Glad i collimated

[Ewan]

Hi all

Just though i would share my expieience with you all & say how important collimation is for you to enjoy your telescope.

As i do not have a cheshire eyepiece or laser i improvised using another laser i have & which a few of you might have, a laser pen.

I know it's a little unorthodox but it did work & quite straight forward.

First off my Tasco 114 had been in our roof for all of 10 years (i know i know :-)), it had never been collimated since factory settings.

On my first clear sky i done a visual bright star test & my scope was deffinatley not collimated. images were fuzzy / cloudy & could not focus anything.

I had already disasembled the primary mirror housing (very easy) & gave it a rinse for 5 minutes under a running tap, at the same time i found if i placed a normal cd disc on top of the mirror retaining screws (so it did not touch the mirror) it would pin point the center for me, i marked the center with a permanent marker & re-fitted the mirror into the same screw holes (i numbered them).

Took telescope indoors, set it up horizontaly with eyepiece tube facing towards me, placed a 35mm camera film pot with a small hole in the center into drawtube, placed laser pen on table at the exact same hieght as the 35mm pot, made sure laser was square to the small hole as possible & turned it on, on my wall opposite i saw the laser dot appear, this told me my scope was very much out of alignment.

With the laser still on i adjusted the secondary mirror screws slowly until the laser was right on the marker pen dot in the center of the mirror, then i undid the primary mirror locking screws & adjusted the mirror using the knurled thumb screws (if you place a sheet of paper over the open end (or the back of a chair) of the telescope you can see what way the laser dot moves depending on which screw you adjust, when i could not see the dot on the paper anymore it indicated it must be shinning onto the secondary mirror, i placed 2 pieces of paper either side of the laser pen on the table & made fine adjustments until the laser appeared onto either sheet near the pen & finally at the tip of the pen, i knew i could not see the 'outgoing' light as well as the 'incomming' because they are the same colour but it did get it very very close.

I will buy a proper collimation eyepiece or laser but for me with nothing to hand & wanting to use my telescope this did work, it would take about 5 minutes now, i just wanted to point out how much better your telescopes performs if collimated well.

When i used the telescope that night the moon almost blinded me (i gotta get a filter) & stars are pin sharp now.

I understand there are a lot of people here who havn't got the funds to buy all the necessary kit but if i can help one person out then it's worth it. So if you know someone with a laser pen ask to borrow it even if you just want to see if your kit needs collimating it can help you.

I also have a construction site laser level which i might try

Clear skies all

[reader34]

I recently did this with my old Tasco and it's been in the attic for over 6+ years. I Know

One night I couldn't work out why Jupiter was fuzzy? So I found this word "Collimating" and it took me about 10 mins to align both mirrors again. However I only used the naked eye to do this, but Jupiter turned out much better then before

I'm sure with some new laser alignment equipment I'll get it perfect, but I"m saving up for a new telescope anyways hehe. All part of the learning

It's 7:00 am AND I'm in a smiley mood..good greef should lay of the coffee

[Porl]

I've been checking out jupiter on my Celestron AM 130EQ since I got it a few weeks ago, im kinda guessing its a similar style/type/size of telescope to your Tasco 114, and when I get any eyepieces in that start to show the EQ Band, Jupiter is always blurred. You have to kind of squint to get the blur a little out of the view.

I cleaned all the lenses I have, some had some finger prints on whoops but that didnt make too much difference.

The moon is always nice and crisp though when focused.

Could Collimating make jupiter a little less blurry. Im a little worried to try it and get it all wrong if the 'scope isnt really out. Like its not broken so dont mess with it haha.

Porl''

[stev74]

Nice one Ewan, lots of people can find collimation quite daunting at first, it looks like you have nailed it no prob's.

Could Collimating make jupiter a little less blurry. Im a little worried to try it and get it all wrong if the 'scope isnt really out. Like its not broken so dont mess with it haha.

Porl it could be a collimation issue the easiest way to check is to do a star test that will tell you if the collimation is out all the info is on Astro Babys Guide to Collimation (SGL member). Star testing info is at the bottom of the page.

So before you adjust anything check first because what you describe can also be due to a number of other things. Like seeing conditions, atmospheric turbulence or simply too much magnification.

What size eyepiece are you mostly using to view Jupiter?

[Porl]

Hey Stev74 Im going to check that link out now

I've been using a range of my eyepeices, I have the celestron 1.25'' kit. So Ive been finding Jupiter with my 32mm then kinda zooming in using my 15mm then trying my 9mm out. It seems to get blurry lower than 15ish mm though. So I've been unsure wether its my lenses somehow or just too much magnification or the collimating thing :S.

I tried last night and messed with the other lenses and using the barlow but didnt get much sharpness.

Thanks

Porl''

P.S. I read the collimating link and noticed she mentioned not to view near buildings. I've been observing mainly from in the center of a load of farm buildings. All but a few are heated and its the ones heated I've been looking over at Jupiter. I'll try going into the field before messing with some screws haha.

[stev74]

IIRC the 130EQ has a focal length of 650mm so if you divide that by the focal length of your eyepiece's you get the magnification.

With the 15mm it's about x72 so Jupiter should look quite sharp but it is past it's best for viewing at the moment and quite low to the horizon soon after it's dark. That means it has to be viewed through a lot more atmospheric turbulence which can really degrade the view.

Yeah viewing over heated buildings will also at extra turbulence, think of a road on a really hot summer day the air will seem to shimmer above it with the heat. The same thing will happen at night with heated buildings but it will be harder to see due to the darkness but it's still there!!

For example 2 months ago Jupiter was a lot higher and on a good night with steady seeing I could get the mag up to x200 or more. Last week Jupiter was looking blurry and boiling away at x100 so it really is a case of understanding all the different conditions. Don't worry though the more time you get to spend out observing the more you will understnad the conditions so keep at it.

First thing is to do the star test and at least you can hopefully rule out collimation as one of the causes. Although if it is an issue just follow Astro Baby's guide and you will have it sorted no problem.

[Jimmy Stix]

Hey Porl,

I have no experience of a reflector and potential problems with the sharpness of Jupiter but I still haven't had a really good view with my Mak. The quality seems to vary a lot but after 3 serious attempts (admittedly I am still on a steep learning curve with my scope) last night was my best yet. Whilst I would not describe it as pin sharp I did get a good view of one belt, possibly a trace of the slowly returning other belt (wishful thinking maybe so I am not calling it) and a good look at the 4 main moons.

From some of the responses to one of my earlier posts it seems that Jupiter is past it's best now and, on at least one of my "poor" nights, others had problems too. Admittedly it was quite low down then, last night I made a point of going out earlier.

[xyz]

This is a pretty good collimation guide Collimating a Newtonian

[Greg48(newbe)]

Very usefull and of course helpfull,,,

[umadog]

Note that that video shows all the reflections being concentric. They should not be. The reflection of the primary in the secondary is off-centre. Also, a better way of adjusting the primary is to use the barlowed laser technique.