6 votes
Accepted

Can a Ritchey–Chrétien telescope be collimated using a standard Newtonian laser collimator?

No, the fundamental designs of the two types of telescope are in this respect quite different. The Newtonian laser collimator works by shining a laser through the eyepiece holder to the secondary ...
Mick's user avatar
  • 1,345
3 votes
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Laser Colimator vs Cheshire eyepiece

Why not both? (if you can afford them) Both will do the job, but each has its strengths. Cheshire eyepiece (or, more properly, Cheshire/sight tube combo, which is the popular combination nowadays): ...
Florin Andrei's user avatar
3 votes
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Newtonian reflector collimation question

Your scope is f/5. There will always be some coma aberration. Always, the image quality is worse as you get closer to the edge of the field of view (FOV). Personally, given that the fact that you will ...
astromath's user avatar
  • 316
3 votes
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Collimating with a home-made collimation cap

The Gary Seronik website that you cite is a good one - it's not leading you astray! There are a couple of important things to look at: Look straight down the main tube of your telescope at the ...
MartinV's user avatar
  • 644
2 votes
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Laser Collimator producing oval not circle on the Primary

This is a slightly tricky one. For a conventional Newtonian reflector, shining a laser collimator back over the secondary to the primary should present a small dot on the primary - the task then is to ...
MartinV's user avatar
  • 644
2 votes

Laser Collimator producing oval not circle on the Primary

First of all, what do stars look like through the scope, particular just inside and outside focus? If they are oval, then read on. I'm not familiar with this telescope, but I suspect the most likely ...
Dr Chuck's user avatar
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2 votes
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Telescope collimation issue

First off - good job for paying attention to collimation. For a newtonian telescope, it is as important as changing the oil on your car. It would help to know a little bit more about the telescope. ...
Florin Andrei's user avatar
2 votes

What are the aberrations of an SCT? And how can they be eliminated?

The primary aberration present in a Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope is spherical, due to the primary mirror being spherical in shape; that causes light at the edges to have a different path length than ...
Rob's user avatar
  • 2,616
1 vote

Is a mirror cell only necessary for collimation?

The primary mirror needs to be on a support (a mirror cell) that lets you adjust the tilt of the primary mirror. The turnbuckles you are describing change the tilt of the secondary mirror. It does not ...
JohnHoltz's user avatar
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1 vote
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Celestron C14 collimation and cleaning

Will this affect image quality? It depends on "where" the dust is located. If on the telescope, then not very much. If on the sensor, you'll get the shadows of the dust on your images (...
Tim Campbell's user avatar
  • 1,551
1 vote
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What are the aberrations of an SCT? And how can they be eliminated?

Astigmatism. No way to eliminate in SCT. Reduce it with proper fixing of every optical element. Astigmatism is only eliminated with 3-mirror scheme. Curvature of field. No way to eliminate in SCT. ...
sanaris's user avatar
  • 351
1 vote

collimating AstroMaster 114

With a tube length of 46 cm and a focal length of 100 cm, probably the AstroMaster 114EQ is not a classical Newtonian but uses a fast (e.g. f/4) spherical primary mirror and a corrector lens built ...
Mike G's user avatar
  • 18.2k
1 vote
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Laser Collimator For Dobsonian vs Newtonian

A Dob is a Newtonian, so yes it will work. Strictly speaking the Dob bit is the mount, but it's nearly always a newtonian that's mounted.
Dr Chuck's user avatar
  • 4,304
1 vote

I'm having trouble achieving sharp telescope focus

Did you try to slowly "fine tune" your focus when using the 10/6 mm eyepieces? The higher the magnification, the more sensitive focus is to adjustment.
Ramy Gaw's user avatar

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