collimatiom help

[ultramol]

Hi, I have decided its time to collimate my 200p and have hit a problem. The instructions on astro baby and others show the three primary mirror retaining clips proud of the focus tube. The thing is I cannot get them all in view together unless they are exactly on the very edge of the tube, ie, they dont protrude and then when I carefully tighten the bolts they disappear altogether . Is my secondry mirror position causing this or is there a starting point on the primary adjust , hope this makes sense. I am using a collomation cap. Don't know if this has anything to do with it but am I supposed to see a reflection of my eye when there is no eyepiece in ? I can't see one.

[itmo]

make sure your focuser is moved all the way in. Also make sure your secondary mirror is centered in the focuser tube. 

[ultramol]

Thanks itmo for that. The problem is I cannot fit the three clips in the view down the focuser. They seem to just fit the circumference exactly and do not protrude ?

[itmo]

The clips are used to see that the primary is centered in the secondary field of view. But if you cant see the whole primary in the secondary you are wasting light. You might have to offset the mirror down the tube and behind. Also I would not necessarily stress this at the moment, instead make sure that the primary is collimated ok. Also try to check if you have an extra 2" adapter attached to the focuser and remove it , then see if you can see the whole primary. 

[ultramol]

Your advice is most welcome Itmo. I solved the problem by adjusting the Primary mirror first, making sure I had adjustment on both the forward and backward movement. In doing this I managed to get the three clips in view all at once.Although they only just show. I was thrown by all the tutorials which say to adjust the secondry first. Will do a star test tonight to see how good it is... ...Many thanks  Geoff