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Hi All. Today I fitted a Baader Steeltrack to my Skywatcher 190MN. I tried to collimate and then took some test images. I ran one of them through the ASTAP image analysis and this is what I get:  There is obviously an issue there but how to I begin to try and figure of what/where the tilt is? I'm not sure how to interpret the results. |
7.90
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| The left side is higher (or lower) than the right side. If you got 4 adjustment screws on the focuser and the sensor is aligned with them you just need to tilt the base plate uniformly (by the tune of a very small fraction of a turn) on one side. Repeat analysis until ASTAP shows a square rather than a trapezoid. |
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2.15
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Thanks, that sounds relatively simple. So presumably, the tilt is on the left to right axis as looking at the back of the camera? The base plate actually screws in from the inside of the tube so I'll have to remove the corrector to access the screws. Or remove the focuser from the plate via the grub screws. My scope is in an observatory so it would be idea to be able to do this with it still mounted on a clear night so I can adjust, shoot, test, repeat. Does that sound sensible? "21% severe" sounds... well... severe but from what you've said above, this should only be a slight turn of the screws? |
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7.90
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| Since the focuser hasn't got the tilting capability (it should) you can try to introduce shims on one side (they sell them in different size/thickness down to 1 thou or 0.025mm) and you'd need to cut in the right shape to fit, so a bit of a pain in the back, then release the grub screws that hold the focuser on the base and slip the shim (one one side only) in between and re-tighten the screws. Or you can get an external tilting unit (unless you have one incorporated into the camera) such as this: CTU (Camera Tilting Unit) (gerdneumann.net) |
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| You can also use NINA if you have an electronic focuser) to get a more precise measure of the amount of tilt. |
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2.15
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| Before I start altering the focuser base plate, is it possible that the tilt could be coming from the secondary or primary mirror? The corrector plate and secondary have recently been completely disassembled and the primary collimation screws have been reset and re-adjusted. |
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| If the thing has been collimated properly then all the tilt should be coming from the camera itself. You can test this proposition by changing camera orientations in 90deg increments and if you see the pattern following the rotation then it's the camera and if it stays in place it's the telescope/focuser. |
1.91
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Craig Dixon: If the secondary is slightly tilted such that it's not exactly at 45 degrees to the optical axis, this will tilt the focal plane by twice the tilt error. For an ordinary newtonian, this isn't much of a problem. A newtonian can be perectly collimated even when its optical axis isn't parallell to its mechanical (tube) axis. As I wrote in your previous, collimation thread, a MakNewt is different in that the meniscus is fixed to the tube. The primary must be abolutely parallell to the meniscus such that its optical axis coincides with that of the meniscus, and the diagonal must be at exactly 45 degrees to the optical axis of the primary/meniscus. Because of the very tight tolerances, a MakNewt "can't be collimated". Yet, its mechanics aren't perfect, so the optics must allow some adjustments. (The strictness is the reason why the primary is held by rubber rings around the collimation screws, where an ordinary newtonian has springs.) The non-perfect mechanics may make it necessary to adjust the focuser. When doing so, only loosen two base plate screws just enough to intoduce a shim. If I were you, I wouldn't move or loosen the meniscus assembly, because you will most likely need to re-collimate the optics. If collimation is perfect, leave the optics be, and adjust the focuser or the camera. Goid luck. |
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Here's a tilt analysis from aster showing a 180 degree rotation of the camera between shots. I guess this suggests that the tile is in the camera. It's also worth noting that I'm not screwing the camera into the focus tube. I just have the standard clamp ring on the Baader Steeltrack at the moment. |
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Wim van Berlo: This isn't strictly true. Standard MN have spherical primaries and all spheres have infinite number of axes and as such you can always find one that passes through the (virtual) optical axis of the meniscus. This is true for both tilt and lateral de-spacing of the primary. What happens in both cases is that the field is no longer symmetric and thus the field correction itself show asymmetry. The reason why collimating a MN is more difficult than a standard newton is that the primary has no center of symmetry but you can still square the secondary in the same way (albeit considerably more difficult than an ordinary newton as you can prevent the reflection of the primary). I have owned 3 MNs and used several more (and still have one) so I'm talking by direct experience. What you need to be aware of is that the primary to corrector distance is optimized to give all correction needed, more importantly that of the spherical aberration and you can't change that. |
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| @andrea tasselli thanks for clarifying that. cs Wim |
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You may find this helpful: 2023-04-29 (2nd Revision) A guide to fixing tilt and spacing with objective analysis- Chris White.pdf |
