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William Optics 110ed

Started by mtech325, 11/13/2010 05:49PM
Posted 11/13/2010 05:49PM Opening Post
Hello. I recently picked up a WO Megrez 110ed. The previous owner took excellent care of it. I was finally able to take it out last night for the first time. I used a televue diag. and a 50mm televue eyepiece with it. First visual of the moon was excellent. First visual of Jupiter was good, had a bit of CA, but it is very bright and that was to be expected. I then waited until Orion came up later in the night. The nebula looked really nice, however, when I pointed to some brighter stars it appeared as though it was out of collimation. Is there a way to collimate this scope? I did a search to see if there was but I did not find anything. Thank you for the help.
Posted 11/13/2010 09:42PM #1
Hi Kevin, I had a Megrez 110 that I used exclusively for AP. The collimation was perfect in my sample. However, like with many of the WO scopes, bright stars exhibited spikes which was quite obvious in photos only. There were some post out there suggesting this artifact was a result of the spacers protruding into the light path which didn't entirely make sense to me. I removed the lens cell, and loosened the retainer ring on the rear lens. On the side of the lens cell there is a ring of felt. Underneath the felt, there are three (or 4??) plastic screws which I loosened as well. The screws are covered with glue so make sure you clean the slots before trying to turn them. I tapped the lens cell lightly with the scope facing down to center the rear element. I tightened the retainer ring just enough to hold lens in place. I star tested and the collimation was certainly out. I adjusted the side screws until the collimation was perfect again. Don't apply too much pressure on these screws since they are plastic and can easily be stripped. The pressure on the lens was culprit for the spikes on the stars. Subsequent photos were spike free and the collimation was perfect again. The scope was now a much better performer than it was before. I would strongly recommend you send the scope to WO to have this work done if it's under warranty or if you don't fully understand the mechanics of the collimation procedure.
I found the instructions posted somewhere a few years back but I don't remember by whom or where. It certainly wasn't by trial and error. Good luck with it.
Faron