[jps]

I've got the bright star blues. I think I'm convinced I will never get good bright star images with my F4 8" Newtonian. When I have everything right like seeing, collimation, thermal equilibrium, good eyepiece, things are improved. No matter what I do I can't get a good image on the 1st magnitude stars.

So, perhaps a Jim Fly set of collimation tools to provide precision collimation. Would this give me what I want?

Or, would that $330 be better of going toward a cheap refractor.

To be able to split most of the bright multiples on a decent seeing night, what would I require?

These are my thoughts(please correct me where I'm wrong).

Magnification required for the job: about 90x
Decent seeing provides: 30x per inch of aperture
Aperture required: 3 inches(I think that's about 76mm).

If this is correct, might I get away with the skywatcher 70mm F10 refractor for $200 from Andrews. The next size up is the 90mm for $400.

Any comments greatly appreciated.