Help

[Mike338]

I purchased an Orion xt 8 about 5 months ago. I have been having lots of fun using it and understand the calumniation process. Yesterday I took the mirror off to wash  it, I followed Orions directions and it went well, until I tried to fucus on Jupiter last night. I could not get it to fine fucus, I could not even see the cloud bands. The strange thing is when I would bring Jupiter out of focus it would devide in 3, kinda like a big Mickey Mouse head. Weird, I don't remember that happening before I cleaned the mirror. Btw I did not touch the secondary mirror. So did I do a poor job of washing the mirror, is it installed wrong, is there something about columnation I don't understand???? HeLP! 

[brantuk]

Mike - when you put the mirror back in the cell after washing - how tight did you do the mirror clips up? They don't need to grip the mirror - just hold it in place. I usually test by sliding a very thin piece of paper between each clip and the mirror surface - if it doesn't slide out it's too tight, so I just back the screw out a 1/8th turn till it does.

Then try collimate again from there - if it's still the same then the problem will be at the top end of the scope. Hth

[Mike338]

Thanks, you may have nailed it, I know I cranked down on those clips!

[brantuk]

Yeah - it's a common problem that most of us have done in the past. Hope my suggestion works for you - let me know how you get on.

[happy-kat]

When undoing threads make a note of how many turns it took, this gives an idea of how many to use when something goes back together.