My dob arrived (see:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ead.php?t=9167 )! I am now going crazy about collimation (consulting the excellent article at:
http://skyandtelescope.com/printable...rticle_790.asp)... I've been all afternoon around my scope doing it and wishing I had plastic arms in order to reach the primary screws while looking through the Cheshire
(in fact the secondary alignment was much more difficult...). I need to do the star test now...
One of the spider vanes was bent (not by me! out of the box) out of shape but I only noticed it while looking through the collimation cap since one of the lines was "fatter" than the others - I aligned it the best I could with my fingers and I believe it is nearly as good as the others in terms of width. It isn't yet straight as it should be, but I believe fiddling with it too much will do more harm than good.
Ok, so - here's my question: While I am aligning the secondary with the focuser, using the Cheshire crosshairs, I use the three collimation screws in the secondary - fine. Done it. The next phase should be to center the primary mirror's reflection. But since this is done with the same three screws am I not messing what I did earlier on??
What's the point of the first step then? I suppose it is important IF you need to use the center screw in the secondary to center it... Am I right?