|
'Morning, Ozfifer. Do you play the penny whistle?
A collimating tool is a device that assists you to align your mirrors and focussing tube. Anyone with a reflector type telescope will gain from owning one. Don't be put off by the jargon; 'collimate' is a word that simply means 'to bring into line'.
You can make such a tool yourself with the cannister for 35mm film or you can buy a 'Cheshire' or 'Laser' unit from a telescope shop. The Cheshire unit involves sighting through a pin hole in the construct whilst the laser usually relies on a laser beam (very low power) being emitted from your focuser (that's the eyepiece holder) to the secondary mirror, down to the primary mirror and then back via the same route.
Correct alignment is important. It's not hard to do but at times it can be finicky.
I suspect that if you put the word 'collimation' into the search facility (see top of this page) you will come up with a wealth of information.
|