Meade Laser Collimator

[Agera]

Hello,

I have been interested in astronomy for quite some time now, and finally purchased a telescope. I got a Meade DS-2130 130 mm reflector. Along with the scope, I bought an eyepiece and filter kit, and a Meade laser collimator. After I set the scope up, I decided to run my first collimation.

When I put the collimator into the focuser tube and turned it on, I was shocked to find that there was no red dot, but rather a fuzzy circle being projected onto the primary mirror. I removed the laser, and tested it using a small mirror that I placed on the ground--the beam projected back onto the collimator as a nice little red dot. Also, I did make sure the laser itself was collimated.

Anyone have any advice as to what might cause the beam to be out of focus, and not a solid small red dot?

Thanks for helping out a newbie,

Nik

[John]

I believe the DS-2130 uses a correcting lens at the bottom of the eyepiece drawtube to achieve its focal length of 1000mm in a compact tube. This correcting lens is diffusing the laser beam so it's a fuzzy circle by the time it hits the primary mirror.

Not sure you can use a laser collimator with that design of scope - I could be wrong about that though

[Agera]

John, is that correcting lens permanently affixed? Perhaps I can temporarily remove it to align the mirrors, although at this point I don't know if I even need to. The center mark I made on the primary is being projected onto the collimator--I have centered that on the collimator, and everything is concentric when I look down the focuser without an EP. I will do a star test tonight to make sure the collimation was successful.

Thanks for the very quick reply, I really appreciate it.

Nik

[John]

I think it's best to leave the corrector in place but if the mark in the center of the mirror is being projected onto the center of the face of the collimator then it sounds like the scope is in reasonable collimation.

The best thing is to star test it, then you will know for sure.