Hey Ben...dave. I recently did a collimation starting from ground zero. I center dotted my primary. (trace the outline of your mirror on a piece of paper. cut it out. fold it into quarters. snip a very small openning at the "point". carefully place the paper on your mirror and dot your center. you can later put a paper reinforcer around it.) I also dotted the actual center of my secondary also. (same method). Some say dotting the secondary may affect the image. I haven't noticed any problems. I squared the focuser to the tube. If you need help with that I can email some instructions on that. Remounted the primary and secondary. I used a chesire/peep hole tube to rough collimate the optics. This helps get the secondary under the focuser, and the primary "in the ballpark". Then I use a laser collimator to fine tune the allignment. I saw my best viewing of Saturn the next morning. However, Jupiter was not so hot.
Hence my posting. I can point you to some good
internet sites that go into detail on collimation. Let me know if you need it. Hope that helps.......
clear skies.....
dave

• Secondry probs - ben777 - October 12, 2002 - 00:37 UTC
  • if your collimation is off... - slamhound - October 12, 2002 - 17:04 UTC