Catseye Collimation Tools

[astronut (John)]

I am now the proud owner of the Catseye 2" collimation set, comprising of the Telecat, Blackcat and the "new" Infinity XL-K.
I have started down the road of properly understanding what has to happen in your scope to have a properly aligned optical system.
It's going to be a steep learning curve, but well worth it.
I also ordered the new "Hotspot" centre spot for the primary, a great leap forward over the excellent "triangle spot" used previously by Catseye.
I won't be respotting the primary with the "Hotspot" until the mirror has been recoated in February.
I would like to thank Jim Fly (owner of Catseye Systems) and Jason Khadder (Jason D) for all their encouragment and ongoing help in understanding this great system.
I'll keep you in the loop....on my progress and the results.

Cheers, John.

[h0ughy (David)]

i still have mine , though i have sold the scope i used it on

[multiweb (Marc)]

Good stuff John. You'll never look back. I'm a long time converted Catseye fanboy too.

[mbaddah (Mo)]

Hi John congrats on the new tools! I look forward to seen what it's like out on the field

[erick (Eric)]

Same here . Very happy with the cheshire (Blackcat XL) and the autocollimator (Infinity XLK). The offset viewing pupil on the Infinity XLK is superb .

But discovered something interesting in the last two weeks. At 30+ deg, the cheshire would stick about 1.5cm from fully seated as I inserted it into the Moonlight focusser drawtube? Differential expansion? The autocollimator was OK and the cheshire would insert when the temperature got back down to around 20 deg. But it seemed to stick neatly on axis without any wobble, so I could still collimate.

[richardo (Rich)]

John I've been using the Infinity auto collimator and black cat XL since 06...
Gets my collimation dead on where it needs to be for imaging which is crucial for an f4 system.

Simplistic and works perfectly.

The only choice.

Rich

[catseyeman (Jim Fly)]

Originally Posted by erick

Same here . Very happy with the cheshire (Blackcat XL) and the autocollimator (Infinity XLK). The offset viewing pupil on the Infinity XLK is superb .

But discovered something interesting in the last two weeks. At 30+ deg, the cheshire would stick about 1.5cm from fully seated as I inserted it into the Moonlight focusser drawtube? Differential expansion? The autocollimator was OK and the cheshire would insert when the temperature got back down to around 20 deg. But it seemed to stick neatly on axis without any wobble, so I could still collimate.

Eric,

As you have experienced, the black Delrin (of which the BLACKCAT XL is made) WILL expand with temperature rise. It is adviseable to keep it in the shade especially in the summertime. If you follow that suggestion and it continues to give you a problem, contact me via private email and we'll work out a solution.

Regards,

Jim Fly

[erick (Eric)]

Thanks Jim, I will email you. Eric

[astronut (John)]

Well.....my 12" mirror has been expertly recoated by Isaac from Chi Qin...WOW what a difference at the eyepiece!!
This has now allowed me to fully utilise the capabilities of the Catseye system.
Whilst it has been a steep learning curve, I now have the understanding to precisely collimate my scope.
Again a big thank you to Jason D for his help.
If you want a truly accurate method of aligning your optical system, especially in the the critical area from F5 and below, then this is the system for you.

Cheers, John.

[Jason D (Jason)]

Originally Posted by astronut

Again a big thank you to Jason D for his help.

Glad to help
Jason

[Logieberra (Logan)]

Fantasic equipment. And thx for producing the video Jim:

http://www.youtube.com/user/catseyeman1