Catseye Center Spot + First Proper Collimation - Newbie Report

[pajr777]

My Catseye template and spot (well, triangle) arrived today, just over a week from dispatch in the USA - not too bad!

As observing anything other than orange cloud was off the agenda tonight I was eager to set about installing the new spot. As a newbie I was a little nervous about dismantling my lovely TAL - but the long and short of it was pretty straight forward. Great instructions from Catseye, a steady hand, a pair of sharp tweezers and a 20x jewellers loupe all combined for a painless and accurate application of the triangle.

Starting at 18:30, I think the spot was on, and scope reassembled without incident by about 19:30.

Almost three frustrating hours later I was happy with the collimation!!

The biggest lesson for me was just how sensitive the whole shebang is to the exact rotational and lateral alignment of the secondary mirror - if this is not absolutely precise then the primary mirror reflection is either not circular or not centred in the focuser tube. So lots of iterative adjustments before I was happy.

The primary adjustment takes minutes in comparison.

One of my frustrations was with my vision - the TAL has slotted screws for tilt adjustment of the secondary, so it was glasses on - insert screwdriver blade into screw - glasses off - look through collimation cap - screwdriver blade has slipped from slot - glasses on etc etc ad nauseum!

Finally happy and hopefully will not have to mess with the secondary anytime soon.

Thanks to Jim Fly of Catseye for great instructions and a free second triangle (just in case ) , and Astro Baby for a brilliant guide to Newt collimation .

Anyones guess how long it will be till a star test - dratted weather

[Catanonia]

Welcome to the club. I got one a few months ago for my fast F2.8 reduced 8 inch newtonian and it does the job perfectly once you get the hang of it.

Did you get the delux version with the case, 3 pieces and lasar pointer ?

[pajr777]

No, I just got the template and spot from Catseye, and a Cheshire from FLO. I love the look of the Catseye precision tools though, and I have a ticket for the Euromillions tonight - fingers crossed

[earth titan]

No, I just got the template and spot from Catseye, and a Cheshire from FLO. I love the look of the Catseye precision tools though, and I have a ticket for the Euromillions tonight - fingers crossed

Did instructions work, with just a Cheshire? I'm edging this way myself.

Which spots did you get?

[pajr777]

The instructions were only for getting the spot precisely on the centre if the mirror.

I then used the Cheshire and a home made collimation cap (old 35mm film canister) with Astro Baby's Collimation Guide http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm

It worked but took a lot of time and patience. I enjoyed the views of the moon, Saturn, Titan and Rhea last night, and just made out two of Saturn's fainter moons in conjunction, Tethys and Dione.