Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
Stephen, others will disagree, but I reckon you are looking for "good enough" collimation on your dob for visual work and I reckon you reach that point well before the photographers are happy with their collimation.
|
Hi Eric,
That depends on how serious you take your visual observing. When you have the very best of equipment for visual observing, with a lot of $$$$$ tied up in it, you don't do a 1/2 pied job of collimating the telescope when you wheel it out. I will guarantee you, my scope is collimated as well as anything on the field, each and every time I set it up. But that is just how I like to be. I know plenty of visual observers with plenty of $$$$$ tied up in their equipment and they don't bother to spend any time collimating their scope. FWIW I don't spend much time looking through these.
To the original poster:-
If you intend to get serious about your observing, buy a high quality collimater now. You will still have it long after your current telescope has gone to greener pastures and you have progressed to high end equipment. The Astrosystems, Glatter and Cat's Eye are all good. Like most things in life you get what you pay for. The cheaper units are hit and miss. Somtimes they are out of collimation themselves, they do not produce a circular beam and the lasers in them can suddenly stop working and they go straight in the trash.
Cheers,
John B