Artificial Star for Telescope Collimation
by AndréC161 in Outside > Backyard
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Artificial Star for Telescope Collimation
I made a low-cost artificial star to help me collimate my telescope when a real star is not available. It's based on a lot of similar ones I've found while browsing the web.
Supplies
All you'll need is:
- piece of vegetable paper
- led flashlight
- 3d printer nozzle
- plastic cap that fits the flashlight (mine is 3d printed)
There are many 3d printer nozzles with different sized holes, different telescopes might require different holes. The one I used was 0.1 mm and it was perfect.
Assembly
Assembly is very easy:
- Make a hole on the plastic cap so that the 3d printed nozzle will fit without light leak.
- Place the vegetable paper in front of the flashlight
- Place the cap over the paper and on the flashlight
- Turn it on and off to check if it works
Test It and Use It
I have an f/10 8" SCT and, with the 0.1 mm hole, could collimate the scope with the star at a distance of around 8 meters. I turned the flashlight on inside my house on top of a counter and the scope at the end of a hall. The image is a picture I took directly from the eyepiece, not the best representation as while looking through it you could see the concentric circles when out of focus.