|
Very basically if the mirror is out of perfect diagonal alignment with the tube, and the secondary mirror is not adequately compensated to reflect mirror light to the focuser and EP, very slight two dimensional image distortion of the viewing field will occur amoungst other things- think geometrically in three dimensions for the light path. In cases of quite bad alignment, it could mean that the the tube itself is not pointing exactly at the object of interest, or it is slightly off axis to the target being viewed. This will not aid your focusing of the object across its arc.
I am no optical technician so perhaps the more experienced members can shed greater light here. Collimating a Newt. is nothing to be scared of, and there is heaps of info on the subject just do a google search. Past threads on this site have discussed the subject also. I personally have found the old film canister with a 1/16" hole drilled into its lid and its base cut off to be more than enough to keep things running true in a Newt. Hope this helps a bit.
( we are all Isaacs children)
Steve M
|