Damage to WO 1.25" Dielectric Diagonal serious?

[prusling]

Hi, the worst happened and my diagonal fell onto a patio. I thought it had survived with only a couple of small scuff marks, but now see a small crack in the corner of the mirror (please see photo).  The mirror appears to still be well located inside and is otherwise fine (except for a level of dust).

I've been having less than satisfactory observations using it, and put that down to poor seeing until I looked inside more closely.  Would this damage cause issues with the image, or is it unlikely to do so as it is in a corner?  Thanks for your views.

[John]

I doubt if the crack itself would cause much in the way of degradation of the image but it's quite possible that the alignment of the mirror itself has been jolted a little away from where it should be and that would make a difference. Effectively the scope would appear to be out of collimation.

If you have a laser collimator, put it in where the eyepiece would normally go and let it shine down the scope. The beam should exit more or less in the centre of the objective lens if the optical axis are in alignment.

[ChrisLX200]

I don't think it will be in the lightpath up there in the corner, so performance should be unaffected.

ChrisH

[prusling]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll get hold of a laser collimator and check it out.

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