OH NO I THINK I BROKE IT!!!!

[jasonpply]

Ummmm..... got telescope 5 days ago.Was out tonight trying to hit holmes, wasn't doing well.Anyways left it out to cool down and take a break, then stupid me let the dog out..he bumped it, and knocked it over. I saw it happen and caught it so when it landed it didnt fall over. But when it landed it did land on it's backside where the three screws are for the mirror. didnt damage the outside to bad. but when I lookthrough it at the sky i couldn't see nothing. I aimed it towards the horizon, i could see the lights there but it wouldnt focus. the best i could do was get them to look like were bright colorful smudges when earlier I was looking at them and they were far enough away to look like stars to the naked eye. any idea what i can doto help this. it's a 3" reflector and this sucks. please help me.

 

[adrenalynn]

Ok - let's do a visual inspection here. We may luck out and just find it out of collimation.<br /><br />Look down the tube. The primary mirror is the big mirror at the back. When you look down the tube and shift your head around, you should see the secondary mirror (the one closest to the open end of the tube) reflected back. Do you see that?<br /><br />Do you have a digital camera? Can you take a picture down the open end of the tube so we can see what we see?<br /><br />Also, can you point it at a bright light, like a street light or light bulb, and then look down the focuser (the place where the eyepiece goes in) without an eyepiece in it?<br /><br />You should see concentric circles. Can you photograph (or sketch) what you see? That will tell us a BUNCH.<br /><br />Don't panic yet. Newtonians are very very simple devices. I built my first when I was in second grade. They're not that difficult to repair as long as the mirror(s) aren't completely broken. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[adrenalynn]

You have a PM. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[jasonpply]

do you want my hotmail?<br />

 

[adrenalynn]

Sure - you have all my contact info in PM - feel free to send it. I'll unblock hotmail. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[adrenalynn]

I've emailed you. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[jasonpply]

are you online adrenalynn?

 

[jasonpply]

I think I need helpp re-aligning my big mirror need some help. anyone please

 

[jamaican]

yeah dont worry m8 they are very easy to repair i have one which broke and a few turns here and there does the trick <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[jasonpply]

I think I got it ty eddie for the link big help. ty sooo much adrenalynn you are awesome. really appreciate your help. <br />one question for anyone out there who might know. I got my focus back but my image is different. how you ask. well when I bought it I looked out to the horizon it was upside down and vertical, but now when I look at the horizon it is still upside down but on a 45 degree angle upwards, any ideas? I'm happy to get it working again but this is outta curiosity, thought it was weird.<br />

 

[Testing]

Sounds like your secondary is twisted, don't panic!. Secondary takes the image from the primary and turns it exactly toward the eye piece. Reach past the spider and gently touch the edges of the elipticle mirror while looking thru the focuser without eye piece. Do not touch the reflective surface. You want to see if it is loose in the axis of the tube. Gently turn it so you get a full field of view. Report findings. Just touch one edge to see if it goes more verticle, if worse go the other way. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[adrenalynn]

Exactly, Testing. We got him back to a full field of view. The image rotated 45 deg off-axis is a bit of a conundrum to me. Just rotating the mirror doesn't seem like it should roll the image off-axis - but I could easily be wrong. . <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Saddest breaking news.

 

[adrenalynn]

You know - the whole OTA (Optical Tube Assembly - the telescope itself) has to be rotated. Either the Alt-Az fork is bent or warped, or if the mount doesn't screw directly into the scope (like rings or some such), then it's just simply rotated in the rings. THAT seems most likely. (Or the tripod not being leveled) Rotating the mirrors won't give you that angled horizon. I couldn't envision how that could be (as you and I spoke of) - so I deliberately took one of my dobs to its extremes and couldn't reproduce it. But rotating the whole OTA will certainly provide that result... There's something to check anyway. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[jasonpply]

is it possible that the primary is twisted? does that have to go on the exact same way as it came off? because i did take the primary right out of its casing maybe I put it back on wrong.

 

[adrenalynn]

Here's an experiment for you. Grab a hand-mirror (sure your wife has one) and turn it all the way around whilst looking into it. The image doesn't rotate.<br /><br />But if you rotated your body, the image would appear to be angled.<br /><br />The body has to be rotated (the whole tube assembly) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[Testing]

As long as the mountings are symetrical it should not matter, (rotational orientation). If you were able to get near full field of view back I still say secondary but now tweaked spider in addition. I think. All still fixable, don't toss it yet. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[adrenalynn]

He has good sharp view back. The only thing remaining is that horizon is ~45deg from level. Rotating the spider wouldn't do that (and it's a fixed spider, it'd have to be the cup that rotated). I still go with the OTA rotating in its assembly - can you think of anything else that would cause the horizon to be non-level? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

FEEL SAD.Telescope and heart broken.