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Hello from Caledon, ON, Canada

thestampdad

By thestampdad
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thestampdad

thestampdad

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I received my first telescope as a gift. Hope to learn a lot here to get me started. Any words of wisdom on setting up a telescope for the first time (it is assembled but that is all so far). I have heard the term "collimate", how does one do this on this telescope?

I have a Tasco Space Station telescope

  • Model # 49114500 Reflector
  • 114mm Objective Diameter
  • 500mm Focal Length
  • H 25mm eyepiece
  • H 10mm eyepiece
  • SR 4mm eyepiece
  • 3x Barlow Lens
  • Moon filter
  • Laser Finderscope

Really looking forward to trying this out. It has been cloudy for the past few nights and very cold -11C tonight. Looks like I may be trying to view through a window until I get the hang of this........don't want to freeze yet!

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. Collimation is the process of aligning the components that make up the optical pathway. Your scope is a reflector which means that your mirror must be aligned to the secondary mirror which itself must be aligned with the focuser. Rather than give you written instructions, it is probably best to view a few videos on YouTube to see what's involved such as this one or alternatively this one . Both of these examples use a 'Laser Collimator' which some argue makes things easier but there many other videos out there that use a more traditional approach using a 'Cheshire Collimating Eyepiece'. In practice you will only need to do the occasional minor adjustment when you set up for an evenings viewing but the amount you need to do will depend on how you handle your scope (getting it in and out of a car when travelling to a dark site etc) or if you should drop or knock the scope when setting up. It won't take you long to get the hang of how to collimate your scope as the process is fairly straightforward and over time you will no doubt wonder what all the fuss was about - it just takes a little practice.  :smiley: 

Clear skies

James 

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thestampdad

thestampdad

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Thank you everyone for the warm welcome.

James thank you for taking the time to point me in the right direction. I will check those videos out.

Will post again when I see my first clear celestial object!

Thanks

Dave

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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