[Ryan101 (Ryan)]

I recently sold my beloved Marshall stack guitar amp. It was the only way I was going to afford my Saxon 12" Dobsonian. And at 40 I've kind of given up on being a rock star.

I read heaps on collimation before committing to buying a reflector and was a bit nervous about the whole thing. There's so much info on the best way to collimate, and everyone's way is the best way. 'Do this and don't do that, but don't do that and do it this way.

So to make it easier I bought a $80 laser collimator.

It took about an hour to collimate the collimator. I got the telescope all set up, great. Back inside after my first night observing I thought it best to check the alignment of the mirrors and guess what, it was miles out. I realised I didn't have the target on the collimator facing the primary mirror so gave the laser a spin and guess what, it was pointing at a completely different spot. What to do?

I made myself a collimation cap to see if things looked different. It was obvious straight away that everything was miles out.
It took me about an hour to get everything lined up with the cap, mainly because it is all new to me but I got there.

So from a beginner to other potential beginners, don't let collimation worry you and don't fall for the cheap laser collimator. (maybe a Gary Glitter is a different story). A simple collimation cap will do fine to start off with. After I got it all aligned with the cap the first time I immediately put everything out of whack and collimate it again. Then I did this again. After that it only takes about 5 mins.

Everyone's way is the right way and everyone else's way is wrong. Practice with what you learn on and this will become your right way.

Cheers
Ryan.