|
Hi Gary,
The answer in the end is basically each to his/her own. Some people can become so retentive about it they spend more time collimating than observing. I like to think I'm a bit more relaxed than that. Collimate as often as you feel you need to do it. Don't sit around feeling guilty about it — enjoy the 'scope.
Collimation is like riding a bicycle and the more/more often you do it the better you become at it. At the start, it can be tremendously frustrating once you start fiddling but eventually, once you learn the ropes and become familiar with the routine, it won't seem like a burden at all — just like a guitarist tuning up before they play. The first time you do it you will likely make a dog’s breakfast of it (like many, if not most of us) but don’t worry at all, there’s nothing (well, very, very little) that can’t be fixed with a few simple turns of the knobs – and there’s plenty of advice on tap here – just search the threads for a start and ask more questions. Join a club
If a newtonian is permanently mounted somewhere and it has a reasonably solid mirror cell it likely won't need collimation often — and then only an occasional tweak to fine tune.
Solid tubes that are assembled/disassembled moved around/transported and used a lot require it more.
A truss-tube dob basically needs collimation every time you assemble it because it simply won't go together precisely the same way every time -- no matter how well made it is. Even so, with my 18”, I rarely have to collimate the secondary and provided I've got an assistant to turn the knobs while I look in the cheshire, it rarely takes more than a minute.
My home-made solid tube 31cm on GEM has very robust cells (Novak) and hardware and even after the longest/bumpiest trip it rarely needed more than a tiny tweak. More often than not, it was spot on — so, well engineered 'scopes also need less attention. Mass-market solid tube dobs probably need a bit more attention for best performance.
Best of luck with it and remember — don’t feel guilty about it. Equally, don’t feel frightened of the telescope either, newtonians are not easily broken!
Best,
Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T
|