collimation question

[nikocel8]

I have an SE 8 scope, put it outside an hour and a half before I messed with it, pointed at Polaris and started to collimate. It wasnt out far just enough that Saturn and its rings were an eliptical blob. defocused on Pol. got the donut, tweaked it a bit recentered tweaked etc. Focused and it looked amazing! I live at 7000ft, no light polution to speak of (1500 people in our town and I live 6 miles from them and have no neighbors to speak of) so seeing was marvelous! I swung to Mars and finally have a round shaped planet over to M42, stunning! Bounced around the sky a bit more and after an hour or so I started to lose the crisp focus. When I started it was 30 deg F when I packed it up for the night it was 18 degF. Is the temp why I was losing focus?

[Bart]

Probably, could you detect dew on the optics? Or are you bashing the scope around? (joking).

I envy your skies. Good luck to you.

Bart

[nikocel8]

no bashing HA!! and no dew on glass, I paid attention to another thread and bought a dew prevention heater!

[Bart]

Sorry, don't know much about Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. Thought I was being clever, stating the obvious. Someone who actually knows what their talking about should be along any minute to give you a a hand. Still envy your skies though. It gets boring looking at clouds all the time....

Good luck sorting your problem, its all part of the magic... thats what I keep telling myself anyway.

Bart

[nikocel8]

my viewing is optimal i would say unfortunately the snow generally hangs around until June. A "warm" night is still 45-50degF on avg. I thought you were being clever too lol