Software for collimating SCT and other telescopes.

[anthony2302749]

Hi all

This little program may interest people who want to get the best out of their telescope. It is called Metaguide (http://www.astrogeeks.com/Bliss/MetaGuide/) and it is design to help collimate telescope using a webcam. I have been using it to collimate my 14" SCT over several nights and I am at the stage now with the program where I am down to the fine adjustment, that is just a tweak on one collimation screw.

The program work in the following way 1. it gives you a live view of the star in the main screen. 2. The program then takes the best images of the said star and stacks them and displays this image on the lower right hand side of the screen, It does it so well that you can see the Ary Disk. This mini screen also displays a red squire, this indicates the direction of misalignment.

To collimate, all you need to do is make adjustment to the collimation screws until the red squire is over the centre on the Ary Disk nothing can be any easier and this is done in real time.

Anthony

P.S. By using this program I have seen great improvement in my SCT I hope to display the fruits of my labor in the form of a image once the weather clears.

[matt]

Looks interesting, Anthony. Many thanks for the link. I'll try it out.

Do you have a barlow in place when carrying your collimation out with the software?

[anthony2302749]

Hi Matt

Yes on the barlow. Once you down load the software and hook it up to a webcam you can then enter specifications about your telescope/webcam such aperture, focal lenght, barlow and central obstructions. The software requires this info for calculating observed diffraction pattern with theory, including secondary obstruction effects.

Originally Posted by matt

Looks interesting, Anthony. Many thanks for the link. I'll try it out.

Do you have a barlow in place when carrying your collimation out with the software?

[davewaldo]

WOw, this sounds awesome! I'll certainly give it a try!

Thanks for posting.

[AndrewJ]

It also acts as a guider, so if you do your collimation slowly enough, it apparently can re centre the target star as you go
No need to go to the Hbx after each tweak

Andrew

[Matty P (Matt)]

Thanks for posting Anthony.

I've been looking for something like this for a while. Collimation can be challenging sometimes.

[Matty P (Matt)]

I don't think that this software supports TIS cameras.

I could be wrong.

[edwardsdj (Doug)]

Thanks heaps for that. I've been looking for a way to collimate from the webcam but seeing has always defeated me.