finally collimated

[lhuchison]

After one week i finally managed to collimate my SW 200p.

A tricky job when your new to all this!

I found collimating the secondary mirror to be the hardest thing to do, mine seemed way out on delivery.

The mistake i was making was to use my cheshire to collimate the secondary when i found a homemade collimation cap and sheet of white paper worked perfectly.

collimating the primary was fairly easy with the cheshire.

Astro baby's guide is the one to use. Am i right in thinking the collimator cap is used for the secondary and not the cheshire?

[Tribal-Wolf]

If you can see the primary mirror clips with your cheshire you can use it, a cap is just easier.

[Moonshane]

the secondary is always the most tricky bit. thankfully for visual use anyway, the positioning of the secondary is not as critical as the primary and also needs to be adjusted far less.

[SCOOB_81]

Same here, I spent a while with my 200P last night attempting the dreaded first collimation-tricky indeed!!

Ihuchison, I had exactly the same issue with my new scope where the Cheshire crosshairs were way off centre. They were sat above the secondary, if that makes sense?

I’m thinking of using a cap with the secondary next time too, just the field of view with the Cheshire was quite narrow. It all lines up, so hope all is well.........

Fingers crossed all has worked!

[Tinker1947]

Practice makes perfect, and a nice feeling know you have cracked it....well done..

[lhuchison]

definitely worth trying the cap scoob81, it was a nightmare using the cheshire for the secondary. I sort of held the secondary by the bracket (nasty) till it looked perfect in the cap hole, then moved up the three adjusters till they just touched then tweaked each one tight checking all the time.

[SCOOB_81]

Thanks for the info, Ihuchison. Can I ask what you made your cap from, please?

I agree!! It was squeeky bum time with the cheshire, holding the secondary and not being able to see the three primary mirror clips. I'm sure it'll be ok, or a small tweak away. He hopes....

I hope you have better weather to try it out post collimation than we have up here.

Cheers.

[Gomtuu]

I used a cap for the secondary and Cheshire for the primary. I also had a cheap laser collimator, which was poor. However, I was advised to hang on to it and use it with a Barlow. I found this a great technique for getting it it just right after lining up with the Cheshire.

Collimation is easiest at home, rather than at night, then you only have to do some final tweaking when you get out to a dark site.

[lhuchison]

I made my cap from the blanking cap that comes with a star diagonal or barlow .

i measured it then put a hole through it with a pointed tool.

Now its been cloudy every night since i sorted it!!!

[malc-c]

Took me around 5 hours to completely setup and colimate my 200P following flocking of the tube. For me it was getting the primary mirror clips visible in the secondary I found difficult... Probably as I was looking too close to the cap.

I followed Dion's tutorials on Youtube to centre and square up the focuser, a set of digital calipers came in handy for finding the centre point. Having squared up the fouser using the laser colimator I then used a short length of M5 threaded bar and some washers to centre the spider in the horizontal axis with the laser, and careful measurement with a shaped bit of card to centre in the vertical axis. Getting the secondary centred and round was fairly easy, but having had to re-assemble the primary became lost when trying to align that to the secondary without upsetting the secondary... after a lot of fuffing around, cussing and turning to drink - It seems to of come together... I guess we're all waiting for a decent clear night now to see exactly how it performs...and if we all got it spot on !

[lhuchison]

Second that malc-c , I,ve been looking up at the clouds in a hopeful way every night since i sorted mine

[lhuchison]

or hopefully sorted it, i should say!

[malc-c]

Did anyone else get a chance last night to test out their colimation ? - Pleased to say that when defocused on Archturus I got a nice dark circle surrounded by concentric rings all evenly placed

Would really like to get it checked out by someone who knows what they are doing though... maybe there's a market for collimation courses - I could then pin my "congratulations you have passed" certificate up on the observatory wall

[lhuchison]

patience paid off last night!

Just about to go to bed at 11.30, last look at the sky and crystal clear!!

Collimation all ok, and for the first time i saw saturns cassini division. wow.

I used my new baader 8-24 zoom with a tal x2 barlow, perfectly clear image.

I started with just the zoom, then tried a 6mm SW EP with the tal but found the baader + tal the best result. Patience paid off!! didn't get to bed till 3 am though.

[malc-c]

patience paid off last night!

Just about to go to bed at 11.30, last look at the sky and crystal clear!!

Collimation all ok, and for the first time i saw saturns cassini division. wow.

I used my new baader 8-24 zoom with a tal x2 barlow, perfectly clear image.

I started with just the zoom, then tried a 6mm SW EP with the tal but found the baader + tal the best result. Patience paid off!! didn't get to bed till 3 am though.

Glad to hear you have nailed it... now care to write up a tutorial with lots of lovely pictures