Collimation Safety Tip

[Black Shuck]

During a conversation with Steve (FLO) he suggested that I post this as a safety tip when collimating a Newtonian.

Having seen the horror pictures of broken secondary mirrors and tools dropping on Primary mirrors I decided to adopt a technique inherited from my days in Mechanical Engineering. Last thing you need is tools dropping into vital components,etc :shock: so we used to recommend that tools were tethered to your belt when working over such items.

All you need when collimating is a piece of string tied to your belt and to the screwdriver/Allen wrench when adjusting your secondary.

Hope this is of use?

Bill£

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Plus always have the tube hozizontal so that down isn't towards the primary mirror when you drop something.

Captain Chaos

[Helen]

Good tip - thanks Bill (lost the allen key adjuster for the red dot finder in the dark in the garden last week..)

Helen

[Black Shuck]

Plus always have the tube hozizontal so that down isn't towards the primary mirror when you drop something.

CC,

This is what I would do but, and you will have to excuse me if this is a stupid statement - i'm new :?, I have heard a number of sources say that you should collimate at the angle you are likely to be viewing/imaging at (45 degrees being a good compromise) especially for accurate astroimaging?? Have you got any thoughts/comments on this??

Cheers

Bill£

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

For SCT collimation it might be an issue as they have mirrors that flop about, or so I've heard. Newts don't have that in a big enough way to make a difference (I hope!).

Captain Chaos

[Black Shuck]

Thanks CC, If your images 8) with your newt are anything to go by it doesn't make any difference at all!

Cheers

Bill£

[Astroman]

I collimate on a star as close to zenith as possible because there's less turbulence in the air. Stars close to the horizon will be hopelessly distorted and not too good for a star test. As a note, I don't have much of an issue with collimation, since the scope is generally permanent, and the C8 has Bob's Knobs. I do check collimation every time I move the scope though, and try to collimate higher up.

[proflight2000]

I have been using Polaris as a collimation test star, and I was really suprised when looking at some web sites to do with star collimation pictures that I could actually see in my scope what was on my computer. No really important but a nice change.

[Ant]

polaris may not be a good star to use.

Polaris is a double star, Polaris B can be seen with a modest telescope.

Would Polaris being a double star affect the collimation?