Quick Collimation question..

[Bart]

Hi all;

Fairly new to this lark but tonight just collimated my scope for the second time. Clouds rolled in and not prepared to go to bed just yet. Anyway, wasn't sure if my secondary was central. After some messing around was fairly happy with it. Now, here comes the question, i could only get the primary mirror clasps within sight of the secondary when I racked in the focusser. Got all three so I'm reasonably happy. But did i need to bring the focusser in close to the secondary to get all the clasps. Or to put it another way, if i can see all three primary clasps, is my secondary sortted?

Can't do star test as already mentioned, clouds everywhere!

Thanks

Bart

[astromerlin]

Hi all;

i could only get the primary mirror clasps within sight of the secondary when I racked in the focusser.

Yes, sounds like youv'e got it sorted.

Clear skys, eventually.

[Jason D]

Ideally, you want all the primary mirror clips to disappear at the same rate as you rack out the focuser. If some disappear before others then your secondary mirror is not optimally positioned under the focuser. However, do not drive yourself insane with this alignment. It is the least important one for visual observation. The most important alignment is aligning the pupil reflection of a cheshire or a collimation cap with the primary mirror center spot.

Jason

[Bart]

Thanks Gentlemen. Come on the clear skies..