Catseye Collimation Confirmation

[Kai]

Can somebody confirm that i have have this right please.

When you have achieved collimation through the autocollimator you should basically see a six pointed "star" with no other ghost images through the on axis spy hole.

Am i a collimation God or have a crashed and burned

[beamish]

God !!

[andrew s]

Yes collimated - now flip your scope 180 deg and see if it stays collimated? This is a very tough test of how rigid the scope is. Andrew

[Jason D]

When you have achieved collimation through the autocollimator you should basically see a six pointed "star" with no other ghost images through the on axis spy hole.

I assume your center spot is a triangle.

Do you have the XL or XLK version?

If it is the XL (only one central pupil) then you should only see a single triangle after successful execution of CDP procedure. You should have received instructions for executing CDP. Let me know if you do not know what CDP is.

If it is the XLK (two pupils) then you should see a hexagon from the offset pupil and a single triangle from the central pupil.

Read the first page of this thread: Telescope Reviews: Concise thread about autocollimators+improvements

Jason

[beamish]

Hey Kai if you want to be right up there in the clouds get a Hotspot

[Kai]

Cheers

Jason i have the XLK version , had a quick scan through of the thread you linked too.Looks like i have a few quiet nights filled now

Beamish , im not a masochist lol

Andrew , im not pushing my luck as its a Celestron

[andrew s]

Having looked at the link on collimation I see I have not been getting it exact. But I wonder how many (if any scopes) can maintain the "exact" level of collimation if they are subjected to an end to end 180 flip? This should be done on its mount so it's not getting any additional support.

I have built a battle ship 300mm Newtonian and done my best to eliminate flexure (including a counter weighted secondary) but as I do the flip very small shifts occur. However, I can't see any problems in my images.

Andrew

[Kai]

I know that we are talking diminishing returns here and think that 99% of people will struggle to notice anything different.

Im being realistic as i do not have a observatory with a permanent setup and store the scope and mount in the garage moving it when i need to , i then dont want to spend half the evening collimating to get 100 %.

If i can keep the triangles lined up then practically for me the scope is collimated

[daz]

Undoing all my hard work, eh???

[JoLo]

I don't spend a lot of time with the autocollimater either. I do the sight tube for secondary alignment, the cheshire to get the triangle centered. I put in the AC and spend a few minutes getting the ghosts in line. When i do the 180 flippity-do, my triangle is usually still centered, and I just need to tweak the ghosts.

I spend two minutes, then go with close enough. To be honest, I have never noticed any difference when i use the AC.....make sure the secondary is lined up, and the triangle is centered, but i don't image through my Newt either.....

[Kai]

Undoing all my hard work, eh???

Oh yes psml , got the hammer out , poured myself a pint of Sam's and let rip last night

Actually i do have to thank Daz for sorting out the scope from scratch , all i have done is fine tune

[daz]

:)

Always best to understand your own system when collimating though - even if you can see three triangles after wearing Sam's goggles!!!!

IN all seriousness though - take a look at

- great tutorial for collimation with the Cats Eye tools