darbyvet
04-06-2011, 04:02 AM
Hi Folks,
I have been lurking on this forum for a while and have learned an AMAZING amount of stuff.What a fabulous resource.I am a beginner astrophotgrapher and I am trying my hand at planetary imaging.
I have a celestron c11 edgde HD on a cgem mount. THis scope has locks to fix the primary mirror in place to prevent mirror flop.
The scope seemed out of collimation based on a star test so I bought an artificial star and got what I thought was pretty good collimation.
I tried pointing at a star close to the zenith and it looked like the collimation was off to one side. Is it possible that mirror flop could be the cause of the change in collimation?
I was thinking of picking a star close to my subject (saturn) and getting the focus close and then locking the mirror and using the 10:1 focusser I have on the back for fine focus so i can see diffraction rings and collimate.Does this make sense?
I dont have good seeing very often so I thought the artificial star would help-but I dont know why moving the scope from horizintal to vertical caused the shift in collimation. All 3 collimation screws are pretty tight so i dont think it is movement of the secondary mirror.
I have been lurking on this forum for a while and have learned an AMAZING amount of stuff.What a fabulous resource.I am a beginner astrophotgrapher and I am trying my hand at planetary imaging.
I have a celestron c11 edgde HD on a cgem mount. THis scope has locks to fix the primary mirror in place to prevent mirror flop.
The scope seemed out of collimation based on a star test so I bought an artificial star and got what I thought was pretty good collimation.
I tried pointing at a star close to the zenith and it looked like the collimation was off to one side. Is it possible that mirror flop could be the cause of the change in collimation?
I was thinking of picking a star close to my subject (saturn) and getting the focus close and then locking the mirror and using the 10:1 focusser I have on the back for fine focus so i can see diffraction rings and collimate.Does this make sense?
I dont have good seeing very often so I thought the artificial star would help-but I dont know why moving the scope from horizintal to vertical caused the shift in collimation. All 3 collimation screws are pretty tight so i dont think it is movement of the secondary mirror.