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collimating a skywatcher newt

Chubster

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Chubster

Chubster

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Hi all. I know this subject has been covered loads of times but im still confused :) Think I have just read far too many articles and given myself headblock !

I think I understand the principle so no need to cover that again but was wondering if any other Skywatcher Newt owners on here could actually point me in the right direction re the correct screws to use!!!!! I have been on the SW site and my scopes screw do not match any of the configs that they show :) :)

Soz for being dumb but any help would be appreciated

Chubster

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Ant

Ant

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Take a pic of the end of your tube and I'll sort you out. Depenmding on the scope that you have. It'll either be just three bsprung bolts to tighten or loosen. Or 6 allen key bolts to loosen / tighten / lock.

Ant

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daz

daz

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Chub

There should be three small allen bolts next to the three larger cross-head screws.

Undo these allen bolts first, then collimate using the larger screws, then re-tighten the allen bolts.

They should not be forced-tight, just enough to hold the cell in place.

Recheck you collimation afterwards.

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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I tried giving my newt a wee collimation the other day, but I think I ended up de-collimating it! Now stars are even more triangular than they were. I followed a number of instructions, but it didn't get me very far, and it seemed perfect anyway. I made a collimation cap, so at least that's a little of the way there. What's the best resource?

Andrew

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Ant

Ant

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Film canister with a hole in the end?

of course!

I had a laser mate and just couldn't get on with it! I've used the film canister ever since and get a better collimation than I ever did with the Lasermate.

But other swear by them!

Ant

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Okay, I think I made a much better job of collimation today. I haven't tested it on the stars yet, but I have a question: why mark the mirror? What is the need of sticking a great blob in the centre of your optics? And how do you actually go about it? Do you have to remove it?

And also, I found something very interesting while collimating my scope. When looking into the focusser, I noticed a blue-ish ring (EDIT: the ring was right in the middle, in the shadow of the secondary mirror), that separated into two rings, or two half rings, when collimation was out, and when I got the thing what I thought to be properly aligned, the ring was perfect. Has anyone noticed this?

Andrew

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daz

daz

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Andrew

The mirror is marked so that you know where the exact centre is. Then, when you look through your collimating eyepiece, you see the main mirror, the secondary and the centre mark, all as concentric circles. Then you know you are close to collimation. Many people finish it with a star collimation to ensure accuracy.

HTH

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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okay, thanks daz. Anyway. Just took my scope out for a quick bash. It's a clear night, but I'm a little tired and not quite in the mood. Collimation is vastly improved, although not perfect. I'm just waiting for the planets to come back. I wanna see Jupiter and Mars now, but they're just sticking by their favourite hot buddy, the sun. Is there a transit of Jupiter across the sun sometime soon? Venus and mercury are interesting enough, but I would love to see with my own eyes Jupiter's size in relation to teh sun. Why don't we ever see Jupiter transit photos?? :D (just kidding!)

Anyway, enough extracting the urine. I want to progress from M45, M31 and M42. What would you guys recommend? I think I need some more reliable literature.

Andrew

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Mikesmad

Mikesmad

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Have a look here. There is a movie which shows you what you see and what to do!

Hi,

My first post on here and I would like to thank you Daz for the link to the best training vid I have seen.

I am just a beginner to this star-gazing lark and I must have been very lucky collimmejiggin my 4.5"Meade.........

............cos this 8" unnamed (weel not quite, but I had better not swear on ma first post) Newtonian reflector has resisted alignment so far!

Does anyone know why the secondary mirror shows up so plainly, when I am looking through an eyepiece, on this 8", yet is hardly noticeable on the 4.5" ?

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  • 4 years later...
Staypuft

Staypuft

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Thanks to Daz for the link to the video - this makes more sense than the several dozen or so sets of written instructions I have sweated over for the past three weeks since I caught the bug! Now that I think I have this collimation malarkey cracked (there is still some doubt - my vision has suffered greatly over the past few days and the matched crosshairs may be an optical illusion) the clouds have rolled in!

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