Quote:
Originally Posted by OzStarGazer
By the way mine is collimated too at the moment and I will certainly not touch it until I need to. There is no need to fix what is not broken, but it is good to know what to do/ be prepared when need arises. 
PS: The article is very good, I have bookmarked it. Thank you! |
I have a slightly different view. Collimation is something you should feel confident about and the only way to get confident is to touch it! I would actually setup your collimation device, and have a very little play with the setting. Eg, turn one of the primary setting knobs half a turn and see what effect that has. The advantage of doing this is that if you are systematic and careful, you can always reverse the process. But it gives you a good feel for what the various adjustments actually do!
I have done this with all my scopes, gives me a very clear picture of how much I need to tweak things.
In addition I recommend checking and tweaking the collimation on a scope each time it is taken out. Even minor transport will move things around. And the min benefit is that collimation becomes second nature and when the time comes for a major collimation exercise (such as after a mirror clean, a mirror cell rebuild etc) it is a much easier exercise.
Malcolm