frustrated.. just want to vent it out. bad night twice in a row.. yesterday i can't get my 8" to come into focus. ok so today i decided to go down to bunnings and got myself some longer collimation screws so i can move the primary abit closer to the focuser. got home and start fitting them in with some longer springs as well. Here's the breakdown:
6:00-8:00pm: setup all my equipment etc waiting for the sky to clear. I got focus alrite no problems but my stars from the top right to bottom left are ovals and don't come to focus? middle of the pic to top left seems to be ok. . alrite so i thought it has to be the tilt of the primary mirror to the top left. grabbed my laser collimator and rechecked. battery was flat.
8:00-9:00pm: drove down to bunnings again and got myself some batteries for the collimator. rechecked once again and seems to be ok. took another pic of M8. again the samething with the stars.
9:00pm-11:00pm : took the scope back into the house changed the collimation screws back to the originals and test the scope once again this time with the DSI II. samething. the stars are oval around the edges so it wasnt the collimation screws.
11:00-1:00am: packed up equipment called it a night and took a closer look at the scope. seems like mirrors weren't aligned properly according to my film canister method. after a few twist of the collimation screws from the secondary mirror holder, it had no affect. took secondary mirror out and noticed the screws were actually drilling holes into it!. The holder was made of hollow plastic!!
no matter this can be fixed quite easily from a big nut washer.
2:30am drove down to local 24 hours K-Mart. they dont sell big washers on their own. Asked shop assistance if they have any, he suggested car baby seat holder kit has a big washer inside. $10.99 for the kit . Due to desperation i bought it just for the washer lol . Was just about to setup my equipment once again wasn't worth it in the end as it was already 3:15am.
Gee's... i feel like wasted the night.. oh well.. have to wait for another clear melb night.. not too sure when that will be again.
oh , my main question is what is wrong with my scope causing the stars only from the top right to bottom left to be like that? collimation? initially, i thought that might be coma, but coma should be spread evenly around the entire image and stars on the edge should be in focus.
oh its not polar alignment or mount tracking etc. a test pic from my guidescope appears fine.
thanks for listening.