Telescope Reviews: Collimation Fears Vanquished!

I received my new (used) Meade SCT 8 AT scope from back east a few days ago. I took it out for first light a few days after it arrived and I'm impressed with the detail. However, I grudgingly knew in the back of my mind that I should do a star test for collimation error. Well my fears were vindicated and there was Vega with the center dark spot off to the left. Having the DMK webcam, I decided to hook it up and view Vega on my laptop monitor. Yep...the same thing I saw with my eye. Now which way to tighten the collimating screws. Well, I decided to tighten rather than loosen. The image moved off to the left of my FOV. OK tweak it a bit the other way...OK, now centered. So what! I thought it was just moving the image around in my FOV. Wrong assumption...it was also moving the central black spot towards the center! Hooray, I'm getting it. A few more tweaks and BINGO!...perfect centering with the small pinpoint in the center and the diffraction rings all radiating out in a tight concentric spread. I then went to lesser magnitude stars and they seemed to be showing perfect collimation as well. So, after buying my DMK and Jupiter being too low on my horizon for imaging, the webcam has become a very useful tool for collimaing my new SCT. No leaning around the front and reaching for the screws, just arrrange the laptop so you can see the monitor and adjust to your hearts content.

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Scopes: Meade SC-8AT w UHTC
SkyWatcher 5" F/5 Reflector
SkyWatcher 127mm MAK
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Cameras: Orion Starshoot DS Colour Imager V.1
Imaging Source Webcam DMK21AU04.AS
Palm TX PDA w Astromist and Bluetooth wireles control.

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