Guy gets partial credit. I make an artificial star using the specular reflection of the sun on a polished ball-bearing (sphere), attached to a tree or pole several hundred feet away. You poke a small hole in a black posterboard and position it just in front of the sphere in line with the telescope view. This gives a sufficiently dark background when examining the "star" at high magnification. Once I stuck the ball on a piece of electrical conduit with a magnet, on the side of a building a couple of blocks away. Richard Berry also published plans for making an electrical artificial star-in-a-box some years ago, for the same purpose of optical testing and collimation in daylight. On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 4:54 AM, <diveboss@xmission.com> wrote:
Quoting Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com>:
I've star-tested in daylight using a real star- the sun. Some of you probably know exactly what I do- it's somewhat of a trick statement. Can you guess?
Let's see, you use a welding hood with a number 14 lens? ;) Either that or you use it's reflection.