A big "thank-you " to the collimation gurus.

[crepitis]

After avidly reading all that I could find on the forum regarding newtonian collimation I decided to try my hand at collimating my Skywatcher 200.

My wife was working on Saturday and i was left at home with my two sons ( 15 and 12 years old) , so when the 12 year old went out to play footy with his mates I decided to utilise my older son in helping me collimate my scope. I reffered constantly to Astro Babys excellent collimation guide throughout, constantly darting from the scope to the PC at every step.

first i made a collimation cap from a spare focusser blank cap, I then used it in the first stages of the process (as per astro babys instructions) then I deployed the Cheshire eyepiece for the final stages.

What a difference it made having someone else there to help.

I explained to my Son what we were trying to achieve, IE bringing the circles to sit on top of each other and instructed him to look through the Cheshire as I adjusted the srews at the Primary mirror end.

Working as a team we managed to get the circles spot on, but the proof that we had achieved a good collimation was evident last night when a clear night allowed some of the best images I have ever viewed through a telescope, lunar, planetary and deep sky objects were pin sharp and Saturn in particular looked amazing.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but a big thank you to all who have posted collimation advice, and a special thank-you to Astro Baby for her fantastic web page, which should be printed off and included with every new Newtonian telescope that gets sold.

Anybody out there who is a bit wary of trying to collimate their scope, get the right tools follow the good advice available on this forum , and get someone to help you, even if they know nothing about Astronomy they can still look down an eyepiece and tell you if the "circles" are getting closer or further apart as you adjust the Primary.

Cheers, Bob.

[Doc]

Collimation can be very daunting to a beginner but once you done it a few times you then think back and say to yourself what all the fuss was about.

Well done.

[Brett]

I have to do this on my 130p but as yet I dont have a cheshire eyepiece. Is it possible to collimate using a collimator cap alone

[Astronut]

I have to do this on my 130p but as yet I dont have a cheshire eyepiece. Is it possible to collimate using a collimator cap alone

Yes it is but a cheshire gives more precision. A cap is most useful for getting the secondary mirror and focuser tube bottom end concentric (the most fiddly and time consuming step IMHO) as it's sometimes next to impossible to see the secondary outline with a standard 1".25 cheshire. I'd use both a cap and a cheshire but a cheshire can always be pulled part way out of the focuser (provided it's a good fit ie. no sideways slop) to enable you to see the whole secondary and a small gap around it.