Blood Moon and the Telescope Collimation
Around a month ago, the rest of the world turned their attention to the lunar eclipse when our Moon moved into the Earth’s shadow, making it to be darkened or reddened. Everyone had positioned their telescopes, used their phone cameras to take photos, and watched livestreams of the eclipse.
That event had led me to use my telescope at the balcony when I hurried home from work. I positioned it as I was supposed to take a picture. I was about to do it when the a sudden gush of wind pushed it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to view the blood moon as some dubbed it. I felt relieved that the primary mirror was perfectly fine. Checking the eyepiece, the secondary mirror’s view was slightly bent or misaligned.
I didn’t use the telescope the entire time. Instead, I used my phone camera to take the pictures.
As I had written from my previous article (here), it was very expensive to maintain a telescope and purchase a new one. If it were a worst case scenario, I would be very heartbroken and devastated that I wouldn’t continue my sky watching adventures.
After the event, I kept searching for videos in how to repair the secondary mirror and joined Reddit communities, asking for help.
Some had responded as they gave me some links in how to collimate the the secondary mirror. One of them mentioned that it needed to rotate and adjust the three screws, until the primary mirror would look centered to it. Fortunately, my niece helped me to collimate the telescope when she had her free time.
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A week later, I tested the telescope and pointed at Jupiter. It was still slightly bent, but I was able to view and take pictures of the planet.
The images were a bit distorted as I needed to collimate further before the 16th of March (the day of 3I ATLAS’s arrival to Jupiter’s Hill Radius).
The day after, I did a work around in the morning by watching the tutorial videos and read some tips in collimating the secondary mirror. I carefully kept adjusting and did some trial and error whether the eyepiece was properly aligned, managing to get the desired view and image. It took more than two hours to finish until I had a perfect and clear view from my telescope!
To quote this from Archimedes:
“ Eureka! “
That was my most joyous moment I had ever had which I was able to fully repair the telescope. Thanks to YouTube tutorial videos and tips from Reddit people. I was able to take fine pictures from the neighborhood tree. Indeed, what a beauty!
Along with the collimation session, the missing clamp from the tripod leg was replaced by some small cute red ribbons to strengthen it and add a bit feminine touch on my telescope. It may be awkward for some, but it was working well. From then on, it was never shaky every time I would move and position the telescope.
Collimating the telescope should be very extra careful in handling the mirrors and screws. It takes a lot of patience to return the secondary mirror to its original position.
As I could express in Japanese for this experience:
楽しくて けど、 とても すばらしい です！(It’s fascinating, but totally awesome!)
Moving forward, I won’t allow any strong gush of wind to push the telescope! Kidding aside, I would be very attentive enough to make sure it’s safe and properly handled.
