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Ro3bert

By Ro3bert
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Ro3bert

Ro3bert

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Relatively new to astronomy although I've stared  at the night sky for years using my eyes-no help.

Years ago I was given lots of stuff to make a 12" reflector; blank and whatever one calls the second blank for grinding the mirror. All the grits were included + some other things I can't remember. It all came from a lady whose husband left when he died.

I worked on the mirror until it the focal point was about 30ft an for some reason gave up - never finished it. So much for my astronomy carrier/hobby.

Earlier this year I got the bug again (?) so decided to get a telescope. What I got is a Celestron 144 reflector. Supposed to put it together set it up and gaze lovingly at the stary night. HA!! I know others have done just that with stirling success.

But not me - NO NOT ME - instead of folling directions I had to check the collimation and make adjustments..until it was so badly out of collimation - well you get the idea. I even moved the secondary mirror (swiveled) it and now have no idea how to get it back in the correct position. On top of that even after loosening the primary mirror locking screws I had to break out a pair of pliers to turn the adjustment nuts.

Due to having had cataract surgury on both eyes I am no longer able to accommodate so looking through glasses is not good enough.

But I didn't give up yet. I bought a laser collimator and as usual instead of throughly reading the insturctions I just installed it first with the target facing foreward while adjusting the secondary mirror then turning it around to face the primary mirror to adjust it.

Of course that didn't work at all well. Even when I did read the instructions and followed them (at least I thought I did) the collimation still didn't work out well at all.

I have had it out on three occasions when the sky was clear but for reasons I'll talk about in another post, the sessions were a washout.

Robert

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Robert and welcome to SGL, sounds like a cry for help, is there not an Astro Soc near you that you can attend, where you can obtain the help you need, other than that, download some of the available collimation guides and follow the instructions to the letter, by also asking questions of the forum membership, I am sue you will get there in the end, enjoy the forum :)

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Ro3bert

Ro3bert

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This morning I brought everything in and re collimated again being carefull to follow the directions fathfully. Again it seemed to work and I figured out how to align the secondary.

Took it out to see what I could see during the daytime, was able to get a good look across Ball Pond (about as mile) and get the star spotter scope aligned. Of course there must a bit of parrallex error due to the distance but at least the spotter scope is aligned close enough that getting stars at night should be manageable.

Now all that is left is for a clear night which seems, lately, to be unobtainable. We've have been completely overcast for about two weeks now (and not a drop of rain) :clouds1:

Just thought I'd show the scope just after I put it together.

post-45910-0-64492400-1450213265.jpg

After going out at night a couple of times two things became apparent. I can't bend over to view more than a minute or two (age related) and there was no way I was going to be able to align stars using the red dot star aligner. Twice I found it almost impossible to stand back up after kneeling down to use the finder.

So, on to the drawing board. I had to find a way to be able to fine tune stars other than the finder supplied. Looked around and found an acceptable star finder scope from Celestron. It isn't intended to be mounted on the 144LCM but a bit of ingenuity and some epoxy got it securely attached (it's a right angle sight)  (I'll get some images up later).

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Ro3bert

Ro3bert

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Hi Robert and welcome to SGL. Is there a local astro club near you where you could take you scope and see if people can help?

Good luck :)

Thanks swag72. As a matter of fact I'm able to go one better. A few miles north at the New Milford (CT) high school is the John J. McCarthy Observatory. The second Saturday of every month they have an open house. Check it out on their site.

It is a wholy volunteer operation. Most of the members are in some way connected to astronomy in their professional lives. One is an astrophysist.

They are a very helpfull lot and will go out of there ways to help interested parties. One has volunteered to help me collimate my scope. He is at the observatory every night the sky is clear doing research.

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Ro3bert

Ro3bert

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Welcome to SGL, Robert!

Red Sox fan?

Dana

Red Sox fan?

Red who? not a fan of american sports (except soccer). We, my wife and I, are more interested in the English Premier League especially Man U and Arsenal. Hope I'm not stepping on anyones toes here.

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