New scope setup

[Metalhead]

Hi again everyone,,, My Big-Boss arrived today and I spent the best part of an hour setting this up. So I suppose that this question has been asked a hundred times before so dont shout at me  .. How can I tell if this is collimated correctly? I dont have a laser , so I have not a clue how to check this. as it is pouring down with rain as usual I wont be takingit outside tonight...if I get a chance tomorrow I may get it outside to get a feel for it during the day...any advice would be welcome, Also the counter balance weight seems to be a tad light to me ? maybe I have the Tube set up a bit high / low?......thanks in advance Pete

[Charic]

Metalhead.....Hi, A good read here if its raining.    http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm   You can make a collimation cap from the eyepiece dust cap.

[kerrylewis]

The best quick check for collimation is to de-focus a star - about mag 2 - with reasonably high mag and the rings you see should be concentric and the shadow of the secondary central. If it doesn't look like this it needs adjustment

[knobby]

Hi Pete... If the weight seems to light check if the bar it sits on extends, some of the bars extend. As Kerry said, defocus on a bright star and look at the rings (Google airy disk for images) but cool the scope for a while first

[Metalhead]

thanks for the info guys, The weight is at the very bottom of the bar and this is NOT extendable, I might wrap a bag of gravel around this to add some weight as I havn,t even tried this with the Camera attached yet.