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ENGLISH I 23
ALIGNING THE SECONDARY MIRROR
Point the telescope at a lit wall look into the focuser without the eyepiece installed. You may have to twist the focus knob a few
turns until the reflected image of the focuser is out of your view. Keep your eye against the back of and centered in the focus
tube. Look for the three clips holding the primary mirror in place. If you can’t see them, it means that you will have to adjust the
three bolts on the top of the secondary mirror holder, with possibly an Allen wrench or Phillip’s screwdriver. You will have to
alternately loosen one and then compensate for the slack by tightening the other two. Stop when you see all three mirror clips.
Make sure that all three small alignment screws are tightened to secure the secondary mirror in place.
Primary Mirror Clip
Ignore the reflected
image for now
Primary Mirror Clip
Primary Mirror Clip
Primary Mirror Clip
ALIGNING THE PRIMARY MIRROR
There are 3 large bolts and 3 small screws at the back of your telescope. The large bolts are the adjusting screws and the small
screws are the locking screws. Loosen the large bolts by a few turns. Now run your hand around the front of your telescope
keeping your eye to the focuser, you will see the reflected image of your hand. The idea here being to see which way the primary
mirror is defected, you do this by stopping at the point where the reflected image of the secondary mirror is closest to the
primary mirrors’ edge.
When you get to that point, stop and keep your hand there while looking at the back end of your telescope, is there an adjusting
screw there? If there is you will want to loosen it (turn the screw to the left) to bring the mirror away from that point. If there isn’t
an adjusting screw there, then go across to the other side and tighten the adjusting screw on the other side. This will gradually
bring the mirror into alignment. (It helps to have a friend to help for primary mirror collimation. Have your partner adjust the
adjusting screws according to your directions while you look in the focuser).
After dark, go out and point your telescope at Polaris, the North Star. With an eyepiece in the focuser, take the image out of
focus. You will see the same image only now, it will be illuminated by starlight. If necessary, repeat the collimating process only
keep the star centered while tweaking the mirror.
Secondary Mirror
Primary Mirror
Stop and keep
your hand here
Both mirrors aligned with eye
looking in focuser
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