Greetings,
I purchased the Hotech CT Collimator and have had a difficult time getting good results with it. I have watched the instruction videos multiple times over and I think I understand the concept well, but my collimation still suffers. My use case for the collimator was to help me achieve rough collimation when swapping between my Hyperstar and native focal-length imaging, I don't expect this tool to deliver perfect results.
Based on the results that I'm seeing I'm concerned there's a bigger issue going on, but I'm not able to wrap my head around the output I'm getting and what would cause it. Would appreciate any help from members that have experience with this tool.
1. The co-alignment looks pretty good, and I should be able to progress to the next steps. (Slightly off in this pic, just needs a small tweak)
2. The diffused ring looks decent as well.
3. Here's where the problems start. Based on the collimation ring in the pic above, I would expect to see the "alignment dots" below be more aligned. What I see is the bottom dot in decent position, but the other two are way off the "Y-shaped" alignment lines. How do you get light to torque like that? It would make better sense if all 3 alignment dots were torqued in the same amount away from the alignment lines. My mind wants to think that if the tool is well-collimated, all three alignment dots should be equally spaced from each other on the grid.
4. Another interesting item is that on the reflector/target installed on the C11 baffle, I am not able to get the 3 laser beams to intersect. I can get them close, but never can I get them to overlap perfectly. I can get the "blob" that you see below to land on the center of the target, but then my collimation goes even further out of alignment.
Here's what I am theorizing based on what I'm seeing from the device output:
1. Hotech Collimator, Bad Collimation: If the C11 and the Hotech unit are co-aligned well, could the output seen in item #3 above be caused by collimation issues in the Hotech device itself? If so, how do I validate and then collimate the Hotech device?
2. Potential Issues with C11 Corrector Plate: This C11 is fresh from Celestron repair to replace a shattered corrector. Is it possible that the corrector plate needs to be better aligned? Celestron collimated the scope before it left repair and I would assume that they know what they are doing. If the corrector is to blame for this, would it also explain why I'm not able to get all 3 beams to overlap on the target reflector on the rear of the C11?
3. The Hotech Tool is Ineffective and Should Not Be Used: While I'd be disappointed in giving up on this, I'm not above it. Sometimes things just don't work as the seller suggests they will. Maybe it's time to just move on and stick to collimating with a Tri-Bhatinov mask only.
Thanks for any comments or guidance, I do appreciate the help.
Jeramie
I purchased the Hotech CT Collimator and have had a difficult time getting good results with it. I have watched the instruction videos multiple times over and I think I understand the concept well, but my collimation still suffers. My use case for the collimator was to help me achieve rough collimation when swapping between my Hyperstar and native focal-length imaging, I don't expect this tool to deliver perfect results.
Based on the results that I'm seeing I'm concerned there's a bigger issue going on, but I'm not able to wrap my head around the output I'm getting and what would cause it. Would appreciate any help from members that have experience with this tool.
1. The co-alignment looks pretty good, and I should be able to progress to the next steps. (Slightly off in this pic, just needs a small tweak)
2. The diffused ring looks decent as well.
3. Here's where the problems start. Based on the collimation ring in the pic above, I would expect to see the "alignment dots" below be more aligned. What I see is the bottom dot in decent position, but the other two are way off the "Y-shaped" alignment lines. How do you get light to torque like that? It would make better sense if all 3 alignment dots were torqued in the same amount away from the alignment lines. My mind wants to think that if the tool is well-collimated, all three alignment dots should be equally spaced from each other on the grid.
4. Another interesting item is that on the reflector/target installed on the C11 baffle, I am not able to get the 3 laser beams to intersect. I can get them close, but never can I get them to overlap perfectly. I can get the "blob" that you see below to land on the center of the target, but then my collimation goes even further out of alignment.
Here's what I am theorizing based on what I'm seeing from the device output:
1. Hotech Collimator, Bad Collimation: If the C11 and the Hotech unit are co-aligned well, could the output seen in item #3 above be caused by collimation issues in the Hotech device itself? If so, how do I validate and then collimate the Hotech device?
2. Potential Issues with C11 Corrector Plate: This C11 is fresh from Celestron repair to replace a shattered corrector. Is it possible that the corrector plate needs to be better aligned? Celestron collimated the scope before it left repair and I would assume that they know what they are doing. If the corrector is to blame for this, would it also explain why I'm not able to get all 3 beams to overlap on the target reflector on the rear of the C11?
3. The Hotech Tool is Ineffective and Should Not Be Used: While I'd be disappointed in giving up on this, I'm not above it. Sometimes things just don't work as the seller suggests they will. Maybe it's time to just move on and stick to collimating with a Tri-Bhatinov mask only.
Thanks for any comments or guidance, I do appreciate the help.
Jeramie
