[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

DJ - is your 2" to 1.25" adapter (that you are mounting the Cheshire in) tight and free of slop? It sounds as though it may be de-centering the Cheshire as you tighten either the 2" focuser clamp or the 1.25" adapter clamp - or both. The new laser collimator is a 2" unit in itself - so it eliminates any misalignment in the second (1.25" adapter) unit as it doesn't use it. Overriding rule of thumb - make sure that you seat the collar around the collimator as FLAT as can on to the edge of the focuser.

If you loosen the clamp ring, how much slop is there if you jiggle the collimator with the laser on?

I'd be interested to see now the star test goes and we'll go from there. I've heard of people discovering that their secondary was way off due to the fact that they never got their Cheshire or other 1.25" devices to sit square in the first place. The secondary holder might actually be offset too - just because the 45° angle is correct (to get the spot hitting the target on the primary) doesn't mean that your spider is laterally centred - and this can be compounded if the clamps put the Cheshire out of centre as well.

Lemme know!