From: "Jack Schmidling" 
To: 
Reply-To: "Jack Schmidling" 


Seeming too old to understand much of the discussion on coma/tilt etc. I
bought a laser collimator from Orion to see what that was all about.

What I received is nothing like what I expected.  I rather thought one
looked through this thing and lined up a bunch of red spots and voila!
Perfect collimation.

What I got is a 1.25" eyepiece-like device with a laser coming out one
end, hopefully in the center and pointing straight.

All adjustments are made looking down the scope from the front end by
peeking past the diagonal.

My first question is:  Are they all like this or is this some Orion
"innovation"?

Assuming they are all like this, how is it possible to align things when
looking off axis with the diagonal blocking an on axis view.

It is obvious that this thing is no better than the care that went into
aligning the laser and this could be all over the place.

I find it interesting that when I adjust the diagonal with a sight tube and
peephole and then insert the laser, dot is never on the center of the
mirror.  This either says it is more accurate than the somewhat subjective
eyeball method or
something else that is not good.

On the other hand, I find lining up the dots when tweeking the primary to
be far more ambiguous and confusing than when using a peep hole and spot on
the mirror.

What confuses me even further is that there are really 4 spots to deal with
and no explanation of what the 4th one represents.

I put one spot on the center of the mirror by adjusting the diagonal and
then adjust two other spots for coincidence but then there is another one
near the center that I do not
understand.  If I were starting at this point I would think it was out of
collimation and try to move one of the other on top of it.

So..... a little help please?

js

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