Ritchey Chretien telescope collimation doesn't have to be hard. With the right tools, and a few basic steps anyone can collimate their RC telescope.
The basic steps for collimating a Ritchey-Chretien telescope are:
1) Remove the front half of the baffle tube so you can see the secondary mirror's reflection on the primary mirror.
1) With a Cheshire eyepiece, roughly align the primary mirror and OTA body.
2) With a cashier eyepiece, roughly align the secondary mirror.
3) Switch to the Howie Glatter laser collimator, and use the fine dot laser (FDL) and adjust the focuser so the laser beam is centered in the donut marker on the secondary mirror.
4) Carefully and accurately, adjust the secondary mirror so the laser beam bounces from the center of the donut marker straight back to the laser beam emitter inside the focuser.
5) Switch the Howie Glatter laser collimator to the holographic concentric ring (HCR) and point the telescope at a wall. Check the central ring for any breaks. These are caused by a shadow from the baffle tube and help pin down primary mirror misalignment.
6) Adjust the primary mirror slightly to center the rings and eliminate the shadow.
7) Switch back to the FDL and check that the laser beam lands in the center of the secondary mirror donut marker. Adjust the focuser as needed.
8) Repeat Steps 5 - 7 until the rings are unbroken, AND the fine laser beam lands on the center of the secondary and can also be bounced straight back onto the emitter.
Table of Contents:
Intro 0:00
Tools 0:27
Assemble The Rear 3:16
Baffle Tube Removal 4:23
Using The Cheshire To Check Primary and Secondary Mirrors 05:16
Trick To Verify Primary Mirror Collimation 8:04
Primary Mirror Rough Collimation 8:45
Secondary Mirror Rough Collimation 11:05
Collimating The Focuser With A Laser 12:25
Collimating The Secondary Mirror With A Laser 15:45
Collimating the Primary Mirror With A Laser 17:36
Correcting Focuser Collimation After Moving the Primary 20:25
Repeat Fine Adjustments to the Primary Mirror and Focuser 23:01
Locking The Primary Mirror after collimation 29:00
Quick Review of The Steps 31:49
===== The tools you need are =====
The focuser collimation ring -- https://bit.ly/2PDM8eX
A set of metric allen (hex) keys -- https://amzn.to/2UkxhbN
A set of SAE allen(hex) keys -- https://amzn.to/3krdt0S
A Cheshire eyepiece -- https://bit.ly/2IwABOe
The Howie Glatter laser collimator -- https://bit.ly/32zv94j
Holographic ring projector -- https://bit.ly/32DIqJl
Other ways to support the channel:
TPO / GSO 8" Stainless Steel Ritchey Chretien Telescope -- https://bit.ly/2Lh6gl9
TPO / GSO 8" Carbon Fiber Ritchey Chretien Telescope -- https://bit.ly/2S6rhCG
Celestron CGEM II Mount -- https://bit.ly/36qWXcA
Hand Picked Telescope Kits: https://www.hobbyastro.com/telescope-kits