Farpoint auto collimator

[Rustysplit]

I thought long and hard about posting this, but I believe it is the right thing to do. A couple of weeks ago I received a further email from Cary, the boss of Farpoint, about the issue with my now returned auto collimator. This email was sent to both myself and the UK distributor. I will let you make up your own minds about what this means and how best to use the info. Nowhere within this email does it mention that it is confidential, so I believe it is only fair to those who are having difficulties to share it.

"Hi Fellows!

I think finally just figured out what the issue is after messing with this blasted thing over and over. I’ve been here at the shop this morning playing with it and finally understand the source of the misalignment. IT IS NOT the mirror or the placement or capture of the mirror. It has to do with the mechanics of the “cap”.

I spend all my effort making sure the body of the autocollimator was perfect in relation to the reflecting surface of the mirror and did not take into account the slop in the telescope focusers and how that would allow any wedge in the “cap” to translate into the system.

I have to take some more micrometer readings and digest this a bit, but I think I know how to add another component to the autocollimator to allow collimation of the autocollimator itself.

I’ll let you know if my solution works.

Thanks for your patience!

-Cary"

That is my final comment on the matter.

[8kids]

He's saying it doesn't work but he thinks he knows why.

[Jason D]

What does the focuser slop has to do with the autocollimator build and quality? Are we being led to believe that the focuser slop is the issue and not the loose cork pads!!! Consider an inferior quality focuser including a drawtube with a noticeable slop. If you rotate the autocollimator carefully in this focuser without wiggling, I would not expect reflections to shift even when the draw tube is at an angle. Besides, do any of the members who reported noticeable reflections shift in this thread would consider their focusers to be of inferior quality!!!

Well, the bottom line is not what I think or what Cary thinks about the Farpoint autocollimator. It is what paid customers think of it. Customer satisfaction is the true measure of how good the Farpoint autocollimator is and I think this is a fair statement.

Jason

[memoryman]

Tim,

I want to concentrate on visually observing deep sky objects and believe the Catseye Autocollimator will add the extra precision during collimation of my Meade LXD55 SN10 scope to give me the best image possible (perhaps the extra would not be as noticable when viewing planets etc through slower scopes?). To that end I'm also considering buying a quality duel speed 10:1 focuser and may even buy the Moonlite CR2 focuser (if I can square it with my wife!) as the standard Meade focuser is way to sloppy and course and the quality and precision of the Catseye products results would be compromised.

I live in Ashby de la Zouch and my son lives in Coventry, so would it be possible to come and see the device in action? I've watched the video a few times now and think I understand the principles involved.

Eyepieces I own are a standard Meade 40mm Plossyl, Nagler Type 4 17mm, Pentax 10.5mm XL and Williams Optics SPL 3mm (rarely used as air quality is not good enough usually, more the pity).

Paul Bertenshaw

[Daniel-K]

firstly i would like to retract this statement " to confirm i stuck in my cheshire and its the best i have ever seen, i tried to get a shot of the misaligned dots so you can see what it looks like, well worth the money" secondly apologize to any who bought one of these on this statement. at the time it seemed to work well till Jason ran through a few tests with me then the flaws started to show. i bought a cats eye triple kit on jasons advice as i was using a F4 scope for imaging at the time. when put side by side the catseye AC won hands down on quality. for the extra £10 the catseye AC is money not wasted and will deffenitly give you more precise collimation.

thanks

Dan

[Moonshane]

Tim,

I want to concentrate on visually observing deep sky objects and believe the Catseye Autocollimator will add the extra precision during collimation of my Meade LXD55 SN10 scope to give me the best image possible (perhaps the extra would not be as noticable when viewing planets etc through slower scopes?). To that end I'm also considering buying a quality duel speed 10:1 focuser and may even buy the Moonlite CR2 focuser (if I can square it with my wife!) as the standard Meade focuser is way to sloppy and course and the quality and precision of the Catseye products results would be compromised.

I live in Ashby de la Zouch and my son lives in Coventry, so would it be possible to come and see the device in action? I've watched the video a few times now and think I understand the principles involved.

Eyepieces I own are a standard Meade 40mm Plossyl, Nagler Type 4 17mm, Pentax 10.5mm XL and Williams Optics SPL 3mm (rarely used as air quality is not good enough usually, more the pity).

Paul Bertenshaw

I think it's the other way round. poor collimation will have an adverse affect on high power views of small bright and contrasty objects more than low power views of faint objects; although I agree it's more obvious in fast scopes than slow scopes. that said, it's always good to improve collimation and I am considering the Catseye autocollimator myself.

[admin]

firstly i would like to retract this statement " to confirm i stuck in my cheshire and its the best i have ever seen, i tried to get a shot of the misaligned dots so you can see what it looks like, well worth the money" secondly apologize to any who bought one of these on this statement. at the time it seemed to work well till Jason ran through a few tests with me then the flaws started to show. i bought a cats eye triple kit on jasons advice as i was using a F4 scope for imaging at the time. when put side by side the catseye AC won hands down on quality. for the extra £10 the catseye AC is money not wasted and will deffenitly give you more precise collimation.

thanks

Dan

We have added your comments to your original post

Please don't be hard on yourself Dan, others have made the same mistake when posting a review of a telescope or accessory as soon as it arrives. It is only after using an item for a while that we can properly assess performance and see beyond cosmetic appearance and sales spiel.

[dark knight]

Well I have had my FarPoint collimator a while and have never ever managed to get it to work, no matter what I do I don't even get any image to stack in the first place. I have spent many, many hours trying to get a result by using it and in my opinion it has never worked. At a cost of around £80 this has been by far my worst purchase, especially now as it appears to be coming to light that the thing is not fit for purpose, I'll attempt to return it to where it was bought, just hope the vendor is sympathetic enough to realise it and takes into account. I will ring the vendor in the morning and let you know how things progress.