Spile

The combination of a cap to align my primary and a Cheshire eyepiece and sight tube combination tool to align my primary works for me.

A RACI and Telrad work for me.

I agree with the other posters. You buy these items separately.

I recommend a Cheshire eyepiece and sight tube combination tool for alignment of your secondary and a cap for your primary mirror.

You are welcome and pleased that you found it of use. I wrote it because none of the existing guides were quite right for me. As I acknowledge I am indebted to Jason and Vic who put me on the right path.

This explains the relationship between the three outer bolts and the central screw and how they affect the secondary mirror https://astro.catshill.com/collimation-guide/

My recommendation would be to get a Cheshire eyepiece and sight tube combination tool, a cap and a copy of Turn Left at Orion. I would also suggest you consider a zoom eyepiece. I like the Baader Hyperion IV and matching Barlow.

I am going to echo the advice of others here and recommend a Dobsonian. There have been a number of good refurbished and used ones posted on here.

I’ve moved my Telrad between the RACI and the focuser which necessitated moving it towards the mirror which is not ideal but it means I can use it from the same position.

The big advantage of the zoom for me is the ability to dial in the right power for an object immediately. And the point is I often don’t know what the best magnification is until I have tried it. I also don’t have any issues with fov and if I want low power and wide angles, I pop in my 2” low power. 90% of my observing is done with the zoom though.

I am with you regarding the clusters. One thing I really enjoy looking at with my Dob are double stars. They are a great alternative when skies aren’t so dark.

I wore two hats to tonight . A Talk on astronomy to the Worcester Birmingham and Droitwich Canals Society (I’m a member) by Bromsgrove Astronomy Society (I’m a member). Those who arrived early were treated to Jupiter. We had a good reception and a reasonable amount of hands on viewing,

I have moved my Telrad from its previous position (EP - Finder - Telrad) as I found it inconvenient to move to the opposite side of the OTA to use it. It is now between the EP and finder, slightly lower down than previously and a bonus is that I don't need the Telrad riser any more. I removed the double sided tape and replaced it with Heavy Duty Velcro.

It can be useful while you get used to it, to align the finder on a distant tree or antenna in daytime.

This is my interpretation of your image that shows the secondary offset error.

I star hop from SkySafari looking through my RACI.

In order to make an assessment, you need to be able to see the whole of the focus tube and I would also place a piece of coloured paper behind the focuser as per…

After fighting between a blue sky and low an object, I was delighted to see Neptune in the same FOV (about X150) as Venus at 6.30pm tonight. My wife said she was impressed but I am not convinced.

I cheat and simply make brighter stars larger.

This is the best I could do with your image, it's important to include the whole of the edge of the focus tube and I've had to make a judgement call which I am not confident about, so please bear this in mind. With the above caveat, I see offset, tilt and rotation errors but before doing anything I'd take another shot this time including the whole of the focus tube. More details at https://astro.catshill.com/collimation-guide/

The House of Lords has opened a consultation on light pollution (and noise). https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7256/the-effects-of-artificial-light-and-noise-on-human-health/news/175664/artificial-light-and-noise-inquiry-launched/

It looks close to me, especially if the focuser is is a 8 o'clock? I'd place a piece of coloured paper behind the focus tube so that you can see the edge of the secondary. The green ring above is a guess on my part.

It's definitely worth checking visually even without a cap or Cheshire, though its not as easy or accurate of course. Pull your eye back from the tube and confirm it looks like this...

I prefer to make a judgment from an image taken through a cap. Can you do that?

Spot on. But I wouldn't have covered the primary as that is a valid alignment check.