tornado33
21-04-2006, 02:45 PM
Howdy all
Stars with my 6 inch F3.6 Cometracker S.N. were flaring to one side, I had to investigate why, the secondary seemed to be loose and moving round, also it wasnt centrally under the focusser. So today I removed all the optics, cleaned the inside of the corrector plate and also the secondary, put it in with more packing, then centralised it under the focusser by adjusting the 3 allen screws on front of corrector plate, while turning the plate to get thinks fairly well aligned. I also centre spotted the primary mirror. The whole secondary mirror turns if I turn the centre large phillips head screw, so used that to get it precicely alinged, while tweaking the 3 allen head screws. Now when I look down the focusser the big secondary is precicely centred, and a laser collimator spot falls directly onto the centrespot on the primary mirror. I have high hope it will not produce better stars and more even (it used to have more coma on one side than the other, that wasnt right).
Its a daunting task taking off the corrector plate, had to remove the primary first and push it from the rear as it was stuck to the front rubber seal. The corrector isnt coated, so I can touch it without fear of scratching.
Scott
Stars with my 6 inch F3.6 Cometracker S.N. were flaring to one side, I had to investigate why, the secondary seemed to be loose and moving round, also it wasnt centrally under the focusser. So today I removed all the optics, cleaned the inside of the corrector plate and also the secondary, put it in with more packing, then centralised it under the focusser by adjusting the 3 allen screws on front of corrector plate, while turning the plate to get thinks fairly well aligned. I also centre spotted the primary mirror. The whole secondary mirror turns if I turn the centre large phillips head screw, so used that to get it precicely alinged, while tweaking the 3 allen head screws. Now when I look down the focusser the big secondary is precicely centred, and a laser collimator spot falls directly onto the centrespot on the primary mirror. I have high hope it will not produce better stars and more even (it used to have more coma on one side than the other, that wasnt right).
Its a daunting task taking off the corrector plate, had to remove the primary first and push it from the rear as it was stuck to the front rubber seal. The corrector isnt coated, so I can touch it without fear of scratching.
Scott