The Importance of Understanding Telescope Collimation
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Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2011 Time: 2:45 AM
There is nothing more aggravating than setting up your telescope for an evening of stargazing only to discover that all the images appear fuzzy! We've all been there and this can happen with any type of telescope. The odds are that your telescope is in need of collimating to improve its functionality. So what is telescope collimation and how will it help the amateur astronomer? Collimating a telescope refers to the process of lining up its optical components in their appropriate positions to increase its efficiency. These components are your mirrors, lenses, eyepieces and prisms. This needs to be done very carefully and precisely or otherwise your image quality will be poor. Collimation is an essential process to learn regardless of the type of telescope you own and a nightly check only requires a few seconds with a minute's adjusting where necessary. You can do a quick test of your telescope's collimation by centering a bright star in the eyepiece that will provide a high magnification. When this star is out of focus it will look like a doughnut shape with a dark centre. On a well aligned telescope, this dark patch will sit perfectly centralised within the bright ring. Your optics are in need of alignment when this dark patch is not centred. Manufacturers of telescopes collimate their equipment as a standard practice prior to transport, so you're probably querying why you would need to change their settings. You would expect a telescope supplier to know more about this than you, right? A lot can happen to your telescope between when it is transported and when it arrives on your doorstep and it may have lost much of its collimation. Long journeys often involve shaking and jarring which can result in optics going out of alignment. In any event, factory collimated refractor, Schmidt-Cassegrain or Maksutov telescopes are more likely to retain their adjustments than Newtonian telescopes. Briefly, to collimate your telescope you work from the eyepiece and make your way to the main mirror. You then alter the secondary mirror, so you can see the main mirror within it centrally. You then adjust the main mirror to see the top of the tube and secondary mirror within that centrally. Due to the distinctiveness of different telescope models and types, each has their own collimation process. So be sure to study your instruction manual carefully to find out the exact telescope collimation process for your make and model. Seeing nice crisp, clear images of the night sky will increase your enjoyment as an amateur astronomer.
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