Collimation: how often and tell tale signs?

[gurney]

Hi there,

hoping I'm going to be able to get my LX200 10" out shortly for the winter months. I'm still highly unfamiliar with it as it seems to have been rather cloudy ever since I bought it!

Anyway - one BIG question I've got is, just how often do you need to collimate a telescope? Is it something you expect to do once ever few months, or every night? In my case I'm going to be setting up and taking down the scope every time I use it - so it's going to be jiggled and shaken quite a lot.

And wqhat are the tell-tale signs that you need to spend time collimating the scope?

Any pointers greatly appreciated as always!

[Sam]

Gurney,

It depends on the scope. My 8" hardly ever needs re-collimating but the Lightbridge needs it every time I use it. You can tell it's off by quickly putting a collimation cap in the focuser and checking that everything is symmetrical. If the seeing is good you can do a star test as well.

Sam

[Albireo380]

I only recollimate my 8"LX90 every 5-10 observing sessions, and that is with it being transported in the car each time. My 12" Flextube Dob needs recollimating every time.

Collimating both 'scopes is easy once you have done it a few times, but buy a set of "Bob's Knobs" for your LX200 - it will make collimating it much easier.

Tom

[George]

Not done my 10" for months, been using it for guiding so not really checked it. Tell tale signs its out of collimation for me is slightly mushy stars.

[thing]

If I'm imaging I check it every time, doesn't take long on a Newt. I had to tweak my secondary and primary this evening, takes two or three minutes max. If I'm observing I'll only check it if I'm getting fat stars.

[Merlin66]

I've got a 10" and 12" LX200 and once they've been collimated I can go for weeks before the urge to "improve" the collimation hits me. A webcam on an out of focus star is a pretty easy and reliable method on the LX200; it shows clearly any misalignment. Bob's knobs definately help.

[gurney]

Thanks everyone - got Bob's knobs already installed on the scope when I bought it.

[Deacon]

Hey Gurney

Psalm 19 is one of my favourite psalms. The heavens are truly beautiful..

:sunny:

Deacon

[gurney]

Lol! Absolutely!

His handiwork is beyond compare!

My favourite thing about the psalm though is where it talks about the stars pouring forth speech every day. When I was at university we had a visiting professor who had been studying the oscillations of the sun. He played us the noise of the frequencies occuring in the sun's surface and said "You know, it's almost as if the sun is singing!"

Funny that I thought !!!

[Deacon]

Hey

It truly is beyond compare. I just hope the clouds clear so I can see more of it...

Deacon