Collimation & Engineering

[TopHouse]

I'm hoping this new adapter will be the end of my 'niggle' the crayford on my 200 is rock solid, not a sign of wobble anywhere. To me, the eyepiece holder was the weak link, and Astobaby you also cost me another 20 quid!!! After reading your pages I ended up ordering the upgraded 'bendy bolts' for the alt az on my EQ5

[Astro_Baby]

Only nearly

[John]

@Jahmanson even if the centering adapter isn't perfectly aligned, because the idea is that it doesn't get removed or even moved, if you collimate with it in postion, it 'should' then stay precise as first collimation with it in place 'should' correct any very slight misalignment.

I see your point - presumably you are not planning on using 2" accessories then ?

[TopHouse]

I see your point - presumably you are not planning on using 2" accessories then ?

Not for the forseeable future, after a 200p with EQ5, a set of antares eyepieces, a laser collimater, a self centering adapter, an alt az bolt upgrade, a digiscoping adapter and an exercise mat and a red led torch. I do like my head attached to my body, any more and i think my wife may detach it!

[neil phillips]

Im certainly no collimation expert, but for most practical purposes the kind of play in the eyepeice holder is really going to be a bit small to have any discernable affect on viewing targets.

Even at 15 meteres focal length i think the kind of play being discussed here is likely to be far less than the average collimation errors most people are going to have using cheshires and lasers when they collimate.

Only if your collimation is pretty much OUT OF THIS WORLD would it be worth even worrying about such a tiny error ( which would be far less ) and even if your collimation really is almost perfect, unless imaging or viewing at extreme high power, could this play have much effect.

More important worrys, like getting the flat precisly under the focuser, the primary centred inside the flat. or even focuser slop ( especially long barlows and heavy cameras ) tilting the focuser drawtube down will have a much more profound effect on errors than this type of play.

Only when your a collimation guru, and have zero focuser slop. would it be worth worrying about this, I may be wrong but thats my take on it, However i agree the play for a laser thats supposed to be checking for errors, is a issue where this play will have quite a marked effect on perfect laser collimation ( assuming the lasers collimation is great to start with ) Hence the self centering of lasers might be a issue thats addressed more and more as manufacturers catch on to this problem,

Now we need a self collimating self centering laser. thats the goal i feel, so come on designers give us that for collimation nirvana, i like the idea of this device for standard lasers, to hotech em so to speak, for that it seems very worth while, great idea actually, but mostly for collimation i reckon ? the collimation error may produce a worse effect than the visual alone error, of this play, is my point