That's better...

[earth titan]

Finally the clouds have lifted and I pulled a late shift.

Now the scope is collimated - what a difference!! I knew the secondary was a long way out, but the difference astounded me. This is the first time I have had clear skies since I sorted it, so the delay of over a week in testing it has been a little frustrating.

I'm surprised the manufacturers ship in such a condition. The only other explanation is they get knocked in transit, but as mine had all the primary locking nuts loose when I received it, I suspect the former. Packing is also good, so damage seems unlikely.

If people don't bother with the collimation when they get them, they must be sorely dissapointed with what they get.

Anyways. First night of good observing with no moon and 'Turn left at Orion' received from the local library - result:

M3 Globular cluster

M44 Beehive cluster

M51 Whirlpool galaxy

M53 Globular cluster

[brianb]

mine had all the primary locking nuts loose when I received it

They can vibrate loose in transit. Tightening them up enough to prevent them from doing so would not be a good idea (risk of distortion etc) & applying loctite to the threads would likely stop people from trying to make the adjustment ... which most scopes do need, even if only a small tweak from factory settings.

You can be lucky with transport, or not. My LX90 was miles off collimation when delivered. CPC1100 - bigger, heavier & you would have thought more likely to suffer in transit as as consequence - was within a tiny hair of dead accurate.

[brianb]

If people don't bother with the collimation when they get them, they must be sorely dissapointed with what they get.

You'd be surprised at the number of people who don't. In my experience, 9 out of 10 Newtonians / Dobsonians and 6 out of 10 SCTs at star parties are far enough out to seriously affect the views at high power. I reckon this is why some people are prejudiced against them for lunar / planetary work.

[Doc]

Well done, most beginners are frightened of collimating their scopes. As you have found out, it's not a hard task and the benefits are great.

[richbyers]

think i need to this to mine, saturn is a bit smudgy when i view it at high power

rich

[Chris_J]

I have exactly the same scope and when it arrived, it was way out of collimation. Oddly though, only one of the three screws needed adjusting to bring it back to perfect.

Have you done a star test with yours? After collimation and allowing to cool, I tested it using Polaris. I noticed a very slight overcorrection in the mirror profile, which I believe is down to manufacturing error, and apparently perfectly normal for budget scopes like these.