to achieve a precise collimation of the primary mirror; you
don’t have to guess where the center of the mirror is. You sim-
ply adjust the mirror position (described below) until the
reflection of the hole in the collimation cap is centered in the
ring. The center mark is also required for best results when
using other collimating devices, such as Orion’s LaserMate
Laser Collimator, obviating the need to remove the primary
mirror and mark it yourself.
Note: The center ring sticker need not ever be removed
from the primary mirror. Because it lies directly in the
shadow of the secondary mirror, its presence in no way
adversely affects the optical performance of the tele-
scope or the image quality. That might seem counterintu-
itive, but its true!
Aligning the Secondary Mirror
With the collimation cap in place, look through the hole in the
cap at the secondary (diagonal) mirror. Ignore the reflections
for the time being. The secondary mirror itself should be cen-
tered in the focuser drawtube, in the direction parallel to the
12
Figure 14.
To center the secondary mirror under the focuser,
hold the secondary mirror holder in place with one hand while
adjusting the center bolt with a Phillips screwdriver. Do not touch the
mirror’s surface. This adjustment will rarely need to be done.
Figure 15.
Adjust the tilt of the secondary mirror by loosening or
tightening the three alignment set screws with a 2mm Allen wrench.
Figure 13.
Collimating the optics. (a) When the mirrors are
properly aligned, the view down the focuser drawtube should look like
this (b) With the collimation cap in place, if the optics are out of
alignment, the view might look something like this. (c) Here, the
secondary mirror is centered under the focuser, but it needs to be
adjusted (tilted) so that the entire primary mirror is visible. (d) The
secondary mirror is correctly aligned, but the primary mirror still needs
adjustment. When the primary mirror is correctly aligned, the “dot” will
be centered, as in (e).
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Summary of Contents for SKYVIEW PRO 6LT EQ 9872
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