[ATM] Binocular telescope co-collimation

["Paul Bradley" <paul@paul-bradley.com>]

I'm making 2 8" mirrors at the moment and I'm considering mounting them in a binocular 
configuration, I've read around a bit on binocular scopes but I still can't properly grasp the
co-collimation issue.

As far as I can see, assuming flexure was within "reasonable bounds" it would be possible
to make the optical paths paralell by simply de-collimating one of the individual primary mirrors 
slightly so as to view a slightly off-axis part of the image. So when moving from one part of the 
sky to another all that would be required would be some way of controlling the normal collimation
bolts on one of the mirrors from the viewing position.

But I've also seen scopes where people have had individual collimation adjustments for the two
tubes, and also a tip-tilt for one tube (or equivalently tip adjustment on one tube and tilt on the other).
Is this just an optional feature to keep collimation perfect in each individual OTA - ie. is it not strictly 
necessary to implement this feature to end up with a useable binoscope? 

Paul

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