What collimation tool do you use?

[manny]

I use a Howie Glatter laser collimator with barlow lens. I every so often check collimation with a cheshire and find the Howie is always spot on.It is a well built and robust piece of equipment. It is a snug fit in focuser barrel and results are repeatable over & over again rotate collimator in focuser and dot stays centered no straying. But for all this to work centre spot on primary must be well centred as it must be for all laser collimators. It is an easy to use system for near perfect collimation.
I know catseye make an excellent product as well .
So what do you use?

Manny

[garin]

I currently use a Hotech laser collimator which I've found great, although i think the newer crosshair laser would be better.
I am gettting a new scope (newtonian) with a Feathertouch SIPs parrocor and I have read the Glatter T-Blug will allow you collimate with the SIPS in place.
Does anyone know if I can use the Hotech to collimate with the SIPs in place ?

[issdaol]

I use the Takahashi Mewlon collimation scope. However I only use it to check every now and because the M300 alignment has never budged even though I often cart it on the back seat of my 4wd to central NSW.

[AG Hybrid]

Qft

[barx1963]

I use a Howie Glatter laser by itself to tweak the secondary and with a TuBlug to tweak the primary.
I also use a Techron sight tube and Cheshire to initiall collimate, then tweak with the laser before a final check with the cheshire. This seems to work OK!

Malcolm

[brian nordstrom]

:) I use a cheap GSO laser to get it close then a star to get it perfect , works perfect on my C9.25.

Brian.

[JethroB76]

Astrosystems barlowed laser

[icytailmark]

i use a screw driver and a ccd camera

[Peter.M]

Cats eye are pretty simple to use, and extremely accurate.

[Asterix2020]

I use the Cats Eye tools. Also today I did a mod to my secondary holder as described here:
http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/193369-collimation-tip-bottle-washers/

It really does make the secondary adjustment so much smoother, no more backlash. I can get the 4 Cats Eye targets perfectly aligned now.

[Jason D]

I own both Glatter and Catseye. Both are great collimation tools.
Below are photos of my Catseye XLK-C with Clip-on red LED and my Glatter with TuBlug.
Jason

[Jason D]

:thumbsup:

[Asterix2020]

Thanks Jason for a great tip!

[Don Pensack]

Certainly Catseye and Glatter tools are top notch.
I have also found Farpoint tools well-made and accurate.
In combination tools, it's hard to beat Astrosystems or Catseye.
Even inexpensive lasers can have aperture stops added and be collimated to yield excellent results. BUT, many are undersized and fit the adapters sloppily. That issue goes away with a Glatter Parallizer adapter, as does the possibility of mis-registration of the adapter in a 2" focuser.

[ausastronomer]

I use the Tectron Tools, which I believe are no longer available. I have had them for a long time and they work well for me as I know what I am doing with them. I also have an Astrosystems Barlowed laser but that only ever confirms what I did with the Tectron Cheshire was spot on.

The new systems like Catseye and Glatter are obviously a lot newer and an improvement over the Tectron Tools. They are also likely to be a bit easier to use, I would assume. That having been said I have no doubt they would give me exactly the same result I get with my old boat anchors :)

Cheers,
John B

[Barrykgerdes]

I have not done a collimation on an SCT for some years but I never used any of the collimation tools recommended. My method was to first lock the mirror and use only the electric focuser of the LX200.

The telescope was mounted on a pier so that the corrector and secondary mirror were about 8ft off the ground, and in an almost inaccessible position. The answer to this was a CCD on a Barlow with its output feeding a monitor that I could see on a shelf while accessing the adjusting screws from a ladder. I used a nice bright star and adjusted the diffraction rings for symmetry while manually chasing the star with the hand controller.

Now I think of it I could probably rigged the CCD to track the star as well and considerably reduce the collimation time.

Barry