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Collimation


Dave_old

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Hi all

I have been into Astronomy since a kid, but had to sell my fullerscope 10" Newtonian when I bought my first house. After that, I did not get a new scope until I moved from England to Tennessee in the US. I now have a house away from light pollution so I went and bought a C11-SGT (XLT) which I am very pleased with but I think it must have been knocked during shipping and needs collimating. I put a 6.3 focal reducer on it so should I collimate it with the focal reducer on, or do you think it would be best to take it off?

Great forum I hope to start photography when I get it set up permanent in a shed. It looks like this forum will be a lot of help when I do.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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Hi. Dave, and congraulations on acquiring a new instrument. I am sure you will have some great astronomy with what is a fine instrument.

As far as collimating, I personally would adjust it without any other optical lens in the system. I see no good reason to leave a focal reducer in place while you do that servicing task.

Good Luck And enjoy.

Ron. :D

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For a new scope, you should collimate it without the diagonal in it either. Straight through first, then add the diagonal, and then the reducer, just to make sure they don't affect collimation at all. I had a mirror slip once in my diagonal that caused me headaches until I took it out to check and discovered the culprit.

Welcome to the forum!

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Agree with AM re the diagonal. If you get a night of good seeing always use the opportunity to get the collimation spot on. Use a bright star at around x300 to start off with then try moving to something around mag 4 as high up in the sky as your neck will allow (given that you aren't using the diagonal) then start increasing the magnification. Get it looking good at x600 then go as high as you can - I use a 5mm plossl with a x3 barlow which with my 8" SCT gives 1200! You need good seeing but it is surprising how this reveals small collimation errors not visible at lower mags. Then head for Saturn and :shock: :shock:

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