Introduction: Artificial Star for Telescope Collimation

By plus.google.com/+AndréColatino

I made a low-cost artificial star to help me collimate my telescope when a real star is not available. It's based on a lot of similar ones I've found while browsing the web.

Supplies

All you'll need is:

  1. piece of vegetable paper
  2. led flashlight
  3. 3d printer nozzle
  4. plastic cap that fits the flashlight (mine is 3d printed)

There are many 3d printer nozzles with different sized holes, different telescopes might require different holes. The one I used was 0.1 mm and it was perfect.

Step 1: Assembly

Assembly is very easy:

  1. Make a hole on the plastic cap so that the 3d printed nozzle will fit without light leak.
  2. Place the vegetable paper in front of the flashlight
  3. Place the cap over the paper and on the flashlight
  4. Turn it on and off to check if it works

Step 2: Test It and Use It

I have an f/10 8" SCT and, with the 0.1 mm hole, could collimate the scope with the star at a distance of around 8 meters. I turned the flashlight on inside my house on top of a counter and the scope at the end of a hall. The image is a picture I took directly from the eyepiece, not the best representation as while looking through it you could see the concentric circles when out of focus.