Hookedonsaturn,
Not sure where you live but if you have a good telescope shop near by with friendly staff go an ask to be shown what it is ment to look like.
The weekend just gone I visited Bintel in Melbourne (1.5 hours from home) to pick up more goodies including their lazer collimator. I asked how it should be used and 20 mins later I had been shown what a baddly collimated scope looks like what to adjust and when and then what it looks like when the job is done. Thanks guys what a great help.
I now have the cheshire eye piece and the lazer collimator and both are prized pieces of equipment in my tool box.
The advice above is good, watch the video several time to get the idea of what it should look like. From the video instructions after you first adjust your secondary the view through the focuser tube may not show the primary and secondary perfectly alinged. Make sure your secondary miror is central in the focusor and then adjust the tilt screws on the secondary to put the primary centre dot in the centre of the secondary miror, dont worry if the whole picture does not look central. Once that is done then adjust the primary miror screws to bring everything into alingnment.
MOST IMPORTANT WATCH THE VIDEO SEVERAL TIMES.
I had problems trying to collimate but when you are shown what to look for you think to yourself how easy is that.
The tools mentioned above are a great help. Last night was the first night that I was able to get out with my scope due to rain and cloudy nights and what a difference a propperly alinged scope makes.
I hope my ramblings may be of some help, take it one step at a time and above all just have fun.
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