Collimation help

[Dimitrisanagn]

Hi everyone!

Trying to check if my heritage 130p needs collimation. 

Here is what it looks like now. Some minor adjustments done with a help of a collimation eyepiece. I got a laser one as well, but it just draws circles, no matter how much I try to align it. So for now, all I can use is the collimation eyepiece (cap).

Do you think it needs further adjustments?

Unfortunately we have cloudy skies these past few days, so I can only test with daylight targets..

 

Thank you!

 

[Spile]

All I see is offset/tilt error, so I'd move the secondary away from the primary and correct tilt as required.

[Dimitrisanagn]

Thank you for looking into this. It seems that there is always some offset of the secondary mirror position compared to the focus tube edge, as I can only minimally pull the secondary away from the primary...

Would this be more acceptable then? 

I'm not sure how paranoid I should be on getting this perfectly aligned. 

 

 

 

 

[Spile]

Thats the coarse adjustment dealt with.

A little, fine tilt/rotation correction will sort the last bit of error...

[Spile]

Actually there is a bit of offset error which you may choose to  ignore. If not move the secondary a little more away from the primary.

[Dimitrisanagn]

I tried it a bit and improved it slightly,  but I think I'll live with this offset error.  I also read a collimation guide that suggests that it is very common for F/5 and faster scopes to have this kind of offset error.

Thank you again for all your help! 

[Mandy D]

3 minutes ago, Dimitrisanagn said:

I tried it a bit and improved it slightly,  but I think I'll live with this offset error.  I also read a collimation guide that suggests that it is very common for F/5 and faster scopes to have this kind of offset error.

Thank you again for all your help! 

Yes secondary mirror offset is normal on fast scopes and is designed in. Don't worry about it, as a star test will confirm proper collimation.

[Mr Spock]

The secondary is flat, so, as long as the centre line of your eyepiece is aligned with the centre of the primary, small position errors don't matter. If it was a large error the only thing it would affect is where vignetting occurs.

[Spile]

The offset error is nothing to do with the dark reflection of the secondary mirror which is as you say meant to be offset. It’s just a case of getting a=b but it’s close enough now. 

[Dimitrisanagn]

Great! Thank you all for helping out the newbie!