Telescope Reviews: Super deal right now on Celestron 15x70 bins..

I just re-read the link cited above. Bill gave some good information, but not a way to get all three axes parallel. We went through this topic repeatedly. If he did not discuss suitable methods elsewhere, other than to cite the Navy method, I certainly did , several times.

I did so,in some detail, in the above linked thread. In general, one needs a direct or indirect method to determine the intersection of the hinge axis on a real or artificial distant target. Then, one adjusts one barrel to make its optical axis point to the same position on the target. The optical axis of the second barrel is next adjusted to point to that position on the target. It is often easier to perform this last step without any direct reference to the hinge, because that work was done in the adjustment of the first barrel.

Of course, the Devil is in the details, and there must be many ways to perform this work. With some experience with one method, one can devise other methods.

I recall the terminology I chose , "Wiggle Window", ff. the Fuji Photo Optical UBMM, being the butt of some humor. But did any of those responsible actually try the method? There now seems to be renewed interest in methods for 3-axis mutual parallelism .

I am certain that Bill knew how to do at least the Navy 3-axis parallelism method, and presumably the same thing with the UBMM they had. Perhaps he gave a comprehensive explanation elsewhere, but if so, I do not recall it. Perhaps he learned some Army methods while at Ft. Sill. But they probably just throw away , rather than repair, these days.

EdZ.: The references you cite, above, do not explicitly give a way to mutually parallelize all three axes, other than the repeat of the Navy method, in the first reference. But what beginner has that Navy hardware? I suggest substitutes in my contribution to the thread in the link above, and in other contributions . I recall buying the Edmund book many years ago, and being disappointed. The book by Truman Henson(not cited) also fails to give a 3-axis parallelism method. Conspicuous by its absence in your list is the chapter by G. Dallas Hanna in the ATM I,II, III series edited by Ingalls for Scientific American, and subsequently re-organized and re-published by Willmann-Bell. Though basically an explanation of the Navy method, he discusses reflective target collimators. As the cited Edmund book points out, any telescope, reversed, with an illuminated target in its focal plane, simulates an infinity target.

I do not recall any discussion, certainly no detailed, explicit instruction , about collimating binoculars, in Mil Handbook 141.

I have devised a few laser schemes to try, and have the hardware, but have not yet assembled them. Perhaps LED flashlights may be applicable to the problem, but nothing has come to mind yet, other than the obvious application of them as focal plane target illuminators in target collimators (reversed telescopes).