Collimating a scope ( and some questions )

Onesimus

Hello,

Someone I know has a Luxon reflector scope. 76mm 900mmFL

Is there someone or somewhere you could guide me towards that show how to collimate it? Reflector mirrors as you already know need this before using the scope.

How do I go about doing that? and how good would observation be with such a focal size and aperture of 76mm?

Thanks for all your help,

The beginner,
Onesimus

dlofnep

I use a laser collimator.

Guide here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/diy/3306876.html

peterako

Astro Baby's Guide to Collimation taught me how to do it!

And I've found it to be the most usefull of any guide I've found (and I've found a lot of guides).

Once you have the mirrors roughly aligned a star test is relatively easy after you get used to how to adjust your primary mirror.

If you don't have at least RA tracking you might need to use something like Polaris to do this....

Clear skies,
Peter

Popoutman

I've collimated a good few scopes over the past 20 years with varying success. The most useful tool I've used is this celestron combination tool.
In order (if relevant):
Ensure that the focuser is aligned square-on to the tube.
Align the secondary mirror to appear centered in the focuser tube.
Align the secondary mirror tilt to point to the centre of the primary mirror (put a ring binder reinforcer on the exact centre of the primary mirror for this)
Align the tilt of the primary mirror such that the reflection of the silvered angled portion of the collimating tool is centered.
After all of these steps you're likely to be good enough for most work. The fine tuning by collimation by examination of very slightly defocused star images is a bit trickier.

the best advice would be to bring the scope to a local astronomy club get-together where someone that knows how to do it can be helpful in showing you how to do it properly.