collimation. do i have/need it? more big words to learn!!

[audiobull]

do i have it on my scope celestron 102 slt refractor and do i need it or what is it?is it important to me? the more i learn about scopes and astronomy the more i find i dont know!spose thats a good thing though.

ben

[John]

The good news is that you don't really need to worry about collimation with your refractor - I don't think you will need to adjust it. It's more important for reflecting scopes as the mirrors have to be quite accurately aligned with each other to get a good image - the mirrors can go out of alignment quite easily on some scopes so you need to know how to adjust them back again - that's collimation.

John.

[Brass n glass]

On most refractors you can't collimate the lens even if you want to. Some manufacturers advise owners of refractors not to try to collimate their scopes.

[audiobull]

yep that is definately a good thing.im glad i have a refractor now.i cant even work my goto (yet!) let alone try and collimate my scope.ill get there. but now i know what it is and what its for.