Help collimating an Rumak scope

[htj]

Hi

I have an Intes Alter M500. I bought this telescope, as I wanted something fairly light and portable, which could still gather a respectable amount of light, and have starfields without coma or other astigmatisms. However the scope have turned out to be somewhat of a pain to collimate, and I'm starting to get rather frustrated over it.

Unlike the Skywatchers Maks, the scope can be adjusted both front and rear. Front is the small mirror, which can be adjusted separately from the front-correcter plate (which is fixed). Similar to the Celestron schmidt-cassegrains. The rear adjusts the whole cell containing mirror, sct thread, and inner baffel tube. Getting these two to play along nicely with each other is quite a challenge.

I've tried collimating it with the TS concentor (I emailed TS and asked if it could be used, and they thought it could), and thought I had it nailed today, but a star test this evening proved me utterly wrong. It should be mentioned that collimating this scope in the dark is a bit of trial, as it requires three tools, a flat screwdriver, a philips screwdriver, and a 2 mm hex key - the latter being very small, so I would really like something which will work in daylight. I have read through several collimation guides for newtons and schmidt-cassegrains, but have not really been able to transfer it over to the Intes.

Does anyone have any tips or guides to how to collimate such a beast?

On a side note, the rings that come when defocussing a star are just beutiful and so sharply defined. But I cannot get them be round .

[Cornelius Varley]

These two links might help http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/collim.html and http://www.sctscopes.net/SCT_Tips/Maintenance/Collimation/collimation.html

Peter

[AndyH]

Not sure if you've tried the following in the attachment.

Andy.

collimation_of_intes_mk67_and_mk66.doc

[JohnC]

When colimating the rear cell remember that it is the opposite to the SCT.

Move the central point in the direction of the miscolimation.

Vey small movements make a big difference.

My intes if needing a tweak takes about 1/16th of a turn.

Always adjust with a star not cheshires etc.

John