Bird-Jones Scope

[joy636]

Hey, i recently found out that my telescope is a Bird-Jones scope. Does anyone know how i could collimate it? 

Thanks for your help

[ronin]

Do you know anyone with a laser collimator that you could borrow?

Borrow so you can find out if the following may work.

Was thinking about this since the request in the Status section.

One "property" of a lens is that the central bit is in effect flat, and a laser may not get diverged much and so you could line things up.

It is a bit of a long shot, but I cannot think of anything else. Still trying to decide if they put a negative or positive lens in.

Means that the laser collimator would need to be central, but that is a requirement anyway.

Half the problem is that on yours the focuser, BJ lens, secondary and primary have to be lined up and there is no adjustment to the BJ lens.

[knobby]

Why not use a defocused star at high mag ...

[Cornelius Varley]

Lasers don't work with Bird Jones reflectors so the only ways are either a collimating cap, a Cheshire eyepiece or a defocused star.

[ronin]

Was not sure about a laser, it was a thought more then anything, more along the lines of they may get something out of it if all the central bits are inline, otherwise it all goes to bits.

Owing to the BJ lens I would not have thought that anything requiring observing the central dot/circle of the primary from anything in the focuser would not work. Doubt that you can "see" the mark. I would suspect that the simple collimation cap would be the best, as it is very simple. May lose some accuracy but a bit more flexible in what it can manage.

I do wish that they did not make that scope.

Any thoughts on using a artifical star as produced by Hubble Optics ??

Equally that likely needs a high degree of alignment, if it is useable.

[happy-kat]

If the defocusing star test for collimation is ok I would just carry on enjoying your telescope and not worry about it.

[joy636]

Thank-you all so much for your help. I will look in to it

[joy636]

Why not use a defocused star at high mag ...

what does- use a defocused star mean? sorry i am really new to this

[John]

what does- use a defocused star mean? sorry i am really new to this

This is whats known as a star test. There is a guide on how to do this at the bottom of this web page:

http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm

[joy636]

This is whats known as a star test. There is a guide on how to do this at the bottom of this web page:

http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm

Thank you so much