Focusing On Your Telescope Collimation
March 26, 2008
As you very well know that it was in the year 1609 that Galileo introduced the telescope to the world, this instrument has been used as an important source in the field of study in astronomy. Whenever you are in a mood of watching the far of objects in the sky like for example gazing at the stars or exploring the moon’s craters, counting the stripes of Jupiter or for that matter trying to find out if planet Uranus has rings the first thing that comes to your mind is to remove your telescope. Sometimes when you desire to remove your telescope to gaze at the evening skies you may find that the images are not clear and that they appear to be hazy, well this is a common complain with all the brands or say types of telescope.
Telescope collimation or telescope alignment is extremely important in order to keep the instrument operating and giving out the best possible result. If the lens alignment is proper then you will be able to see the spectacular objects that are there in our solar system and if you are lucky you may be able to see even beyond them.
Know Some Meanings:
Now what exactly is the meaning of the word telescope collimation and what does this term mean to an amateur astronomer? Well to make this term simple or to make use of this word in the layman’s language or say for all to understand then telescope collimation simply means proper alignment of the optical components or parts of your telescope. As you know that the components are the parts of your telescope like the lenses, mirrors, prisms, eyepieces or any combination of these optics. There is no relation to the type of the telescope that you use irrespective of whether it is a refractor type of telescope or a Newtonian or for that matter Schmidt-Cassgrain telescope, collimation is an important process that everyone using a telescope should know and learn.
You must be wondering why in the world do you need to know what exactly is telescope collimation and isn’t the duty of the manufacturers to see to it? Well telescope collimation is done even before they leave the factory or the warehouse. Then why is it important for an amateur astronomer or for that matter a professional astronomer to know telescope collimation? Well even if the factories where these telescopes are assembled do the proper alignment of the telescope or collimation of the telescope there are a lot of things that could happen between leaving the factory or the warehouse till it reaches your house.
As you know that even if there is a heavy jerk or shaking of the instrument while it is being transported it can change the optical alignment of your telescope. To reach your doorstep the telescope may have traveled thousands of miles right from the time of it was assembled and this could change the alignment of your telescope.
Thing To Keep In Mind:
There is yet another thing to remember i.e. even a bit of jerk or shake could send your optics out of alignment, and this could be one of the longest trip that your telescope could have ever had since it was assembled and this heavy jerk or shake could change any previous telescopic alignment that was ever made on your telescope.
Another problem that could arise is that if you move your telescope on a regular basis to different place to view the skies when there is more darkness in some places the alignment or the telescope collimation could change slightly but then you could rectify these changes yourself.
So, the next time you look through the instruction guide of your telescope learn the exactly telescope collimation so that you will be sure to get a better view of the night sky and which in turn will enable you enjoy this hobby of being an amateur astronomer.
Summary:
Telescope collimation is nothing but the alignment of the optic lens which could change due to various reasons the first and the foremost reason could be that due to heavy shake or jerk during shipping the alignment may change or say while moving your telescope to view the night skies the alignment or telescope collimation can change and the best thing to ensure the excellent viewing of the night sky is to study the instruction guide to find out the exact collimation of your telescope so as to ensure life long enjoyment of viewing the night skies.
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