Celestron C6 Collimation Issue

I couldn't collimate my Celestron C6-XLT and this is the problem that I found and solved.

[@ugurphoto]

Hi Mark! I may have a similar issue with my C8-XLT. Do you have any before and after images or videos?

[@Zealor365]

To be honest, I am giving up on the SCT and going back to refractors.

[@ABCMO-bl5pi]

Last night I spent between 1.5 and 2 frustrating hours trying to collimate my C6. I used Arcturus, which was up around 60 degrees, as my target star and began trying to use a Tri-Bahtinov mask. I couldn’t make any headway and might have made things worse, so I shifted to the airy disk method. After the airy disk looked like it was about one step away from good collimation, all of my effort made things much worse, and whatever I did with the collimation screws, I couldn’t get the circle we want in the center to move away from the edge. Disheartened, I gave up, decompressed for 30 minutes, and went to bed. I in my fourth week of recovering from Covid-stopped testing positive four days ago-so maybe the virus is affecting my judgment, but at least last night I was thinking of getting out of the SCT business and working primarily with my William Optics Redcat 61 on my AM5 mount and controlled with an ASIAIR+, which works great. And this after buying a used Celestron 8se just a couple of weeks ago. Haven’t looked into its collimation yet, and after last night’s debacle, I’d probably be afraid to try to adjust it if need. Not sure what to do, but the thought of leaving SCTs behind has some positive aspects. So it’s interesting to see that’s exactly what you are doing. I’m a member of my local astronomy club, so maybe I can pay someone much better at collimation than I am to try to get my scope(s) collimated.