I have a dobsonian 12inch scope from Orion. I have had it for at least 6 months now and have had very little problems with it. Now I you can abuse me for what im about to say, i cleaned my primary mirror since it was very dirty. I followed all directions given to me from both the orion manual and online sources.Here's the problem, minutes before i cleaned it i used a laser collimation tool for the first time and my mirrors were way off (but i had very good seeing characteristics...at least better than what i have now), so i cleaned the mirror and collimated it with the laser, and now this is what i see------ When looking at jupiter, it comes into focus with three planets merging as one, but when totally focused it is still blurry and you can somewhat see the 3 objects trying to be one. When looking at star fields they all have comet tails or are blurry. They are all somewhat different, and are not even close to being as clear as they were before this. So , is the laser out of whack? Did i possible damage or leave a residue on my mirrors? ( i cleaned both the prim and sec. mirrors) I tried to collimate using my old method and it wasn't coming out any better...but i was having trouble getting it perfect. Any help would be appreciated, thank you very much. side note- i adjusted the lengthening screw on my secondary to make it longer, so it appears fully when viewing through the eyepiece, could the shortened distance (fractions of an inch) affect my viewing?
Thanks guys, I will def contact orion once i get my new ( and epensive ) laser in and see if the old laser caused this. I am going to go try out your suggestions now. THANKS AGAIN!
I collimated the scope perfectly and it was still "out of focus", still waiting for my laser to come, should be in by friday at the latest. I have a perfect image when looking through the hole of the collimation tool. The mirror doesn't look optimally clean and i really hope it doesn't have a film of soap or something still on it (don't know if that is even a possibility). Also my optics are of very good quality, so its not that.
Thanks guys, I will def contact orion once i get my new ( and epensive ) laser in and see if the old laser caused this. I am going to go try out your suggestions now. THANKS AGAIN!
I collimated the scope perfectly and it was still "out of focus", still waiting for my laser to come, should be in by friday at the latest. I have a perfect image when looking through the hole of the collimation tool. The mirror doesn't look optimally clean and i really hope it doesn't have a film of soap or something still on it (don't know if that is even a possibility). Also my optics are of very good quality, so its not that.