbs., no assembly is needed. It sets inside the shipping box fully assembled. There is no motor drive. The primary mirror is made from low expansion borosilicate glass and the includes Ramsden eyepieces 6mm and 17mm focus. The entire telescope weighs only 20.7 lbs. and can be lifted with one hand. This is a grab and go tabletop telescope, setup and ready for action. It comes with a product manual, and Starry Night SE software.

ADDED DIFFERENCES

As of the date on this posting, Little Green gets a replacement Celestron 5x24 lightweight resin lensed finderscope to do star hopping. Big Blue gets a cell phone holder, Apple iPhone Max X, and Celestron software to do push go goto to find sky objects.

Orion AstroBlast Telescope Unboxing

Orion AstroBlast Telescope Unboxing
On July 1st, 2021, these photos were uploaded to the Astroimaging server

Inside the box, the Orion 4.5-inch f/4 AstroBlast telescope comes fully assembled and connected to its Dobsonian mount. Remove the packing paper, screw on the red dot finder, and the telescope is ready for use.

Left: The fully assemble Orion StarBlast telescope was well protected with form fitting styrofoam panels. Separate items included the red dot finderscope, two eyepieces, a collimator, and the operating manual.

The one box package is actually a box inside a box for extra shipping protection, and arrived in about four days of shipping time. The prepayment included customs charges and tax, so the delivery was fast and no need to wait for money to be collected at the time of delivery.

Left: The OTA was fully assembled, however the optics, both primary and secondary (diagonal) mirrors needed collimating. To collimate, a telescope collimation PDF guide was downloaded from the Orion website. Also included with the telescope is a small plastic eyepiece collimation guide with a hole in the center.

Right: The plastic bag was carefully removed so it could be recycled as a telescope protective dust covering. The OTA was already mounted onto the Dobsonian mount with a large ring mount so the tube can rotate for balancing. One can simply reach into the box, grab the telescope, and lift it up and out.

Left: Orion's EZ Finder II is a zero magnification red dot finderscope designed to help find naked eye visible sky objects at a glance. It easily bolts onto the tube. It was removed and replaced with a practically zero weight resin-lens 5x24 finderscope by Celestron originally intended for the Celestron FirstScope.

Right: The diminutive size and low weight of the complete telescope make it a "grab and go" variety telescope. Pulled out of the box and directly placed in a chair, the small size becomes evident. Loosen the ring mount holding the OTA to remove the protective paper.

The Orion StarBlast Dobsonian has a total weight of 13 lbs. The removed OTA optical tube assembly weighs only 4 lbs. and the entire Dob mount weighs 9 lbs. The telescope has a handle on the mount and can be carried with one hand.

The telescope is known as a tabletop telescope. Here it sets on a small stable round table that will be used for observing both indoors and outdoors. The table, made in Taiwan and purchased at furniture street, folds up for transport and has a safety catch underneath.

The Orion StarBlast has a front end dust cap and a tight but smooth oving 1.25-inch rack & pinion to hold eyepieces and accessories like cameras. Both mirrors, primary and secondary are fully adjustable for precise collimation.

Left: The Orion StarBlast telescope, Dobsonian version, comes with 17mm and 6mm Kellner eyepieces. The telescope works well with added simple low cost aspheric design eyepieces. In this photo, the Orion EZ Finder II is replaced with a Celestron resin-lens 5x24 plastic finderscope which has performed well on other telescopes. Originally designed as an accessory for the Celestron FirstScope, it has practically no weight, yet offers magnification and light gathering ability to see more stars. The primary mirror is claimed to use low expansion borosilicate glass.

Manual push drive motions in azimuth are very smooth and the altitude has a locking knob which can set the tension on the motion. The ability to balance the telescope is an excellent feature when attaching accessories.

Orion StarBlast II Telescope Wins Red Ribbon Award

Orion StarBlast II Telescope Wins the Coveted Red Ribbon Award at Singularity Observatory
Ten telescopes were analyzed in twenty different categories and the Orion StarBlast winner took the coveted Red Ribbon Award

Telescopes reviewed were the (1) Celestron CGX/L 14-inch edge HD, (2) Celestron CGX/L 9.25-inch Edge HD, (3) Orion StarBlast Dobsonian, (4) Orion CT80 Refractor, (5) Celestron FirstScope Dobsonian, (6) Orion StarBlast II EQ, (7) Unistellar eVscope digital telescope, (8) Meade 60AT Refractor, (9) Celestron 9x50 refractor, 10) Meade ETX/90

It's agreed that analyzing a telescope may in part be directly dependent on a person's goal. For example, will the telescope go into a permanent observatory or is it designed as a lightweight grab and go scope? This contest is an overall average and an overview of the most likely and desirable key points.

The telescopes were rated in twenty categories, with ratings from 0 to 10 with 10 best. Points were added up and the telescope with the highest number of points is the winner.

1) Weight: easy to lift, carry

2) Size: ability to move through door, assembled

3) Portability

4) Setup time

5) Takedown time

6) Learning curve

7) Ease of use

8) Ability & ease of calibration

9) Number of defects: does it work?

0) Amount of time used

12)  Diameter: light gathering ability
13) Optical Quality

14) Rich Field Ability or Planets

15) Tracking ability

16) Grab and go

17) Convenience: power, computer, usb, cables

18) Cost

19) Availability

20) Support

Telescopes Analyzed

Celestron CGX/L 14-inch Edge HD

Celestron CGX/L 9.25-inch Edge HD

Orion StarBlast Dobsonian

Orion CT80 Refractor
Celestron FirstScope Dobsonian

Orion StarBlast II EQ
Unistellar eVscope digital telescope
Meade 60AT Refractor
Celestron 9x50 refractor
Meade ETX/90

The Winner: Orion StarBlast II EQ with Motor Drive
In summary, key award winning points and amazing features of the Orion StarBlast II EQ were ease of use, portability, light weight, easy to lift and carry, and with a very small learning curve. The telescope is easy to initially assemble, has a small footprint, fits through doors and inside cars when fully setup, and sports parabolic quality optics at f/4.

It's fast and large enough optics to show deep sky objects, setup and takedown time is either none or very fast and easy, no computer or AC electricity needed, it has good slow motion controls, and is good for astrophotography with a cell phone camera and camera mount. It can be used for lucky imaging with a CMOS camera, the scope and mount have a fast setup time of about 2 minutes or none at all.

The StarBlast telescope is low cost, has a one button motor clock drive, has calibration ability and is very easy to calibrate, it's supported by Orion, However availability is at high demand: I waited 2.5 years for new stock to arrive. The number of defects is 1 (locked on toe stopper). The PTA has rich field wide angle ability and is outstanding for the Moon, deep sky objects, and moons around planets, it's an excellent star hopper - it can upgrade to the lens-based Celestron finderscope with matching mounting bolts.

Orion has fast shipping, the telescope by choice is used very frequently, features include grab and go, German Equatorial with rapid takedown time, sets up in seconds with a compass, and this telescope has extra powers - the aperture is ideal for more seeing days due to its size, the primary has glass conducive to rapid cool down thermal, it sees better through window glass, and has adjustable secondary diagonal).

Included eyepieces are excellent. Focuser is tight and smooth. Upgrades with with a Bahtinov mask for achieving good focus, a front end full diameter specialty solar filter for studying the sun, and an iPhone for making a push to goto DIY finder. The telescope has many uses for many projects.

Orion StarBlast II EQ Telescope Assembly

The Orion StarBlast II EQ telescope arrives in kit form with these parts ready for assembly

Assembly of the Orion StarBlast II EQ Telescope 
The Starblast II EQ telescope is easily assembled by following these guidelines

Assembling the Orion StarBlast 4.5-inch equatorial telescope is routine for the most part. The kit comes with an assembled OTA optical tube assembly and the German equatorial head is for the most part ready for mounting. Unfortunately my telescope kit arrived without the instruction manual and therefore no assembly details were provided. Fortunately the assembly is very basic and straightforward and no instructions are needed when following a photo from online sources. For more details, Orion provides a YouTube video for assembly. The telescope manual is also found online in PDF format at a link on the Orion website.

The Chinese manufactured Orion StarBlast II EQ Equatorial Head is a marvel of exquisite engineering. It arrives with most of the main parts assembled.

I had no problems assembling the telescope kit - all the parts were present with no hardware missing. A wrench and screwdrivers are provided in the kit, however when it came time to assemble the tripod tray to the tripod legs, the nuts were very tight turning onto the bolts and a pliers, vise grips, and larger philips screwdriver were used as additional tools.

On caveat is the toe saver - a washer and nut at the end of the weight shaft which was already screwed to the shaft. It appeared to be permanently locked on so tight that nothing would remove it. As a simple solution, it was kept on, the counterweight slid onto the other end of the shaft, and the shaft was then screwed into the equatorial head. The counterweight easily removes by removing the shaft.

Remember to engage the slow motion control nuts onto the flat sides of the shafts. Setting the latitude is extremely easy. Overall the EQ-1 mount is lightweight and easy to carry. Setting it up is nearly instantaneous. I added a compass and turned the tripod and mount to calibrate to North, as the northern hemisphere is not visible from my sky window.

The second caveat is related to the red dot finder (Orion EZ Finder II Telescope Reflex Sight). The finder is held together with two side screws. This finder was assembled without any tightening of these screws. After placing it onto the OTA, it fell apart. Lucky the telescope was being moved with a plastic bag over the top and the finder fell into the bag and did not crash to the floor or break into pieces.

The final step was to install the clock drive. Printed instructions are available and are straightforward. see links

Final thoughts: the Orion StarBlast II EQ Telescope is exactly what I wanted. It's very lightweight, easy to setup and hand carries around like a small charm. The mount and tripod are already setup, just dial in your latitude and use a compass to set it facing the north pole. It works simple and might hold another small telescope set piggyback. The clock drive keeps the image in the eyepiece when polar aligned and overall the system should be good for lucky imaging. This is the telescope I can lift and move around, and will get the most use. By comparison, I'm not able to lift or move a Celestron CGX/L 14". Is there a downside to the 4.5-inch telescope? Not really - just keep in mind the lightweight mount will require a few seconds to settle down each time the telescope is moved or touched.

Orion StarBlast Webpage

https://www.telescope.com/Orion-StarBlast-II-45-Equatorial-Reflector-Telescope/p/116895.uts

Orion EZ Finder II Telescope Reflex Sight Webpage

https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Orion-EZ-Finder-II-Telescope-Reflex-Sight/rc/2160/p/7228.uts

Orion AstroTrack Drive for EQ-1 Equatorial Telescope Mount Webpage

https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Orion-AstroTrack-Drive-for-EQ-1-Equatorial-Telescope-Mount/rc/2160/p/99600.uts?keyword=astrotrack%20motor%20drive

Instruction & Assembly Manual

EN: Orion StarBlast II 4.5 Equatorial Reflector Telescope

https://www.telescope.com/assets/product_files/instructions/29576_03-17.pdf

How to Set Up the Orion StarBlast II 4.5 Equatorial Reflector Telescope - Orion Telescopes (YouTube video by Orion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuJYoah4QU8

How to Use the Orion StarBlast II 4.5 EQ Reflector Telescope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3DbAz_QKvA

EN: Collimation of a Newtonian Reflector Telescope

https://www.telescope.com/assets/product_files/instructions/29563_11-15.pdf

EN: Orion AstrTrack DC Motor Drive for EQ-1 Mount

https://www.telescope.com/assets/product_files/instructions/29154_11-14.pdf

Big Blue Captures Tau Ceti Lunar Conjunction

StarBlast Telescope Project 1

Big Blue Captures Xi Cet Lunar Conjunction
65 Ceti is a type E variable double star in Cetus at 4.36 to 4.4 magnitude at RA 02 hr 14.1 m and DEC _08 Deg 57'

by Mike Otis

Otis Astroimaging

Some astronomers believe this is the system likely to harbor planets in the habitable zone and hold evolved life forms. One can only speculate about the origin and nature of these faraway worlds, 380 light years from the Earth.

Technical Data - Above Photo

* Orion StarBlast telescope project 1

* July 4, 2021 3:03 am local time
* Hand held Apple iPhone 6 Plus

* Built in 4.15mm lens at speed f2.2, ISO 500, 1/4 second digital exposure
* Blue StarBlast II EQ 4.5" with 23mm eyepiece, no active drive

* Image processing: remove window glass, temper grain, enhance star,

          preserve reflected Earthshine

* Software: iMac Catalina 10.15.7 OS, Photos v5.0, PhotoScape X v4.0.2

* Location - South Pacific Ocean

This is the First Light project conducted with the new Orion StarBlast II 4.5-inch aperture reflector telescope on the EQ-1 German Equatorial mount.

Left: enhanced AR image created by Celestron's SkyPortal app running on an iPhone with a focus on Xi1 Cetus variable star at conjunction with the Moon. Don't think about looking for the double star as it's far too close to the primary. The star is a yellow orange giant has its second component at 0 arcseconds distance or 1 AU.

This highly unusual photo was taken inside the new Indoor Observatory and shot through window glass. The image has received computer image processing to remove window glass and take care of internal window glass reflections.

Stars are very tiny pinpoints of high resolution in the parabolic StarBlast and only cover a few pixels in the cell phone camera images. Image processing is necessary to somewhat expand a star to make it more visible. This is opposite of what usually happens with seeing conditions that are less than ideal causing bloated stars or with varied optics.

Due to additional stars in the Cetus system which are located at habitable zones, contention by astronomers, and debated, is that life can exist on these planets around the star system. This refers to the famous Tau Ceti system long thought to harbor alien life forms.