How often should you collimate your scope?

[mrjonathanbrown]

Hi guys I was wondering how often do you guys collimate your scope? I am considering purchasing the 130P-DS due to how cheap it is and what is achievable but I would be traveling with my scope to darker sites. Does the car journey mean I would have to collimate my scope after each journey? If in that case I might be more willing to go for the Evostar 80ED DS-pro - I have also heard its a lot easier to handle granted its a slightly slower scope. What are your thoughts? 

[CodnorPaul]

Check every time - tweak when needed

[Moonshane]

What Paul said

[Tinker1947]

Once you get to collimate it  a couple of time, takes less tham a minute with a laser collimator in the dark....i use one of these and am very happy with it....

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/other-collimation-tools/baader-laser-collimator.html

[Charic]

I've never collimated at a dark site using tools, only checked . The scope rests between two old cot mattresses and a duvet, across the back seat of the car for protection.  I  only check with a Barlowed laser at the site, but so far, never adjusted or needed adjustment. Infact collimation was just checked about a Month ago, after its Summer hibernation and all was good to go. 

If you want to be confident,  or build confidence, just strip it down and collimate it.   It quickly  becomes a very simple task.  

[nmoushon]

Traveling with a reflector will more than likely knock it out of collimation. The degree of which it is out probably depends on how many pot hole you hit on the way. Some times it could be a quick 15sec tweek others could require a full recollimation. But at the end of the night are you really going to be missing that extra 10-15minutes you spent collimating? Will that make the night not worth the drive to a dark site?

I think 130pds is small enough, size wise, that you shouldnt have much more difficulty setting it up over an ED80. What you will see is a big improvement in what you can see. 130mm is a decent jump from 80mm. It wont be a giant WOW factor but you will notice a difference.

Don't let the collimation be the persuading factor here.

[mrjonathanbrown]

Thank you for all the comments guys. I have only ever collimated my scope once and still to do a star test. Once I had went through the collimation it was fine (That being said I hope its correctly collimated) So to my point I'm not sure if I feel comfortable traveling two hours to my dark site just before sundown to have to carry out a collimation. I'm weighing up my options. Right now the more I read about the 80ED-DS pro I feel that would suit me better but its a lot of money. I still have some time to think about it but thank you for answering my post  

[DRT]

If you want to collimate in the dark I'd suggest buying either a set of Bob's Knobs for your secondary or a huge bag of Allen keys so you don't miss them when they disappear into the grass

[mrjonathanbrown]

nmoushon I like your post mate Yeah I understand what your saying. Right now I have a skyliner 200P (1200FL) and its mounted on to my EQ6 and some nights are just a pain setting it up. So difficult that I have not managed to take a photograph there are other factors as well tho just me being a newbie, getting use to everything but the sheer size of my current scope makes things more difficult thats why I'm considering either the 130P-DS or the 80ED-DS Pro. Both are a lot more manageable so thats the upside. 

[mrjonathanbrown]

I won't be collimating in the dark I plan on arriving just before sundown to give me plenty time for setting up. 

[LeeB]

I check every time but to be honest different scopes handle travel better or worse. The 10 holds while the 12 moves a little more, the tal you could drop down the motorway and would stay perfect as would the 6, but you get to know very quickly.

[nmoushon]

nmoushon I like your post mate Yeah I understand what your saying. Right now I have a skyliner 200P (1200FL) and its mounted on to my EQ6 and some nights are just a pain setting it up. So difficult that I have not managed to take a photograph there are other factors as well tho just me being a newbie, getting use to everything but the sheer size of my current scope makes things more difficult thats why I'm considering either the 130P-DS or the 80ED-DS Pro. Both are a lot more manageable so thats the upside. 

I assumed you meant to use this for visual. Is that true? You mentioned you are taking pictures with your 200P so are you intending to image with the 130pds?

[mrjonathanbrown]

nmoushon - Sorry mate I should of mentioned this is for imaging. I originally got the Skywatcher 200P Dob for visual use and well I then felt like like doing some AP so I got myself a EQ6 attached the scope to that and plan was to take some photos (Just something to show to family and friends nothing serous for now) and eventually get a proper scope designed for astrophotography. The 130P-Ds would be for AP so would the 80ED-DS pro. 

[jason.p]

Although my journey with the OTA is just from house to patio and back, I always check collimation with a lasered Barlow. It's quick and easy and, needless to say, rarely needs more than a tweak.

[PorkyB]

I check every time I use the scope - it only takes a minute.  The 200P usually needs the primary tweaking each time, the 130PDS hardly ever needs any adjustment.  The only time I have ever had to adjust the secondary on either scope is when I have mistreated it, like when the 200P rolled out of the car onto the ground.

[Dave In Vermont]

+1 on the laser-collimator. With a good one of these - under a minute. Usually it will only involve tweaking one screw a smidgen. Just be careful and point the OTA horizontal or slightly downward - just in case you drop something while playing around up front. Even if the scope remains slightly off, unless you're doing astrophotography, you needn't be overly concerned. If you drove into a tree on your way? Well.....Better collimate it soon.

Clear Skies,

Dave

[Astro Imp]

I check every time I use the scope - it only takes a minute.  The 200P usually needs the primary tweaking each time, the 130PDS hardly ever needs any adjustment.  The only time I have ever had to adjust the secondary on either scope is when I have mistreated it, like when the 200P rolled out of the car onto the ground.

Ouch!!!

[swamp thing]

A 5" newt won't (or shouldn't) require collimating after a road trip. Small mirrors don't need adjusting very often at all. 

Scopes with mirrors under 10" should hold collimation easily.  How often a mirror needs adjusting is down to weight of the primary. the fact is lightweight small mirrors don't move, bigger ones do.

It seems a lot of people believe its about scope speed but it isn't a 6" f/4 will need adjusting far less than a 12" f/8. 

[nmoushon]

nmoushon - Sorry mate I should of mentioned this is for imaging. I originally got the Skywatcher 200P Dob for visual use and well I then felt like like doing some AP so I got myself a EQ6 attached the scope to that and plan was to take some photos (Just something to show to family and friends nothing serous for now) and eventually get a proper scope designed for astrophotography. The 130P-Ds would be for AP so would the 80ED-DS pro. 

I can see why you are having trouble with the 200p. Its a big scope and as a travel scope its even bigger.

But my comment remains the same. The collimation should not be the deciding factor in your decision here. It migh take 10-15min at first but after a couple weeks of doing it you'll get it down to under a minute im sure. especially since the holdd collimation pretty darn well.

What you need to decide on btwn the scope is what kind of FoV you want. They both have relatively short FL, so will have wide FoVs. But the refractor, with reducer, will have an even wider FoV. Play with the two scopes in Stellarium. It will allow you to enter in you scope/camera info and see what the FoV will be of each.

The only really big reason i chose my ED80 over a newt is bc i dont like spikes. Other than that I liked the compact size, but thats really not a huge issue as it might mean only an extra trip or two btwn the car and the house.

[daiwelly]

I check my dob each time I use it, once you get into it only takes a couple of minutes and is always worth the effort. I don't always need to make adjustments.

[swag72]

If you are looking at this as an imaging scope, then you won't go far wrong with the ED80. I know that there are folks doing excellent stuff with the 130PDS, but it's hardly plug and play from the off, unlike the ED80. 

Uranium (Rob) has done some major work to get his scope to where it is now - I think he's got a thread on it. Takes a lot more than just collimation from the start anyway. With the refractor you'll be up and running in minutes.

Just my 2p worth!

[Singlin]

I check my collimation every time I start an imaging session and when imaging every time I do a meridian flip.

For visual use I am a bit lazy and check when it is very apparently bad.

[Uranium235]

Slightly different here, I check mine every other month. The 130pds is only ever in 2 places, on the mount - or resting on a bed of bubble wrap. Im also super careful not to ding it when carrying it about, as that may knock collimation of the primary mirror. Once set, your secondary holds collimation for quite a long time - its just the primary that tends to drift after while, but its not likely to flap about as much as a fast 8 or 10" primary would (if not obsy based).

Like Sara said, if you want maximum performace (ie: round stars in all four corners on a big chip) from the 130 then its going to require a bit of work and patience. You have to make the best of what youre given because there are no 3rd party focusers for a 5" ota.

But, if youre using a CCD then the 80ED is a relatively pain-free place to start (if a little slow).

[laser_jock99]

You can moddify many Newtonians so any collimation adjustments are minimal (if at all required) in day-to-day use. Some people might consider modding a scope a bit extreme though!

Working with very fast F4 (and faster....) it's worthwhile checking the collimantion between large angular slews as 10"+ mirrors are big & heavy and may have shifted. Collimation check/adust should be less than 1 minute using the correct tools.

Correctly collimated and with a decent coma corrector a relatively cheap Newtonian can made into fast APO challenger!

I have been getting interesting results with a small  6" F4 TS Optics/GSO Newtonian recently, with good stars almost to the corners of large APS-C (DSLR) sized sensors when correctly collimated. I only ever check this scope at the start of imaging and it seems to rarely need any adjustment.

NGC7000 in 159 seconds......

[georeubs]

Think of your telescope as a musical instrument. It should be tuned (collimated) before every single performance.