I've found collimation to be crucial for planetary work. weather it be visual or photographic. I can't speak for photographing DSOs but I hesitate to say collimation for visual DSOs....you don't need to be anywhere near as fussy for these. At least that's what I've found.
IE: I've looked at jupiter with the newt way out of collimation, & it was a terrible view....turn the scope to a glob or even M42 & I could'nt detect the difference between good collimation & cra....crummy collimation.
BTW My jupe shot is 6 shots I took 2 yrs ago before I knew about stacking. The originals were VERY mediocre shots, taken while I was still learning the ropes with the kodak. Can't remember what the seeing was like @ the time. Not good by looking at the originals.
H0ughy, both are critical. Collimation and seeing go hand in hand. Point having good seeing with bad collimation. My scope is under constant tweeking to achieve perfection in collimation.
This is so much fun, the more you try the more you discover.
I agree with you Paul, 101 %.
Collimation and seeing play a huge part in the final quality.
Although I am guilty in not taking the time to collimate the SCT,
partly because I was in a hurry and partly because I use to be scared .
I know, I know
Andrew, collimation is less scary on an SCT than on a Newtonian. I know what you are saying though. First time I collimated was after installing bobs knobs, and the scope was all over the place. But I had collimated Newtonians before and thought how hard could it be?
H0ughy, both are critical. Collimation and seeing go hand in hand. Point having good seeing with bad collimation. My scope is under constant tweeking to achieve perfection in collimation.
I need to have a few lessons on this, one so I dont stuff up and two , i have the bobs knobs but haven't installed them yet for the first reason. Vicious circle
Just follow the instructions to a T, Make sure you only change one screw at a time. That is most important. It is actually very easy to do, don't be scared.
I need to have a few lessons on this, one so I dont stuff up and two , i have the bobs knobs but haven't installed them yet for the first reason. Vicious circle
Yeah what Paul said.
They are very easy to install Dave but follow the instructions exactly.
Once installed they are a pleasure to use. What I find difficult, appart from the fear that I will tighten/loosen too far is, on the 12" it's impossible to reach to the front and adjust while looking through the EP.
But now you and I will both take a deep breath and go for it, right Dave?
Oh nooooooooo I just cracked the corrector........
Not trying to hijack your thread Rocketboy. But you've got me on a roll re-processing wise. Searched the puter & came up with 3 more below average joop shots from a coupla years ago. I stacked em' & came up with this image. Got a lot of noise & has that grainy look but oh well. Hence the smaller the image the better it looks lol.
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Oh nooooooooo I just cracked the corrector........
Searched the puter & came up with 3 more below average joop shots from a coupla years ago. I stacked em' & came up with this image. Got a lot of noise & has that grainy look but oh well. Hence the smaller the image the better it looks lol.
