Image of the day

Captured by
John Roach

Enhanced Uranus showing Polar Cap and possible Aurora

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Holographic collimators

Started by bschnitzer, 03/24/2006 08:42PM
Posted 03/24/2006 08:42PM Opening Post
I'm thinking of replacing my point laser collimator with the holographic type so that I can better align my classical cassegrain optics. Can anybody shed some light 8) on how well they work?

Bob Schnitzer
Grenville Base Observatory - Haymarket, VA
http://www.grenville-observatory.com
16" f18 Royce Conical Dall-Kirkham
10" f16 Parks/Coulter/Novak/Cave Classical Cassegrain
127mm Orion Starmax Mak-Cas
80mm f15 Meade refractor
40mm Tasco variable power tabletop refractor
DMK 31AF03.AS
DBK 21AF04.AS
Posted 03/24/2006 09:05PM #1
My own experience is that they really help. You
can see the edges of the light cone -- whether
light path in centered on a secondary or corrector
plate, or centered in the tube, etc. The "tick marks"
are great -- you can count them and see how well
things are centered.

The "Barlowed Laser" is also very useful for Newts.
I think one really wants both kinds.
Posted 03/24/2006 09:45PM #2
Bob,
I have the LaserMax and it has a great holographic grid. It helps with aligning the secondary and can be used without a center spot on the primary. You can see the secondary shadow to check the offset and centering of the secondary in the UTA or tube too.
I sold all my other lasers after a while, because I found this one to be the best. I had the Kendrick and Orion as well. Al were collimated properly and worked ok for collimation, but only the Lasermax was useful for the rest of the optical jobs.

[SIZE="Large"][/SIZE][COLOR="Blue"][/COLOR] Floyd Blue grin
Amateur Imager