Collimation

Newtonians

Collimation is the process of aligning the primary and secondary mirror of your telescope. For beginners, this can be a real pain in the butt, but we are here to help you go through that process!

You will need some basic tools in order to do this. You will need a collimation cap (usually come with newtonians), a screwdriver, and (sometimes) a certain sized hex key. A laser collimator, if aligned properly, can really help too, but it is not mandatory.

If you try to use your telescope when it is not collimated properly, stars and other things will appear warped instead of their correct structure.

First off, we must understand what we have to collimate and why we need to. We need to collimate the primary and secondary mirror (here is a diagram)

. The first thing you want to align is the secondary mirror.

Here is a video by Orion on how to collimate a newtonian.

The Secondary Mirror

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The Primary Mirror

Collimating the primary mirror is relatively easy compared to the secondary (for most people). There should be 6 knobs on the back of your telescope, 3 of them adjust the primary mirror while the other 3 tighten the primary into place.

First, you want to unscrew the three knobs that tighten the primary mirror, which will allow you to adjust it. Start turning the other 3 knobs and try and get the dot in the center of the "target" that your telescope has, due to the collimation cap. It may take some time to get it in the center, but after you have that step done, you want to tighten the other 3 screws, and look into the cap one more time to see that every thing is aligned. If everything is aligned, test it on a few stars, and when you achieve focus on your telescope, the stars should look like points, not blobs. If this is correct, your telescope should be properly collimated, and ready to use for imaging!