How many members don't collimate their newtonians

[Ant]

I never got the hang of collimating - sold the newt and bought a 'frac instead

[Rihard]

I never got the hang of collimating - sold the newt and bought a 'frac instead

You Turncoat!! (lol just kidding )

[spaceboy]

Fraks can still need collimation. Maybe not as much as newts but they are not void of picking up errors.

[Mr Moff]

When I bought my 200p eq5 a couple of months ago I decided to try collimation straight away. I got it close but not 100% perfect. I had first light and was really happy with the views. My 5mm eyepiece was rarely useable though.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I picked up a 200p Dob for some grab and go use. I collimated it perfect, and later that night under average seeing conditions it was clear that it performed much better letting me use between 5 and 7mm eyepieces regularly.

Yesterday I decided to try and get the other perfect, and last night the seeing conditions were awefull ,but I spent some time on Saturn with the 7mm BGO previously this was blurry on a bad night but not anymore.

Now I'll be checking them both regularly now that I've seen the difference.

[spaceboy]

I admit coming from the bomb proof TAL 200K and starting out down the newt route I was naive and used a laser collimator thinking this was the magic bullet of collimation but was more than happy with the views I was getting. As I read more about collimation I realised I was going to get far better results from using a cheshire to collimate the scope as laser collimators can also suffer their own alignment errors. Once I got my hands on a cheshire and Mel's collimation guide I was stunned to see how far out the collimation was. Later that night the skies were clear and I was able to see a vast improvement in the views. I have also noticed that the quality of the views can slip and go unnoticed if I don't regularly check collimation . With a well collimated scope I can resolve detail on nights of good seeing far better than in a similar situation with a scope that is slightly off but it's often so easy to blame in on the seeing conditions than the scopes alignment. I also found out some time ago doing a star test that flex in the OTA depending on orientation (EQ mounts more so) can cause slight collimation error which if the scope was already poorly collimated can only add to making the misalignment worse. As I said before though it's all to easy to blame it on the seeing in that patch of the sky. I guess those who do not collimate their scopes are none the wiser to how much it can improve the views. I agree when the seeing is poor the benefits are not so obvious to see but on those rare nights when the seeing is perfect and the skies are transparent I would want to know my scope was shooting straight as those are the views you don't want to miss . I will never forget seeing a shade of pink in M42 and being able to easily split E & F in the trapezium. Or M13 resolved with direct vision and the propeller easily made out even from my LP back yard. Those memories will stay with me for a life time.