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Post by kryss on May 8, 2007 22:40:47 GMT
I know its maybe a bit late in the season for this (was thinking of a demonstration of how to collimate a scope). I know a lot of people do this on a star but as this leaves you at the mercy of the seeing i was thinking about an artificial star ie a laser - I know you can buy these.
Does anyone know how far away from the scope they have to be set up to use? Presumably you have to aim the telescope at the light source - or vice versa.
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Post by nemesis on May 8, 2007 23:59:19 GMT
Mark has an artificial star, if I remember right, which we used to collimate my Newtonian.
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Post by markdj on May 11, 2007 9:03:24 GMT
Yeah, but don't use a laser! The artificial star is simply a matt black square plastic with a little box on the back which houses batteries, a small circuit with an ultra bright LED which protudes through the matt black plastic. Here's where I got mine... www.sunflower.com/~clafever/bezt/html/products.html
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Post by bluehatcat on May 11, 2007 9:44:36 GMT
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Post by NeilP on May 11, 2007 12:23:52 GMT
I think it is easiest to colimate with a dedicated laser collimator, but they can be a bit expensive. A good cheshire eyepiece is a good second 2nd choice and sometimes even more accurate. I collimate my schmidt-newt with the laser first then check it with a cheshire. I have never collimated a SCT though, it might be different.
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Post by rjcobain on May 11, 2007 15:38:02 GMT
I use a home made collimation device. It is one of those 'plugs' or caps that usually come with barlows or focus mounts. I then stick some tin foil on the inside of it and punch a pin hole through the middle. O and I have a tiny piece of black tape stuck in the centre of the mirror for the alignment point. Works great for me! Robert.
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Post by nemesis on May 13, 2007 1:17:15 GMT
Robert, just out of interest...why do you have "Baryonic" written under your avatar photo?
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Post by rjcobain on May 13, 2007 19:16:24 GMT
Hi nemesis, no good reason at all really, there is an option in the profile page to put something there so....
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Post by nemesis on May 14, 2007 0:00:05 GMT
Mmmm....right, just thought that there'd be some deep reasoning behind the word. My hopes are dashed. It's Eamonn, by the way!!!
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