Posts Made By: Philip Sawyer

Ok I need comfort and pity: Last night the sky appeared clear to the naked eye. I let my 10" Orion XT cool for an hour then i tried to look at Mars with a 4.5 mm eyepiece. Should have provided about a 250 magnification. The image was so wavy that all I could see was a faint, intermittent view of a dark band at the equator and the hint of some white on the bottom edge. Is anyone having better luck with their images? Should the view be better at 250? I know that is a loaded question and my success or lack thereof could be collimation skill or seeing, but I checked the collimation with my laser. The sky looked so clear to the naked eye that I felt it impossible for the seeing to be off. Will someone tell me that 250 is too low power to see any real detail before I have to go knutz??

Goodday everyone:
Last weekend I pulled my 10 inch Orion apart ( took out the mirror) for the second time to blow off the dust on the mirror. After putting it back together, I proceeded to collimate with the Howie Glatner laser collimator. I was able to get the "dots" to line up but I became concerned when I realized that one of the locking nuts was not touching the mirror cell and one of the adjustment screws was screwed in almost to its limit. I am sure this means that the mirror is in a unstable position but no matter how much adjusting I do with the mirror alignment screws I cant get the mirror collimated and have the locking screws touch the mirror cell.....any thoughts or advice?

Hello Ed:

I am so jealous! I have been toying with the idea of an all spherical primary long focus. Perhaps you could share some of your experience/wisdom? Is there any special correction required for the secondary or will a simple flat diagonal do the job?