Posts Made By: Brett Wylie

Celestron sells a collimation eyepiece. You can also use a Hartmans mask to collimate with. You can collimate with a ccd/video camera. You can polar align with a ccd/video camera.

Andrew,
My new 2000xm camera should be here tomorrow..nice to see some more examples of whats possible with this camera then just what SBIG's website gives me.

Chris,
Try this!
Focus Jupiter at high power 500/600x, straight thru without diagonal. Get the best focus you can! If your SC is slightly miscollimated, you will note a blue/green ghost halo off to one side of the planet. Adjust your secondary collimation, using very very small screw adjustment, until there is no sign of that halo anywhere along the limb of the planet. You will note the drastic improvement in resolution immediately. It is absolutely not necessary to fine tune your collimation on a star. I can collimate on the limb edge of the moon! Other friends have used Jupiter and/or Saturn. It is a much easier way to go. If you read about people collimating their telescopes on the net using the defocused star method, the comment I most often hear, is that the seeing wasn't good enough to do a good collimation. If you do use a star, the secret is to defocus a tiny bit only, and note if there is a light projection off to one side. Collimate to get rid of this projection. The tiny black spot should be dead centered in the star.
As I mentioned previously, you can collimate using a Hartmanns mask, and doing so isn't so "seeing" limited. The technique involves taping off one hole in the mask and then rotating the mask around the ota, tightening and loosening the collimation screws in conjunction with the mask. To involved to fully describe here..but the information is available on the net.

Tim,
How are your tolerances in your focuser for your eyepieces? Is there any play? My 8" Newt low profile screw in focuser had a tight fit with the 1.25" eyepiece adapter fitted, but with the 2" eyepieces the scope would seem to show miscollimation spikes. I quickly noticed that upon tightening the set screw the eyepiece would kick over. Just another thought...Brett

Other factor.
Size of the secondary should be changed depending on the Newtonian telescopes intended use. For optimum performance using the telescope visually, a smaller secondary is approriate, since what you see with your eye cannot be digitally processed and there is some light loss and loss of contrast with a larger secondary. Obstruction, however, is not as much an issue as some people make it out to be. The drop in contrast and total light pickup is pretty minimal unless you are really talking big %'s. The difference between an f10 and an f6.3 SC for instance is about 3%.
For imaging with camera/ccd you should install a larger secondary.
I've done this with my 8"f3.5 Newt..although it's a bit of a hassle..haven't really noticed a big difference in the visual performance myself.
Better, you might talk to Protec about their 3 vane dew-heated spiders, which I've found to be excellent products. You get less of a diffraction affect off the 3 vane.

The best unit for film processing(small footprint)is the Jobo ATL series..for fully automated film processing and very small prints..which might be handy for proof shots.

Anyone in the Universe own a Meade 14" yet??

1. Visual views or imaging takes?
a)smaller mirror for visual use only
b)smaller mirror for ccd then 35mm film..
2. Recoating the primary and secondary..usually, they charge minimally (or not at all)for the secondary recoat when you have them both done at the sametime.
3. Line your OT/drawtube(eyepiece focuser)with flocking paper & use a dew shield.
4. 3 vane or curved spider instead of four..less spiking effect. try Protostar...

Florent,
Nice unguided! image.
I too am changing my setup. A GEM and a 14" SC or large Newt. I think you will really like the Losmandy.
What has been your experience with the SBIG AO7 device so far? I'm ordering one this week. I notice that you have gone to a gem and done away with your LX200 fork mount..is this because of fork vibration or tracking problems that the AO7 couldn't quite solve? Curious.
I would appreciate any comments on the AO7. Thanks

The infamous massacre at Halabja -- the gassing of the Kurds -- took place in March 1988. Six months later, on Sept. 19, a Maryland company sent 11 strains of germs -- four types of anthrax -- to Iraq, including a microbe strain called 11966, developed for germ warfare at Fort Detrick in the 1950s.
The vast, lucrative arms trade in the Middle East created the groundwork for Hussein's aggression in Kuwait. Without high-tech weapons from the West, Iraq's wars against Iran and Kuwait would never have taken place.
The inspection process is spawning a host of questions about U.S. policy. Why aren't U.S. and European scientists, who invented and produced lethal materials for Saddam Hussein, subject to interrogations like their counterparts in Iraq? Are U.S. companies sending their deadly material to other dictators? Why are there no congressional hearings on the U.S. role in arms proliferation? And how many senators (like the voice of Connecticut's arms industry, Sen. Joe Lieberman) are taking contributions from the world's arms dealers?
The United States exports more weapons than all other countries combined, and Hussein is only one of many human rights abusers who purchased the means of terror from the West.
No despot, no monarchy, no medieval insurgency that can be exploited, no regime of terror seems to be off-limits to the sale of arms for profit.
From 1983-88, Siad Barre, the mad dictator of Somalia, received from the United States 155 howitzers, 20mm Vulcan air defense guns, light artillery pieces, mortars, anti-tank rocket launchers, a mass of firearms and ammunition.
By 1989, its precious desert water holes demolished, the impoverished country was in open revolt. When Siad Barre fled, he left the country in ruins,
and he left all his U.S. weapons behind -- the very weapons that enabled warrior clans to bring down U.S. Black Hawks and kill 70 U.S. and U.N. humanitarian troops.
On the edge of famine, Somalia today is still awash in U.S. weaponry, as 14- year-old children carry hand-me-down rifles through the streets of Mogadishu.