Some of you may remember I recently purchased a used RV-6 telescope. It was in pretty bad shape, and with the bad weather inhibiting observing I've had fun cleaning and renovating this scope. I finished the paint job Tuesday with a second can of spray urethane over the metallic gold paint I had used.
I had the mirrors re-coated by Bob Fies but was quite disappointed in the images I got when I re-installed the optics last week. The mirror tested to 1/4 wave at the Chabot Telescope makers workshop, so I assumed the problem was somewhere else. I spent a LOT of time fiddling with the collimation to no avail. I diagnosed the problem as pinched optics.
I used cork at the base of the cell and on the clips. I took out the mirror out and re-spaced the clips. It took another week for clear enough skies to re-test. I tried tonight and again the image was terrible and appeared to be pinched optics. I took the cell out yet again and this time discovered that the screws for the clips were going all the way through the cell and right on into the mirror!
A quick grab of some washers, re-install the mirror, re-collimate and *HURRAY* beautiful star images! Whew. I tried it on Saturn, and even at the low elevation saw the Cassini division and some subtle shadings. I tried it on Castor and easily split the double with an 18 mm ortho. The 12mm gave a nice dark lane between the two. The Rigel Quickfinder works well on this scope.
I'm a happy camper, so now I need some dark skies!