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GSO/TS/ATROTECH RC owners....collimation.

RobH

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RobH

RobH

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Hi all.

Just a quick head's up re. collimating these scopes.

In the manual, it says that on no account are you to adjust the primary mirror collimation screws, as these have been pre set in the factory in China. Apparently, the warranty is void if they are adjusted.

Well....I've just been using a Takahashi collimating telescope with my 12 inch, and, surprise surprise, after its long journey from China, the primary mirror does in fact need collimating!

There are 6 screws (push/pull) to adjust the primary.....if you don't get this bit right you'll never get decent images from the scopes....I spoke to Ian King who tells me that every one of these scopes that he's bench tested have all needed the primary adjusting.

Apparently, GSO don't want the primary adjusting because someone may put one out of collimation and so think the scope is no good....they've not considered what folk will think if the primary is out of whack but is considered non adjustable :(

Cheers

Rob

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RobH

RobH

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That's them Jesper.

I'm sending mine back to Ian King as he was about to order one in order to strip it down and use the optics in his new range of 12 inch carbon fibre truss RC's built over here to a very high mechanical spec. The 12 is due to be unvieled at astrofest and guess who gets it after that :(

Cheers

Rob

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jgs001

jgs001

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I downloaded that same set of manuals Jesper... from what I could tell, that doesn't shift the primary, but rather the rear mount tube of the focuser relative to the primary. Either way, as far as I could tell (as a collimation noob) based on the instructions, I didn't need to change anything there.

Very nice Rob

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r3i

r3i

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In the manual, it says that on no account are you to adjust the primary mirror collimation screws, as these have been pre set in the factory in China. Apparently, the warranty is void if they are adjusted.

I've PDF copies of the manuals for the Orion & AstroTech variants and they both document adjustment of the primary. Is there an online version of the one that you have?

The primary on my Altair 8" also required collimation. The Altair variant came without any manual so I was glad that the Orion & AstroTech ones were available online.

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r3i

r3i

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John, I dont know for sure what they do these bolts and I'm not over keen to touch them yet... need to read up more on this whole collimaton subject...

Hi Jesper,

Take a look here: Deep Space Place - Equipment

It documents a dissassembly of the scope and shows that the primary mirror and baffle tube are connected together, the result being that when you adjust the primary screws, you are tilting both the primary mirror and the baffle in unison.

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r3i

r3i

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r3i what an excellent find! Got a bit more courage after that. A bit.

The credit clearly must go to the site author, James McHugh, for having the courage to take his scope to bits, and then documenting the procedure for the benefit of us all. :(

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RobH

RobH

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Excellent find r3i :(

I just had a look and found the bit saying not to collimate the primary was from Astrotech, so they are obviously not consistent!!

http://www.astronomics.com/main/documents/astro%20tech/astro-tech%20r-c%20collimation.pdf

Good to see how these scopes are put together, and apologies to GSO if it's not them telling you not to adjust things!

Cheers

Rob

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r3i

r3i

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I just had a look and found the bit saying not to collimate the primary was from Astrotech, so they are obviously not consistent!!

http://www.astronomics.com/main/documents/astro%20tech/astro-tech%20r-c%20collimation.pdf

Amazing - talk about inconsistency. Here's the manual that I got from their site: http://www.astronomics.com/main/documents/astro%20tech/astro-tech%20at8rc%20manual.pdf

This one tells you all about adjusting the primary. Interestingly the document in your link is dated December 2008 whereas the one in mine is dated December 2009 - maybe they've had a change of heart? :(

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RobH

RobH

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[quote=r3i;2092 Interestingly the document in your link is dated December 2008 whereas the one in mine is dated December 2009 - maybe they've had a change of heart? :icon_confused:

Got a bit of experience I reckon....expecting these scopes to be shipped all over the world and retain collimation is living in cloud cuckoo land :(

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  • 1 year later...
James.

James.

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The credit clearly must go to the site author, James McHugh, for having the courage to take his scope to bits, and then documenting the procedure for the benefit of us all. :icon_salut:

Thanks Mike, it's great to know people find it helpful.

I just updated the stylesheet on my website, I hope I didn't break anything.

James

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