first time colliminating

[mike head]

so I've just acquired a chesire colliminating eyepiece for my skyliner 150p, placed it in the focuser and looked through the peephole, could only two see two of the primary mirror clips In the secondary, so ive adjusted the three screws to centre it, the donut on the primary mirror is perfectly aligned to the chesire crosshairs now, so does that mean the primary is ok and doesn't need to be touched?....thanks ?

[Owmuchonomy]

Possibly but the first and hardest part is to centre the secondary to the focuser tube such that it presents a circle view. If it does this then you are probably good to go.

This is a very good guide.http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm

 

[Psychology]

I struggled to do it the first time. Someone should do a video using a Cheshire for us newbies.

[dick_dangerous]

I was rubbish at collimating mine - then I followed the advice to put a piece of card between the secondary and primary to see the shape of the secondary properly. Turns out that the secondary was mis-aligned. Now I just need some clear skies so I can test the difference!

Paul

[mike head]

so everything is lined up using the chesire, only thing I noticed is when you wind out the focuser fully, there is a bit of slop, just need some clear sky's now ?

[brantuk]

There is usually a knurled screw under the focuser tube to lock the focuser in place (eg when you have a camera or large eyepiece attached), and a screw to tweak any slop out of the draw tube. But use them gingerly cos they don't take much to adjust and threads strip easily with soft metal.