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60908_EN_Instruction Manual_REV_A
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To achieve this view, you will have to experiment with the four screws, but once you have done this a few times, you will
become familiar with the process.
1.3. Secondary orientation.
In the last step, you have
to adjust the secondary in such a way that you can see
the complete primary mirror in the secondary. This has
been achieved when you can see the (three) primary
clamps. Two of them are indicated in Picture 4. Here,
the third clamp is still a little bit outside the secondary,
but the secondary is almost perfectly collimated.
The two narrow grey areas near the lower rim of the
secondary are the shadows thrown by the sheet of
paper still in the OTA. On the upper part of the
secondary, you can see a part of the focuser tube
protruding into the telescope OTA. The shadow of the
secondary is not in the centre of the primary yet. This
will be done in the next step: collimating the primary.
At this stage, it is not necessary to have all the
elements 100% concentric to each other. All the
previous steps were only in order to illuminate the
field of view more or less concentrically. Even if the
secondary is not in perfect collimation, this will have
no influence on image quality. The primary, however,
should be collimated as well as possible.
2. Primary mirror.
After secondary collimation, slide the Collimating
Eyepiece out of the focuser until the opening on its
side is completely free and is directed towards a bright
surface, e.g. a window. You will now see a bright ring
in the shadow from the secondary (1). Superimposed
on the bright ring, but not concentric to it, is a dark
ring (2). This is the shadow of the central marking in
the centre of the primary (see Picture 5). Most
Newtonian telescopes come with this marking already
there. In this picture, the primary is fairly badly
decollimated.
Last step: Primary collimation. The bright ring (opening of the Collimating Eyepiece) and the dark ring (centre marking on the
primary) must be concentric (as shown in Picture 6). Use the collimation screws at the rear of the primary mirror cell. Here
again, you will become more experienced after some practice.
Collimation completed! Do not forget to remove the sheet of paper!
Picture 4. Secondary correctly collimated.
Picture 5. Primary decollimated.
Picture 6. Primary collimated.
