Vixen Collimating your VC200L or VMC200L - Manual

Collimating Your
VC200L or VMC200L
Congratulations on owning or considering owning one of the finest telescopes
commercially available today. We hope that by learning to collimate your telescope it
will give you many years and thousands of hours of pleasure. Please be sure to read
this entire procedure BEFORE you begin. You may be able to skip some of the
beginning instructions, but you must know them to proceed.
The primary and secondary mirrors have been very accurately adjusted at Vixen’s
factory before being shipped to you. If, for any reason, either mirror needs to be
removed, it is extremely important to mark the edge of the mirror or holder for
repositioning when replacing. This is critical to reproducing the best view when re-
collimated.
If you are removing the secondary mirror holder there are a varying number of washers
between the secondary and the vanes. It is imperative that you keep all of these as this
will set the correct unique distance of the secondary from the primary mirror. You will
also need a Centering Eyepiece for this adjustment. Many amateurs make them out of a
35mm film canister.
At the focuser end of the telescope, especially on the VC200L as it has the rear
corrector lens element, you may need to add an extension to the focuser draw tube. You
can use the Star Diagonal Flip Mirror system in the straight through position or any of the
other 1.25” eyepiece adapters with the 43mm or 60mm extension tubes with appropriate
adapters where necessary. Be sure to have them accessible before you begin.
Deep breath... Is it dark outside? Can you see and track a moderately bright star? Are
the seeing conditions good and “steady”? Have you let the Optical Tube reach outside air
temperature yet (20 to 45 minutes typical)? Are you sure you are not looking over any
thermal feature, your neighbors fireplace, set up on top of the garage with the dryer set to
stun? Then we are ready to begin.
Star Test
• Point and track on a star of approximately 2 nd
magnitude that is higher than 45
degrees in the sky.
• The night must be steady, if you see rapidly twinkling stars, enjoy the night but
do not attempt collimation as the atmosphere is likely causing more disruption
than any collimation errors you may be able to remove.
Vixen Optics a Division of MrStarGuy, Inc. Copyright 2006