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Old 30-08-2007, 09:00 AM
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niko
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Posts: 1,053
Hi prova,

not much more than a newbie myself but here's my two cents worth...

We recently got help to collimate our scope (an 8" dob) and even under the full moon conditions of recent days(nights) Jupiter's details were much more obvious than with the previously uncollimated scope. Collimation is the alignment of the primary and secondary mirrors.

The issue you describe re the finderscope is one of alignment not collimation. You need to align the finderscope and the telescope. This is best done in daylight and then will give you time to allow the scope the "cool" - reach the same ambient temp as the air around it - before you begin viewing.

The finderscope should have some screws/knobs on the bracket. You use these to zero the finderscope and the telescope onto the same object. It's the same principle that a rifle scope uses - yopu have to align it and the barrel so they point at the same thing (sorry for the gun analogy but I'm struggling fort words to describe it clearly).

Lastly, don't get tempted to expect the same level of seeing through your telescope that some of the pictures here suggest and as iceman says, "seeing" is a skill that you get better at with time and practice.

Also, if you've been observing Jupiter with the moon around it's probably been interferring a bit - you need dark sky to get the best results.

Good luck and have fun

niko

PS - we bought a cheshire collimation tool for about $50 after advice that it was more versitile than a laser one (tho I can see us getting one of those too in the not-to-distant future!)
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