@@astronomylivestream Thanks for confirming. I have not used the software yet but I figured there would be a way in there to flip the controls in program. I came here to ask this lol
To put an exclamation point on what Dylan said, High Point Scientific has some of the best customer support I have ever found in ANY company I've ever done business with. They are ALWAYS my first stop for astronomy needs. And no, I don't work for them or have any vested interest. They's just really, really good at what they do and deserve recognition.
The outro got my sub, the video was top notch ofcourse and i paid attention the entire time. I guess i've ventured down the right path, because i too have that "eccentric" mindset. Wish i was able to look through a telescope a lot sooner than 30, but it was worth the wait.
It maybe an older video but this is an excellent resource. I have just purchased a set of Bob's Knobs having watched this video and removing the risk of accidentally hitting the telescope corrector with a screw driver. I think this will make collimation a lot easier and I noticed the collimation screws are wearing a bit. Finding a number of your other videos are excellent to watch as well so appreciate what you have done :)
I definitely give Highpoint Scientific a recommend any time I can. The free customer support is awesome. They put me on just the right items I was needing for my Orion ED80t and made it quick and painless.
Trying to collimate my first sct evolution 9.25. This video is among few others is the best guide with useful tips. Thanks Dylan. Keep doing great videos.
Thank you for this info. It's quite helpful in my journey to understand my wife's hobby beyond "Go load that in the truck and don't break it". I will say, I kept backing up to clarify - "is he saying to look at the heat radiating off his hand or the hate radiating"? Either way, it kind of worked and wouldn't have surprised me.
This image is FAR better than I can get with my 8" SCT + 2.5 barlow, even with good collimation. I will say that seeing conditions have been kind of crap here for the last couple of weeks-- VERY humid. Great vid!
Thanks Dylan. Thumbs up for Bob’s knobs. I have them on my 9.25 SCT (should have got the Edge HD but cheaped out) Highpoint Scientific is great too. I picked up a small Meade refractor for my nephews from then on a past visit to the US. Excellent service and fast delivery.
Wolfie6020 thanks man.. I like bobs knobs! Some people are dead against them but I really like em. Good to hear the sponsor gets such a good wrap too... makes me feel confident having them in the vids :)
You can collimate your SCT in the day as there is a technique you can you use, or an artificial star. Bobs nobs will often need to collimate. Using the standard screws won't need to collimate so much, if at all for some people. Just got a Celestron Evolution 9.25, was in perfect collimation out of the box and still is. So these don't get out of collimation often, nothing like a newtonian. I would think over 10" and collimation could be an issue, and especially shooting at f2. Longer focual lengths are less sensitive to collimation being slightly off. Was never the issue about collimating an SCT often and with the older orange SCT was never the obsession to do this often or mentioned, so either the quality is less or people have become obsessed. My motto, is if it anit broken dont fix it. Testing mine each night, still perfect collimation out of the box. Have read on cloudy nights some have never or really needed to collimate. Not saying they dont, but back then the first orange Sct Celestrons was never mentioned to do it often. Seems some get out of collimation and others don't, or people just to obsessed, its not that hard to know if it needs it or not. Keep it up, your videos are very informative even though not really into astrophotography, but mostly video astronomy with revolution imager because it's quick and no pc needed, or visual. I can if there is something interesting make a dvr recording then process through registax, but nothing like your fantastic results of course, not that obsessed, no offense. But love your videos all the same. The Revolution imager does not have the greatest resolution but was not really designed for a planetry camera or deepsky camera, but was designed for just video astronomy that goes way beyond what the eye can see, so nothing fanasy, no pc needed, also I could use sharpcap if I had a laptop. For me the revolution imager is quick and easy, like the equivalent of a quick go abd grab scope, as i could not be bothered sitting at laptop spending the long nights, as maybe a couple of hours observing so video astronomy ideal for me and still beats what my eye can see. Half the time just perfer visual astronomy, no hassles involved.
I have a CC 6 and this is how I do it. Align the primary first and square it with the tube and then use a laser for the secondary just like a BOB. Super easy and only take a few seconds and beer helps as a aiming fluid.
Ain't no screw driver going near my SCT corrector plate! Bob's Knobs all the way! Stunningly pretty Saturn you've captured there, and great content as always :) I never knew about the hand heat wave thing :)
Great video Dylan! My 9.25 Celestron's Fastar does NOT have adjustment screws. If my scope goes out of collimation what do I do? I don't see a way to adjust the primary mirror. Thx!!
Hi Excellent work You said Saturn was simply work I don’t even know what program d you use I have astrovid planet cam I wonder if I give you a video what could you do with it
Timestamp 8:33. When I went to the Lowell Observatory 9 years ago on a cold dark night, this is pretty close to the tiny image of Saturn from their telescope. Being new to astronomy, I was disappointed because I had it in my head that it was going to look like what you see from a highly doctored Hubble image. Now I realize my Lowell observation of Saturn "is what it is".
I've tried both bob's knobs & the usual Philips screws. I've found using an L shaped screw driver better than using bob's knobs since you can make more precise & smaller turns. Another bonus is that the star doesn't jump around as much since you're not putting your hand on the bloody telescope. Btw, do you think it's worth using any collimation softwares?
I have found that the 5volt heating straps placed wherebthe dampness is created the most, stops the dew problem before they get started, and i bought a number of them so that i can keep the dew at bay, but also give the scope a wipe over before i put it away, usuallyi do this in tbe warm and dry so once its done i can be sure it will stay that way. As you have an outside observatory it may be worth while investing i a blower heater that is kept on very low while viewing and what ever you do make sure that the concrete is sealed so that the dampness does onncome up from the concreate and hang about in the roof.
At 1:00 to 1:10 you mentioned some replacement for collimation screws. What are called - bulb knobs? Where do I shop them, if you can share the link please. Also, which tool was that where u saw the views of collimation?
The visual doughnut method can be greatly improved with collimation software. Something like Metaguide where you're collimating at focus using diffraction patterns. Also finish your focussing with a CCW rotation of the fucussing knob. I also gave up with Bob's knobs and put the screws back in. It just wouldn't hold it's collimation. Once theory is the spacers for the fastar clearance are affected by the temperature and the tension chnages.
Great video as always! I basically follow this same workflow for collimating almost identically. Awesome image of Saturn. Unfortunately it is cloudy here tonight.
Great video - was over thinking the process, but your visual explanation for which "knob" to attack was perfect. I've made a Duncan mask and will see how well it validates the collimation. Waiting now for skies to clear in Central Iowa USA. Need to get ready for the December 21st event. Plan to use my SE6 to capture Jupiter & Saturn's alignment.
Hello Dylan, hope you and your family jave been well ams safe throughout this year just want to start out for thanking you for your existance on this platform. Quick question I have an 6 inch sct when I decfuscus for collimnation do I de focus cc or like I do ccw like when going into final focus ? Thanks for any advice
Great information Dylan. About them temperature fluctuations. I’ve seen a video where the guy shows using a fan on a newt to cool the mirror. He stops the fan and you can see the heat coming of the fan motor. Keep up the good work and thanks for the advice on instagram as well.👍
The opposition surge (sometimes known as the opposition effect, opposition spike or Seeliger effect[1]) is the brightening of a rough surface, or an object with many particles, when illuminated from directly behind the observer. The term is most widely used in astronomy, where generally it refers to the sudden noticeable increase in the brightness of a celestial body such as a planet, moon, or comet as its phase angle of observation approaches zero. It is so named because the reflected light from the Moon and Mars appear significantly brighter than predicted by simple Lambertian reflectance when at astronomical opposition. Two physical mechanisms have been proposed for this observational phenomenon: shadow hiding and coherent backscatter.
You can buy reusable silica bead canisters for the moisture. You reactivate them in your oven. Thought i'd mention it, not sure if the stuff you use is reusable
Oh Dylan, I was ready to burn my cash on a Richey Cretien 8 inch, but after seeing this excellent tutorial I'm on the fence again...perhaps an edge hd is much easier in terms of collimation. Thanks for the tutorial.
Excellent video Dylan. I went out last night with my Meade LX10 EMC on a HEQ5 Pro mount and did some visual as well as photographic shots with my Canon EOS550D and Samsung Galaxy S7 and got some reasonable images for a rank amateur.
Great video, Dylan! A joy to watch. Sadly, at my location (Germany), Saturn only scratches the top of the treeline. But I really enjoy seeing pics like yours!
Excellent image of Saturn . Here on the east coast (Virginia, usa) weather has been poor. I am at lat. 36.5N. Saturn is relatively low in the sky. What is your latitude? I use a Celestron 9.25” HD with a cgx mount also. Would love for my opposition images to be comparable to yours. Thanks for the practical advice.
Hey Dylan nice video helped us a lot in our technique. Just have one question. We own a older me 12-in lx200 and we'd like to just know what the mechanics are that secondary mirror is there any schematics or drawings available you might know of.
Great video but do you know anything about collimating a Maksutov Cassegrain? I dropped my 127 Mak last time I was out and I'm having a hard time getting the out of focus star perfectly round, it seems like every adjustment I make one side is still fatter than the other side.
I have a explore scientific mak (comet hunter) the secondary mirror is offset by design and there is no way to collimate it like a normal cassegrain. Impossible to bring the secondary shadow into the center.
Your saturn picture just blows mine away. Then again, I am only using a Nexstar 127 slt. Yours looks amazing. I have a crazy question. Celestron just released a new VX 700 Maksutov Cassegrain telescope and I am interested in buying it, but there have been no reviews on it. Are maks not popular? Do you think you could get a hold of one and review it?
Most things that I read these days state that you *roughly* collimate by centering the shadow in the donut, but that the final collimation should be done on an in-focus star. I wish i knew how that's supposed to happen, because when I focus a star, it's an indistinct blob that's moving around due to seeing.
You know you are an Astronomy nut when the wife brings home a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and the first thing you notice is the holes are not centred. The first word that entered my head was "Collimation"
I have a question please help. When I look throw the eye piece I see blurry but once I remove the eye piece and I look inside the focuser I can see the moon pretty clear. I have a celestron astronaster 114
Thanks for the video. I've collimated my own 11" several times but I learned a few things and you validated that I was doing some things correctly. I always do it prime focus, usually with a camera like you did but I hadn't thought to use a barlow. I'll try that. Quick question though, I've been told never to use a double star but you used Alpha Centauri. I've never seen it and it appeared as a single star, looks like the separation is about 15 or 20 seconds of arc. Maybe it was out of the field of view? Right now, Saturn is optimal for you and about 25 degrees above the horizon at best for me.
Good point! At that exposure alpha Centauri will appear as a single star and it’s hard to resolve individually as a binary .. I did it recently though for kicks :)
Which direction did you turn the screw on the thin side? Looked like you turned it right on the laptop screen, but that image was probably flipped. So... lefty loosey or righty tighty?
Great video and highly informative. I'm a relative newbie with a CPC 1100 and am a bit reluctant to try and collimate it but I'll give it a shot shortly. What kind of setup do you have where you can see the image on your laptop? Celestron's instructions have you looking through the eyepiece and making adjustments accordingly
It’s been basically bad weather here in Maryland since I got my new refractor in January. No first light yet. But, sure, everything is normal. 6 good days a month here.
Hi Dylan, thanks for this tutorial I have been struggling with collimating my 6" Celestron for quite some time. Will try this technique next starry night I get in Cloudy Nova Scotia. What is the software running on the screen? Thanks Murdo
Dylan, can you do a video on DSLR planetary imaging train? I’m trying to get an old 80’s 10” Meade SCT set up for planetary but only have a DSLR to use with it currently.
@@DylanODonnell Hi Dylan. Could you elaborate on why DSLRs are not so hot for planetary imaging? I agree lunar images are better but attributed that to higher contrast and linear features.
@@mathersdavid5113 The sampling is typically not ideal (depending on the OTA), region-of-interest framing may not be available depending on the body/software being used and the total framerate isn't as high speed as you can get from a dedicated astro CMOS. Also mono is always better than colour.
I've had some terrible luck imaging solar system things with my CPC 800 and asi224mc. I believe it has to do with my location; its always windy and the observatory is located literally 100 meters from a sea, so it's always very moist as well. The objects are waving like a flag on my computer screen. Sure I mean I live in north, so the objects are located really low, but still. Others in my country can see cassini division just barely, while I can hardly even get a picture of the rings.
Have you checked the sampling with that combination? Use the Bintel calculator to see if it’s a good match. I’m about 800m from the ocean too so I get the same constantly bad seeing too but 100m could be pretty bad!
Great Video, nice image, on a side note flocking your SCT, that includes inside and outside of baffle will vastly improve the contrast on subjects, especially planets, yes its a pain but trust me its worth it.
Great video. I have owned a 12 inch SCT for years. Each time I check collimation its spot on. I have never had to adjust it. Is this normal? Or am I not doing it right?
Sounds all fine, except I would not use a double star for collimation... and I would take a fainter star for finer collimation, it's really when one gets very close to the focus that one can see if there is still a little bit of decollimation... How symmetric the star is when you get close to focus still can show some amount of decollimation. Also knowing how stable the SCT's are :) , I would take a star close to my target, just before recording...
I was just looking for a collimation tutorial last night so I could image Saturn, this is far the best one I've seen! Thanks Dylan
Ahh thanks Brad!
Flipping the hand control 180° is something I never thought of doing... Thank you for showing that...
Yeh sometimes one axis will still be flipped depending on the meridian but even having one axis correct helps a lot mentally :)
Dylan O'Donnell Under scope setup, direction buttons... you can change the buttons direction there...
Pretty high-tech stuff!
@@astronomylivestream Thanks for confirming. I have not used the software yet but I figured there would be a way in there to flip the controls in program. I came here to ask this lol
you can just flip camera 180°.
To put an exclamation point on what Dylan said, High Point Scientific has some of the best customer support I have ever found in ANY company I've ever done business with. They are ALWAYS my first stop for astronomy needs. And no, I don't work for them or have any vested interest. They's just really, really good at what they do and deserve recognition.
The outro got my sub, the video was top notch ofcourse and i paid attention the entire time. I guess i've ventured down the right path, because i too have that "eccentric" mindset. Wish i was able to look through a telescope a lot sooner than 30, but it was worth the wait.
It maybe an older video but this is an excellent resource. I have just purchased a set of Bob's Knobs having watched this video and removing the risk of accidentally hitting the telescope corrector with a screw driver. I think this will make collimation a lot easier and I noticed the collimation screws are wearing a bit.
Finding a number of your other videos are excellent to watch as well so appreciate what you have done :)
Hey thanks I’m glad !
I definitely give Highpoint Scientific a recommend any time I can. The free customer support is awesome. They put me on just the right items I was needing for my Orion ED80t and made it quick and painless.
Bloody good shop eh :)
Beer= aiming fluid and really works!
Trying to collimate my first sct evolution 9.25. This video is among few others is the best guide with useful tips. Thanks Dylan. Keep doing great videos.
Thank you for this info. It's quite helpful in my journey to understand my wife's hobby beyond "Go load that in the truck and don't break it". I will say, I kept backing up to clarify - "is he saying to look at the heat radiating off his hand or the hate radiating"? Either way, it kind of worked and wouldn't have surprised me.
This image is FAR better than I can get with my 8" SCT + 2.5 barlow, even with good collimation. I will say that seeing conditions have been kind of crap here for the last couple of weeks-- VERY humid. Great vid!
Try a powermate 2.5x instead of Barlow. Made a big difference for me.
Always had a great experience with High Point Scientific. I just bought a Celestron 8SE SCT last week from them. Great service! Now for Bob's knobs.
Good to hear!
Saturn looks amazing, Dylan!
Chuck's Astrophotography thanks Chuck!
Recently bought bobs knobs… and absolute god send.
Thanks Dylan. Thumbs up for Bob’s knobs. I have them on my 9.25 SCT (should have got the Edge HD but cheaped out)
Highpoint Scientific is great too. I picked up a small Meade refractor for my nephews from then on a past visit to the US. Excellent service and fast delivery.
Wolfie6020 thanks man.. I like bobs knobs! Some people are dead against them but I really like em. Good to hear the sponsor gets such a good wrap too... makes me feel confident having them in the vids :)
Like your dry sense of humour, thanks for sharing your experience. Oh, great image of saturn. 👌
Machiavelli III I shall let my wife know somebody thinks I’m funny. Thanks!
You can collimate your SCT in the day as there is a technique you can you use, or an artificial star.
Bobs nobs will often need to collimate. Using the standard screws won't need to collimate so much, if at all for some people.
Just got a Celestron Evolution 9.25, was in perfect collimation out of the box and still is. So these don't get out of collimation often, nothing like a newtonian.
I would think over 10" and collimation could be an issue, and especially shooting at f2.
Longer focual lengths are less sensitive to collimation being slightly off.
Was never the issue about collimating an SCT often and with the older orange SCT was never the obsession to do this often or mentioned, so either the quality is less or people have become obsessed.
My motto, is if it anit broken dont fix it. Testing mine each night, still perfect collimation out of the box.
Have read on cloudy nights some have never or really needed to collimate.
Not saying they dont, but back then the first orange Sct Celestrons was never mentioned to do it often.
Seems some get out of collimation and others don't, or people just to obsessed, its not that hard to know if it needs it or not.
Keep it up, your videos are very informative even though not really into astrophotography, but mostly video astronomy with revolution imager because it's quick and no pc needed, or visual. I can if there is something interesting make a dvr recording then process through registax, but nothing like your fantastic results of course, not that obsessed, no offense.
But love your videos all the same.
The Revolution imager does not have the greatest resolution but was not really designed for a planetry camera or deepsky camera, but was designed for just video astronomy that goes way beyond what the eye can see, so nothing fanasy, no pc needed, also I could use sharpcap if I had a laptop.
For me the revolution imager is quick and easy, like the equivalent of a quick go abd grab scope, as i could not be bothered sitting at laptop spending the long nights, as maybe a couple of hours observing so video astronomy ideal for me and still beats what my eye can see.
Half the time just perfer visual astronomy, no hassles involved.
Thanks Dylan, I've got to learn how to collimate my new 9.25" Nexstar Evolution and this has shown me what I need to know.
I have a CC 6 and this is how I do it. Align the primary first and square it with the tube and then use a laser for the secondary just like a BOB. Super easy and only take a few seconds and beer helps as a aiming fluid.
I said that wrong an laser is of no use. That was the beer talking.
Ain't no screw driver going near my SCT corrector plate! Bob's Knobs all the way! Stunningly pretty Saturn you've captured there, and great content as always :) I never knew about the hand heat wave thing :)
Yeh freaks me out too! 😆
Great video. Thanks. Going to collimate my edgehd 9.25 tonight
And a Bryan Adams reference, EPIC!!!
Great video! Awesome image of saturn! I just finished imaging the eagle nebula.
Oh nice work!
Great video Dylan! My 9.25 Celestron's Fastar does NOT have adjustment screws. If my scope goes out of collimation what do I do? I don't see a way to adjust the primary mirror. Thx!!
Hi
Excellent work
You said Saturn was simply work
I don’t even know what program d you use
I have astrovid planet cam I wonder if I give you a video what could you do with it
Timestamp 8:33. When I went to the Lowell Observatory 9 years ago on a cold dark night, this is pretty close to the tiny image of Saturn from their telescope. Being new to astronomy, I was disappointed because I had it in my head that it was going to look like what you see from a highly doctored Hubble image. Now I realize my Lowell observation of Saturn "is what it is".
That's a realy handy tip. I'm going to try that too with my reflector next time.
The remote trick works only in down under.
Great video :)
Haha!
Yes, the transition is very cool..
Haha phew :)
I've tried both bob's knobs & the usual Philips screws. I've found using an L shaped screw driver better than using bob's knobs since you can make more precise & smaller turns. Another bonus is that the star doesn't jump around as much since you're not putting your hand on the bloody telescope. Btw, do you think it's worth using any collimation softwares?
Good points :) 👌🏼
Great video. But did you tighten or loosen the knob on the narrow side of the doughnut. Also, did you move the other knobs in a counter direction ?
2 years later.....I guess we'll never know.
Love your videos, mate. The perfect mix of information and entertainment. Top of your game.
Alex Osborne hey thanks Alex ! I’m learning as I go really heh
At the "thin screw" are you turning clockwise or anti-clockwise to fatten that segment of the doughnut?
Awesome vid. Love the relaxed and comical, yet detailed and informative feel. Subscribed! and looking fwd to more tips to help with my 8” SC scope.
Welcome to the club Jeremy :)
Hi Dylan, great tip about the hand controller! Thanks for the post
Thanks Walter !
I have found that the 5volt heating straps placed wherebthe dampness is created the most, stops the dew problem before they get started, and i bought a number of them so that i can keep the dew at bay, but also give the scope a wipe over before i put it away, usuallyi do this in tbe warm and dry so once its done i can be sure it will stay that way.
As you have an outside observatory it may be worth while investing i a blower heater that is kept on very low while viewing and what ever you do make sure that the concrete is sealed so that the dampness does onncome up from the concreate and hang about in the roof.
At 1:00 to 1:10 you mentioned some replacement for collimation screws. What are called - bulb knobs? Where do I shop them, if you can share the link please.
Also, which tool was that where u saw the views of collimation?
The visual doughnut method can be greatly improved with collimation software. Something like Metaguide where you're collimating at focus using diffraction patterns. Also finish your focussing with a CCW rotation of the fucussing knob.
I also gave up with Bob's knobs and put the screws back in. It just wouldn't hold it's collimation. Once theory is the spacers for the fastar clearance are affected by the temperature and the tension chnages.
Thank you, sure helped me out collimating my C8😊
Glad it helped mate!
Great video as always! I basically follow this same workflow for collimating almost identically. Awesome image of Saturn. Unfortunately it is cloudy here tonight.
Good to know I’m not way off track :) thanks !
Dylan O'Donnell It’s actually probably the opposite... me being the one that isn’t too far off track!
That was a quick transition. Nice pic Dylan.
Thanks Brian!
Great video - was over thinking the process, but your visual explanation for which "knob" to attack was perfect. I've made a Duncan mask and will see how well it validates the collimation. Waiting now for skies to clear in Central Iowa USA. Need to get ready for the December 21st event. Plan to use my SE6 to capture Jupiter & Saturn's alignment.
Hey Dylan 👋 Do you have a video out on aliment of the corrector plate?
Hahaha the sign-off is delightful; also this is a great video thank you!
Excellent presentation - amazing what one can learn in 10 minutes.
Glad it helped !
Great video, Dylan.
I just wish that collimation could get rid of the clouds lol.
Hello Dylan, hope you and your family jave been well ams safe throughout this year just want to start out for thanking you for your existance on this platform. Quick question I have an 6 inch sct when I decfuscus for collimnation do I de focus cc or like I do ccw like when going into final focus ? Thanks for any advice
Thanks for sharing your information . Great information given
Great information Dylan. About them temperature fluctuations. I’ve seen a video where the guy shows using a fan on a newt to cool the mirror. He stops the fan and you can see the heat coming of the fan motor. Keep up the good work and thanks for the advice on instagram as well.👍
The opposition surge (sometimes known as the opposition effect, opposition spike or Seeliger effect[1]) is the brightening of a rough surface, or an object with many particles, when illuminated from directly behind the observer. The term is most widely used in astronomy, where generally it refers to the sudden noticeable increase in the brightness of a celestial body such as a planet, moon, or comet as its phase angle of observation approaches zero. It is so named because the reflected light from the Moon and Mars appear significantly brighter than predicted by simple Lambertian reflectance when at astronomical opposition. Two physical mechanisms have been proposed for this observational phenomenon: shadow hiding and coherent backscatter.
You can buy reusable silica bead canisters for the moisture.
You reactivate them in your oven.
Thought i'd mention it, not sure if the stuff you use is reusable
dongmaster9001 nice tip, thanks!
Will never get nice shots like you qith my crude Revolution imager. Love your photos
Oh Dylan, I was ready to burn my cash on a Richey Cretien 8 inch, but after seeing this excellent tutorial I'm on the fence again...perhaps an edge hd is much easier in terms of collimation. Thanks for the tutorial.
Excellent video Dylan. I went out last night with my Meade LX10 EMC on a HEQ5 Pro mount and did some visual as well as photographic shots with my Canon EOS550D and Samsung Galaxy S7 and got some reasonable images for a rank amateur.
Thanks.. and nice one!
Excellent video!
Really enjoy you channel! Keep up the good work! Maybe one day /night I will get a night to
Capture again. Clears skies!
Hey thanks mate .. good luck with the weather !
Wow. You can even see the Enke Division!
Great video, Dylan! A joy to watch. Sadly, at my location (Germany), Saturn only scratches the top of the treeline. But I really enjoy seeing pics like yours!
Christopher Gemeinhardt thanks Chris!
Why would I have to worry about breaking the secondary with Bob's Knobs? I have them in one SCT and two reflectors and haven't had an issue.
Excellent image of Saturn . Here on the east coast (Virginia, usa) weather has been poor. I am at lat. 36.5N. Saturn is relatively low in the sky. What is your latitude? I use a Celestron 9.25” HD with a cgx mount also. Would love for my opposition images to be comparable to yours. Thanks for the practical advice.
Hey mate! I’m -28 (nasa Florida is +28) .. apparently you guys get a better higher view of Saturn in about a decade.
Really informative video Dylan. I can completely relate with my 10" Dobsonian. : )
Thx Helena!
You have just become my favorite person in the world!!
Transition was cool!
nice video once again.
Cheers
Haha thanks :)
Another helpful video. Just received my Bahtinov mask from Bintel and yet to use it so good to see it in action.
Cool :)
Did you tighten or loosen the screw on the thin side? - crucial omission!
Nice tutorial Dylan. I found it very helpful.
Hey Dylan nice video helped us a lot in our technique. Just have one question. We own a older me 12-in lx200 and we'd like to just know what the mechanics are that secondary mirror is there any schematics or drawings available you might know of.
Exactly what I needed. Thank you.
Glad to hear it !
Love your videos and your humor :)
Do you have any advice on truss tube RC collimation?
Would a small torch covered in foil with a pinhole placed far off in a field and a 15mm eyepiece work to get my collimation perfect again?
If you haven't found this already, read hubble-optics.com/artificial-stars.html.
Best sign-off ever!
Steve Drapak hehe cheers Steve :)
Great video but do you know anything about collimating a Maksutov Cassegrain? I dropped my 127 Mak last time I was out and I'm having a hard time getting the out of focus star perfectly round, it seems like every adjustment I make one side is still fatter than the other side.
I have a explore scientific mak (comet hunter) the secondary mirror is offset by design and there is no way to collimate it like a normal cassegrain. Impossible to bring the secondary shadow into the center.
What do u have connected to the computer. I have nexstar image device.
Trying to collimate my RASA11. This has helped, but it’s not easy!
Your saturn picture just blows mine away. Then again, I am only using a Nexstar 127 slt. Yours looks amazing. I have a crazy question. Celestron just released a new VX 700 Maksutov Cassegrain telescope and I am interested in buying it, but there have been no reviews on it. Are maks not popular? Do you think you could get a hold of one and review it?
Would be best for lunar that scope I reckon. Always enjoy reviewing new stuff :)
Aren't you supposed to be adjusting the primary mirror?
Is that software AISCAP that is running? Ever thought about doing some tutorials for that? There is really nothing on youtube for it yet.
I'm using FireCapture.. it's amazing!
Most things that I read these days state that you *roughly* collimate by centering the shadow in the donut, but that the final collimation should be done on an in-focus star. I wish i knew how that's supposed to happen, because when I focus a star, it's an indistinct blob that's moving around due to seeing.
You know you are an Astronomy nut when the wife brings home a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and the first thing you notice is the holes are not centred. The first word that entered my head was "Collimation"
Hahahaha
@@DylanODonnell True story today.
I have a question please help. When I look throw the eye piece I see blurry but once I remove the eye piece and I look inside the focuser I can see the moon pretty clear. I have a celestron astronaster 114
Awesome Video Dylan and great image!
Thanks Ray!
Thanks for the video. I've collimated my own 11" several times but I learned a few things and you validated that I was doing some things correctly. I always do it prime focus, usually with a camera like you did but I hadn't thought to use a barlow. I'll try that. Quick question though, I've been told never to use a double star but you used Alpha Centauri. I've never seen it and it appeared as a single star, looks like the separation is about 15 or 20 seconds of arc. Maybe it was out of the field of view? Right now, Saturn is optimal for you and about 25 degrees above the horizon at best for me.
Good point! At that exposure alpha Centauri will appear as a single star and it’s hard to resolve individually as a binary .. I did it recently though for kicks :)
Which direction did you turn the screw on the thin side? Looked like you turned it right on the laptop screen, but that image was probably flipped. So... lefty loosey or righty tighty?
Kevin Man yep the camera orientation makes the direction arbitrary but in this case I was tightening right.
@@DylanODonnell Thanks! Didn't want to turn it the wrong way and have the screw fall off! New subscriber here. Keep up the good work!
Kevin Man thanks for subscribing mate :)
Great video and highly informative. I'm a relative newbie with a CPC 1100 and am a bit reluctant to try and collimate it but I'll give it a shot shortly. What kind of setup do you have where you can see the image on your laptop? Celestron's instructions have you looking through the eyepiece and making adjustments accordingly
Thanks for the collimation help
It’s been basically bad weather here in Maryland since I got my new refractor in January. No first light yet. But, sure, everything is normal. 6 good days a month here.
Nice thank for that show👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Great video, and great image! Curious as to why you prefer a bahtinov mask over FWHM...
I use fwhm for Deep space but only just started using bahtinov for planets so I can quickly focus without too much hassle .. only takes a sec :)
Dylan O'Donnell thanks!
Thanks for the video! What acquisition software are you using on your MacBook?
Firecapture & SGP .. I used to run them in a windows VM on a MacBook but I have a dedicated PC for the obs now.
Thanks much!
Thanks Dylan.
No worries JD!
Thanks Dylan. When you loosen or tighten one screw, do you then need to loosen/tighten the other two ?
Yes, they all need to be left tight otherwise collimation will change
Hi Dylan, thanks for this tutorial I have been struggling with collimating my 6" Celestron for quite some time. Will try this technique next starry night I get in Cloudy Nova Scotia. What is the software running on the screen? Thanks
Murdo
Some really great tips in that video! Just need to get a big SCT now. :-)
Thanks! I’m def team SCT
Will this work for an RC OTA??
How bright is the collimation star and how high is it in the sky?
Dylan, can you do a video on DSLR planetary imaging train? I’m trying to get an old 80’s 10” Meade SCT set up for planetary but only have a DSLR to use with it currently.
It’s definitely sub par using DSLRs for planetary .. not sure I’ll do this ever! But for lunar they are pretty great.
@@DylanODonnell Hi Dylan. Could you elaborate on why DSLRs are not so hot for planetary imaging? I agree lunar images are better but attributed that to higher contrast and linear features.
@@mathersdavid5113 The sampling is typically not ideal (depending on the OTA), region-of-interest framing may not be available depending on the body/software being used and the total framerate isn't as high speed as you can get from a dedicated astro CMOS. Also mono is always better than colour.
I've had some terrible luck imaging solar system things with my CPC 800 and asi224mc. I believe it has to do with my location; its always windy and the observatory is located literally 100 meters from a sea, so it's always very moist as well. The objects are waving like a flag on my computer screen. Sure I mean I live in north, so the objects are located really low, but still. Others in my country can see cassini division just barely, while I can hardly even get a picture of the rings.
Have you checked the sampling with that combination? Use the Bintel calculator to see if it’s a good match. I’m about 800m from the ocean too so I get the same constantly bad seeing too but 100m could be pretty bad!
Great Video, nice image, on a side note flocking your SCT, that includes inside and outside of baffle will vastly improve the contrast on subjects, especially planets, yes its a pain but trust me its worth it.
John Doe good to know .. thank you!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge it is very much appreciated, subbed.
Great video. I have owned a 12 inch SCT for years. Each time I check collimation its spot on. I have never had to adjust it. Is this normal? Or am I not doing it right?
It's normal for well made SCTs with good initial collimation and good owners. I haven't collimated my 11" once.
Dylan O'Donnell thanks for the reply. Your channel is very informative.
Sounds all fine, except I would not use a double star for collimation... and I would take a fainter star for finer collimation, it's really when one gets very close to the focus that one can see if there is still a little bit of decollimation... How symmetric the star is when you get close to focus still can show some amount of decollimation. Also knowing how stable the SCT's are :) , I would take a star close to my target, just before recording...
Good point!