Lightbridge collimation back to basics

[earth titan]

Well time to go back to basics as I'm not convinced everything is as it should be.

1. Slackened off mirror retaining clips and lock screws

2. Checked secondary is in the centre by measuring the spider lengths

3. Checked centre dot on primary is in the middle

4. Nice round view of secondary through the centre hole in the cheshire

5. Can't see all the mirror clips cos the struss support on one side is visible. Don't know if this is a problem but needs looking into

6. Mirror clips as central as I can estimate

7. Laser to rough align primary

8. Barlowedlaser to final align

9. Confirm with cheshire

Can someone comment on point 5? Is this normal? They appear undamaged and are in the right place. Would this account for image distortion?

[Doc]

Don't know about the 12" LB but the truss support in my 16" LB is way out of the way of the mirror. You should be able to see all three clips with a collicap. A sight tube might struggle depending on the length.

[John]

Sorry if I've missed somehting but have you star tested the scope ?.

I think many folks start fiddling with collimation when actually things might not be far off anyway - a star test is easy and a sure fire way to indicate the state of things before worring about mirror clip positions etc, etc