Testing Your Refractor

Abstract

A large box arrives at your doorstep. Inside, your latest telescope has arrived, ready to be fed starlight. Excitedly, you carefully remove the ­optical tube assembly from its protective housing and fetch a couple of eyepieces and a diagonal. After setting it up on its mount you’re ready to give it a once over. What kind of information can you glean from your observations? This chapter shows you how to easily perform a few tests to evaluate your optics during both daylight hours and at night. However, before carrying out any tests, you’ve got to make sure your optics are well aligned, and here’s where we’ll begin, with a brief overview of how to check whether or not your telescope is well collimated.