I'm not too sure yet whether I'm there yet with the collimation of my Epsilon, but, on Saturday, for the first time in the four months since I got it, I had a peek through the window here at the treelined skyline across the valley and had what looked to be a sharp, unaberrated, FOV edge to edge. A Eureka moment.
I think it was on the following night that I had a chance to set it up outside on the NJP. Sure enough, just when I'd screwed everything down tight, along came the overcast and covered everything up but for the moon and Capella over my head. Even Betelgeuse was lost to view. Anyway, I managed to do the inside - outside focus routine on Capella such as it was and discovered that the collimation didn't appear to be that good, ( it seemed )as there were two distinctly different pictures to see. Still, it seemed to want to focus which is some milestone I have to say.
The crucial element to my modest success was a fellow Astromarter called Ken Inoue who PM'd me last week to offer to have a look at the untranslated pages of the E180 handbook and see if he could have a go and tease some meaning out of the Japanese therein. And he did. Superbly. After I'd mailed the files of the six relevant pages to him, in no time flat - it seemed like - he mailed me back a wonderfully worded, condensed, annotated translation of the wordage. Wherein the words corresponded to the many illustrations and,..joy..everything began to make sense. Relief !
Within about a half hour, I'd got it to what, I suppose, must a first approximation. Somehow I've got to learn how to do the remaining collimation photographically. Which will be a first should I succeed.
I've got loads more to say about this saga. But briefly, I suspect the f2.8 Epsilon is a whole lot harder to collimate from scratch than any of the other Epsilons. The wordage and number of illustrations relating to collimation far exceed, in quality of drawing and by several pages, that of either of the other two Epsilon manuals I have,(..the '160' and '210') leading me to think that Tak. really want you get it 'right', and that there's only one way to do it. That's 'their way'. No shortcuts. A laser collimator, from scratch, isn't going to do it I'm pretty sure. Use the Tak. col.tubes and you're nearly there in the thread of logic.
Anyway, a big thank you to you all who expressed an interest in my dilemma, I'm grateful. And, naturally enough, to Ken Inoue for his masterful Japanese translation. He really ought to be given the job of translating the whole of the Takahashi range of handbooks, which, if not opaque to understanding are mediocre at best. Ken not only knows the language but he knows the nuances of telescopes too, and that's a big plus. I suspect that Takahashi hire an outside wordsmith to do their translations when they bother. Well, it's a thought.
Right, I'd best scarper.
Cheers,
Bruce
I think it was on the following night that I had a chance to set it up outside on the NJP. Sure enough, just when I'd screwed everything down tight, along came the overcast and covered everything up but for the moon and Capella over my head. Even Betelgeuse was lost to view. Anyway, I managed to do the inside - outside focus routine on Capella such as it was and discovered that the collimation didn't appear to be that good, ( it seemed )as there were two distinctly different pictures to see. Still, it seemed to want to focus which is some milestone I have to say.
The crucial element to my modest success was a fellow Astromarter called Ken Inoue who PM'd me last week to offer to have a look at the untranslated pages of the E180 handbook and see if he could have a go and tease some meaning out of the Japanese therein. And he did. Superbly. After I'd mailed the files of the six relevant pages to him, in no time flat - it seemed like - he mailed me back a wonderfully worded, condensed, annotated translation of the wordage. Wherein the words corresponded to the many illustrations and,..joy..everything began to make sense. Relief !
Within about a half hour, I'd got it to what, I suppose, must a first approximation. Somehow I've got to learn how to do the remaining collimation photographically. Which will be a first should I succeed.
I've got loads more to say about this saga. But briefly, I suspect the f2.8 Epsilon is a whole lot harder to collimate from scratch than any of the other Epsilons. The wordage and number of illustrations relating to collimation far exceed, in quality of drawing and by several pages, that of either of the other two Epsilon manuals I have,(..the '160' and '210') leading me to think that Tak. really want you get it 'right', and that there's only one way to do it. That's 'their way'. No shortcuts. A laser collimator, from scratch, isn't going to do it I'm pretty sure. Use the Tak. col.tubes and you're nearly there in the thread of logic.
Anyway, a big thank you to you all who expressed an interest in my dilemma, I'm grateful. And, naturally enough, to Ken Inoue for his masterful Japanese translation. He really ought to be given the job of translating the whole of the Takahashi range of handbooks, which, if not opaque to understanding are mediocre at best. Ken not only knows the language but he knows the nuances of telescopes too, and that's a big plus. I suspect that Takahashi hire an outside wordsmith to do their translations when they bother. Well, it's a thought.
Right, I'd best scarper.
Cheers,
Bruce
