Collimation... Sometimes best left alone....!

[kirkster501]

Wanted to do some Mars observing last night.  Collimation was not bad on my C925 anyway, but ever being the perfectionist, thought I'd give it a tweak.  Hmmm, and another, and another, you know how it is, and messed it all up and it's now miles out. Thing is, when I tweak the screws (Bobs Knobs) it moves the star out of the camera FoV so I have to keep bringing it back into the FoV and that gets to be a real PITA very quickly.  So next clear night got to sort it out - and will do so visually 🙈.   So I wasted a great (rare with skies of late) opportunity to do some Mars observing and imaging!🙈

I may try my holographic laser method and try to do this during daylight hours.  I'm not worried and familiar enough with collimation and done it ten billion times and maybe I was just tired last night and should have just enjoyed and left it alone!

So the moral of the story is.....  if it's not too bad then don't mess with it!

[kirkster501]

I am convinced I have sussed it out with the laser holographic method - a very fast way ( two minutes) to get it 99.9% there in the day time.  I just tried it during a snatched fifteen minutes between work Zoom calls.  I will see tonight hopefully and will report back.

[Sp@ce_d]

😱... nooo.. this brings back memories.. I practically wasted a whole season trying to use mine for imaging years ago. I could never get it in.. I tried all sorts.. bobs knobs.. even got an advanced CT laser.. CCD inspector. Anyway gave up & got the RC.. around the time you did the Vids for yours!.. night & day!. So, I left it for a year or 2 & one night spur of the moment decided to do some observing to show friends.. well I amazed my self.. must have been well under 10 mins on a star with an eyepiece! 

[kirkster501]

Yeah, trying to collimate at the end of a long day to get a spot of observing in and being impatient to get to the EP is never the best time!  As I found last night!

That's why I do all my DSO imaging with refractors nowadays.  SCT is visual and for planetary AP.

Edited October 9, 2020 by kirkster501