Saimons Astronomy

Collimation Circles application enters a beta stage. All features are finished. There will be no major changes in this version. It's ready for daily usage, but some minor bugs may still be present.

I'm so proud and thankful that Collimation Circles application reached 50 stars on GitHub. This is a clear sign to me that users like my work and that application is well on it's track.

Finally! Long awaited stable release of Collimation Circles 3.2.0 is out! This version is significant milestone, because it brings some very useful new features, better performance and startup times.

Last night I had the opportunity to take these amazing photos of the truly stunning Commet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). Seeing it with the naked eye is truly amazing! Truly a once in a lifetime event!

Michael DUBOIS (https://www.michaeldubois.be/astronomie) has done some great work by collimating his dobsonian telescope, 305 mm Explore Scientific with focal length of 1525 mm, with Collimation Circles applicaton.

I'm glad to announce that new version of Collimation Circles application is available. See below whats new or changed in this release:

After modifying secondary mirror holder in my previous blog post, I have decided that next modification will be primary mirror mask.

This is the part three of the series about Advanced Newtonian Telescope Collimation. Here are Part 1 and Part 2.

This is the part two of the series about Advanced Newtonian Telescope Collimation. Part 1 is available here.

The image on the left shows the really precise centering of the secondary mirror on the center of the back of the telescope tube. Why is it centered on the back of the telescope tube and not on the center of the primary mirror, you ask? Because it is much easier to center the secondary mirror if you remove the primary mirror first. At least on small Newtonian telescope. For large scopes, it's better to use sheet of paper (green or yellow for better contrast) between primary and secondary mirror.

If you are thinking of modifying your Newtonian telescope, the first thing you will find on Google and YouTube videos is how to replace your secondary spider for 150mm or 130mm telescopes. That's great, you go to printables.com or thingverse.com, download a suitable model for your telescope and 3D print it.