Collimated my Celestron Evo SCT for the first time tonight

[StarDuke82]

I am posting this because I Collimated my Celestron Evolution 9.25” tonight for the first time tonight and it was the first time. I’ll start by saying I read up on how to do it first before I attempted to try it on my scope . It was the first time I Collimated a SCT and it was a bit different looking through eyepiece and lining up the secondary mirror than looking down the optical tube or using a laser collimator like on my Newtonian. I had bought a set of Bobs knobs and installed them to make it easier but it’s not necessary, I waited until it was dark and centered my scope on Polaris and then defocused it and noticed that the concentric rings of light were slightly off center. I placed my finger in front of my scope moving it around (being careful not to touch my corrector plate) until the shadow of my finger was over the part of the rings that were off center. I located the screw that was closest to my finger and began to turn it, the circle of light moved away from the center of view I panicked and turned the screw back had I done it wrong? I quickly tightened the screw back up and I decided to try and different screw but only slightly the circle of light moved off center again I retightened that screw. Ah this must be what is supposed to happen I must have to recenter the star after every adjustment and I am looking at the shadow I realized. I went back to the previous screw and began to adjust it again, each time it reached the edge of the field of view I would re-center it. I noticed that the screw was getting  loose so I started tightening the other ones as I went along to compensate, I paused checking the eyepiece after every adjustment and before long the shadow of the secondary was nearly perfectly collimated, and I am no longer paranoid about Collimation. Why am I sharing this because I know that Collimating a scope can be a scary thing especially for beginners and it’s really simple if you read up on it and take your time when you do it. 

[bosun21]

48 minutes ago, StarDuke82 said:

I had bought a set of Bobs knobs and installed them to make it easier but it’s not necessary,

They are not necessary but they sure make it a lot easier and quicker than fiddling with screws or Allen keys in the dark.

[StarDuke82]

35 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

They are not necessary but they sure make it a lot easier and quicker than fiddling with screws or Allen keys in the dark.

Yes they certainly do I have used Allen keys to adjust the secondary on my Newtonian before and fiddling with them can be a pain, and with the risk of scratching the corrector plate on an sct I wouldn’t even want to try what I did tonight with a screwdriver though it is perfectly possible, Bobs Knobs just make it so much safer and simpler.

[Mr Spock]

Yep - I found that Bob's Knobs for my C9.25 made collimation so much easier. Especially so when you are trying to fiddle with screws and screwdriver in the dark...

[StarDuke82]

7 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Yep - I found that Bob's Knobs for my C9.25 made collimation so much easier. Especially so when you are trying to fiddle with screws and screwdriver in the dark...

Yes my corrector plate already has a very small scratch on that was there when it arrived from the manufacturer they said it wouldn’t affect the viewing due to where it was located and how small it is but I didn’t want to risk scratching it up further with a screwdriver so that’s why I ordered the knobs, I think it would have been a bit more nerve racking on me with a screwdriver to 😂

[dweller25]

Did you finish with all screws tight ?
If not you could loose collimation.

[StarDuke82]

1 hour ago, dweller25 said:

Did you finish with all screws tight ?
If not you could loose collimation.

Yes I made sure to tighten everything down when I was finished to make sure I didn’t lose collimation 

[StarDuke82]

I forgot to note that before I collimated my scope that when I looked at stars through my telescope they looked like asterisks * now that my scope is collimated they are nice round points of light.