I tried the old "pinhole in the film barrel" trick yesterday and aligned the mirrors so that they looked like they were right on the money. I spent about an hour doing that. Then, later that night, i tried the star test. I used a 26mm super plossl (meade) and looked at aldeberan. I tried to come out of focus with it and see these "concentric rings" around the star, but all i got was a donut. I tried unfocusing out both ways and got the same thing, although if i moved the focuser out towards me, I dis see the sillhouette of the spidervande and the secondary mirror. Indeed, it was just a tad bit off center. I cant remember if I corrected this. I gave up at about midnight, as I had to go to bed. I'm sure it couldnt have been cooldown... I left the scope outside all day out of the sun, under the patio. I bought a collimation eyepiece to hold me over untill i can buy or borrow a laser or untill if someone physically helps me collimate this monster. About these other issues... I can see saturn and a ring around it.. The cassini division is actually a division in the rings, right? Anyway, when I move up to a 9mm or so, the image gets all fuzzy and actually developed a coma as I was watching.. I dont know.

• Hey Dream - bobsal - March 1, 2002 - 18:52 UTC