collimation

[cardconvict]

i'am just starting to get into plantary imaging and i have read that thecollimation has to be perfect. i have a c9.25, in web sites that i have been to they tell you the best ways of collimation are done through looking at a star in good seeing conditions, which is very rare in britian so how can you get your collimation perfect for planetary imaging?. can you use lasers

[Doc]

If I had a SCT I would get the Hotech Laser collimator, I've heard it makes the task very easy to achieve.

[cardconvict]

yeah i have seen i video on how to use them and before you can use it you need to have the sct perfectly collimated, then you shine the lazer through and pencil mark the postion on the hutech.

[Lars]

I image from a built-in balcony within a city and have never good enough seeing for "normal" collimation. I use the (free) PHD guiding program with my camera (Orion SSAG or webcam), center the star, set the exposure time on 1-2 s to even out the seeing conditions and defocus slightly. Then I just try to get the rings around the star as concentric as poosible.

This probably doesn't yield perfect collimation, but I get really close.

/Lars

[cardconvict]

nice one lars i will give that a try next time i'am out well the dam clouds have cleared