Very strange....

[Chris Stacey]

I shortened the tube on my 8" newt the other day, in the hope of solving a focusing problem with a camera I have, shortened it by 2"......anyway, that aside, I tested it the following night, just visually, and it was great, best views of m81 and m82 i've had in an eye piece (even the wife was impressed, so it must have been good)......so I set up again tonight, exactly as the other night, stick the same eye piece in for a 2 star alignment....look through it and all I can see is a black circle for my secondary, the arms holding the secondary, and a blurry primary sitting in the eye piece......it looks like it would if I would collimating it, as you would without an eye piece, it's the same view.....yet it was fine the other night.......

I've been playing around for about an hour now, but it's stumped me, no idea what's going on.......any one got any ideas?

[Peter Drew]

Has the secondary holder come loose and turned round?, I presume the secodary mirror hasn't fallen off !.

[Chris Stacey]

LOL....the secondary is still there ...I thought the collimation might be out, so brought it in doors and checked, it was off ever so slightly, just a slight tweek though......it's completely baffled me tbh (I even checked my eye piece to make sure the wife wasn't winding me up by removing the lens )......decided to play around with the DSLR instead, mess about with some star trails, i'll sort the problem out tomorrow. Shame really as it's a beautifully clear night here.....