Collimation Tip for Beginners with Refracors-Do It

I have only been at this for a bit over a year and like most beginners I have been wary of making adjustments to my scope (mostly for fear of making things worse). Well a couple of points:

1) Vendors lie: Most of the instructions that come with new refractors claim perfect collimation from the factory. Not necessarilly true. Bumps in shipping etc. can put your scope out of collimation easily.

2) Collimation for a refractor is relatively easy with a little research, trial and error and effort. There are ample resources on line to guide and help you learn. Just type the words collimation and refractor into the search engine of your choice.

3) Few tools are required to do the job. All you need to collimate an adjustable lens cell in a refractor is the proper sized allen wrench and a cheshire eyepiece (make sure you get one made for a refractor). I did this for the first time this morning and achieved very good results in less than 15 minutes. I'm sure those out there who are at all handy can do the same.

Clear Skies,

Mike

>>>Collimation for a refractor is relatively easy with a little research, trial and error and effort. There are ample resources on line to guide and help you learn. Just type the words collimation and refractor into the search engine of your choice.
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Michael:

Since this is a beginners forum, it is important to point out that collimating an Achromat is quite different than collimating an Apochromatic (APO) refractor. Many APOs need to be factory collimated because of the precision required.

And while collimation of an achromat is doable, again since this is a beginners forum, unless one is sure a problem is collimation, it is best to get a second opinion before diving in. There are many optical issues that lead to unsatifactory views, some are simple and basic like poor seeing or unrealistic expections.

Sometimes first timers are frustrated and it is all to easy to dive in thinking it is a collimation problem when it something else. And in that case, what is likely to happen is things will get worse and result in more problems.

In my experience, the collimation of an Achromat is not super critical and most give quite good views as the arrive.

Jon

Before one attempts to collimate the objective, I have found it is usually a good idea to center the focuser on it. The easy way to do that is to use a (collimated) laser in place of the eyepiece, and to place a *bullseye* target over the objective. As you might expect, if the laser beam is centered in the target, the focuser is collimated. Also note, if there is play between the focus tube and the laser, the beam to the target _will_ be affected .

I have had several Synta acro's, among others, and few have had collimated focuser's.

jon