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Skip to content Celestron EclipSmart 10 Pack

Hotech 2" Advanced CT Laser Collimator

(Only 2 Left)
Free shipping
SKU: HTC-ACT-M2
$499.00
 

Hotech Advanced CT 2" Laser Collimator Highlights

Collimate Your Cassegrain Telescope...

  • Without using a star
  • Indoor or outdoor - day or night
  • Within focal distance from your telescope
  • Focus stays at final view setting
  • Collimating your telescope with the Hotech Advanced CT is a one-man operation
  • Portable and simple to setup and use

About the Hotech Advanced CT Laser Collimator

Innovation Brings Affordable and Portable Collimation into Reality

Since the invention of the Cassegrain Telescope in 1672 by the French sculptor Sieur Guillaume Cassegrain, the Cassegrain Telescope has evolved into various derivative designs such as the more popular Ritchey-Chrétien, Dall-Kirkham, Schmidt-Cassegrain, and Maksutov-Cassegrain. The designs have gained their popularity because of their compact and simple to produce design. With different designs, star collimation is and has always been the only effective method to collimate for Cassegrain telescope owners.

Now, backyard astronomers have an alternative to achieve excellent collimation conveniently using the Hotech Advanced CT Laser Collimator. The Advanced CT Laser Collimator brings the collimating star to your telescope within arm-reaching distance. With its short range capability, you can perform collimation indoors - day or night - without being subjected to weather conditions. And best of all, this new collimator utilizes a clear and simple-to-read, large target display for the telescope alignment diagnostic. This large target display is positioned within a short focal distance of the telescope which allows you to collimate without guessing.

No Star Required to Collimate

In order to achieve an accurate star collimation, normally the amateur astronomer requires good seeing conditions with no cloud, no wind, stable temperature, no light pollution, a well-aligned telescope mount tracking system, telescope optical tube assemble (OTA) thermal equilibrium, and a good visible magnitude star. Adjusting the collimation is guessing game where you move between front and the back of the telescope adjusting the corresponding alignment screw and holding your breath peeping through a high magnification eyepiece referencing the concentricity of the unstable defocused image. This can be an incredibly frustrating experience.

An artificial star can never simulate a real star because it is impossible to collimate with the telescope focus set at infinity. After artificial star collimation, you will need to adjust your focus back to infinity to view a real star by moving the primary mirror to a different position. The distance the primary mirror has been adjusted can accumulate mechanical tolerance errors. For some of the mass produced SCTs, the “sticky baffle” on the primary mirror focusing mechanism may also cause mirror-flop. If a mirror-flop has occurred, it will affect the alignment position which in turn will render the collimation useless. Ideally, It is best to collimate your optics at the same viewing focusing position without major optical displacements to correspond to the final view setting. The Hotech Advanced CT Laser Collimator can accomplish this task without all the possible accumulated errors.

The large target display on the Advanced CT Laser Collimator brings you a clear visual cue of three projecting laser dots as the alignment reference at a very comfortable visual distance providing an accurate axial alignment error diagnostic. And during the entire collimation process, no major focusing is needed, thus minimizing the possible accumulated errors from the focusing adjustments. The referencing adjustments are made by bringing the three clearly discernible projected laser dots, projected on the target, into a concentric ring. No more peeping through the eyepiece looking for a changing, ambiguous star image. This alternative collimation method saves precious observing time by collimating the telescope and preparing the viewing programs at dusk or before dawn without the influences of the external environmental conditions.

Hotech Advanced CT Laser Collimator Specs

The Advanced CT Laser Collimator collimates following types of telescopes:

  • Classic Cassegrain
  • Schmidt Cassegrain
  • Maksutov-Cassegrain
  • Ritchey-Chretien
  • Dall-Kirkham
  • and most other Cassegrain telescope designs

Laser Specification:

  • Output Power: Class II, 1mW
  • Wavelength: 650nm
  • Alignment Lasers: 170mm diameter spaced apart
  • Crosshair Laser: 90 deg. divergent optic
  • Power Supply: One CR123, 3V Lithium battery

Telescope aperture limitation on ACT-M2 model:

  • Primary mirror larger than 170mm(6.7") diameter to accept the alignment lasers
  • Secondary mirror obstruction smaller than 170mm(6.7") diameter without blocking the alignment lasers

This 2" Hotech Advanced CT Laser Collimator Includes:

  • 1 x Advanced CT Laser Collimator
  • 1 x Premium Carrying Case
  • 1 x Fine Adjustment Stage (FAS-01)
  • 1 x 2" Reflector Mirror (RM2)
  • 1 x CR123, 3V lithium battery