Before I spend the money on the square aluminum tubes on which to mount the upper and lower tube assemblies, I wanted to make sure that I had the dimensions right. I set them up at about the right distance in the garage.
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You may be wondering, "Can you really get everything aligned adequately to test whether the focal point is correct?" By eye, no. I was beginning to get rather frustrated with all this, then I pulled out the Orion Deluxe Laser Collimator that I bought several years ago, turned it on, and everything became much easier. Then it was just a matter of making some adjustments to the diagonal, and adjusting the collimation screws on the main mirror.
Then I opened up the garage, and tried to bring the 35mm eyepiece to focus. That should be about 56 power. What did I see? The snowbank in front of the house, which is far too close to focus--but I could see what seems to be a Ford pickup truck at the edge of the field--and quite large.
So I stand up, look that direction--and where's the pickup truck?
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I think it might be over at the Good's house (the people that were neighborly a few days ago and brought the road grader up our driveway). But I sure couldn't find it with the zoom lens on my camera.
I have increased confidence that I haven't wasted a pile of money!
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