I'm stuck and maybe the answer is simple but I don't know what to do. I'm in Mzulft with the last remaining Synod wizard trying to get his help with my search for the Staff of Magnus. On his instruction I have put the focus crystal in the Oculory and I understand that I will possibly need to use fire and ice to tune the crystal. When I put the crystal in the Oculory the beam breaks up into 3 or 4 different rays - after this I don't seem to make any progress so I am obviously doing something wrong. I don't know how to focus the darned thing. Spoilers very welcome.

Use Flames or Frost on the crystal until the beams line up with the spinning segments of the wall, then press buttons until the plates are under where the light beams are. As I recall the heating/cooling seemed pretty random and arbitrary, so just keep blasting it with whatever until those light beams are on areas of the wall where the crystals would be if you spun them, then spin them.

Fire Frostbite at the crystal and the beams should move down, when they are focused in the middle of the ceiling parts (should be as low as they go) use the buttons on the console to rotate the different parts of the ceiling so each beam hits a mirror.

I just finished that earlier for the second time I'm about to enter the next area...only reason I'm finishing the questline right this second is because I can't get the master conjuration spells without doing so. Otherwise I'd be off on a different adventure. >.<

Okay I have finally got a reaction from the crystal but it seems that there are only 2 postions and I don't understand how these line up with the plates. If I hit them with flame they are all clustered near the top if I hit them with ice they drop. I assume the plates are the discs on the rotating rings? Are you telling me if I hit them enough they will eventually beam onto each rotating ring and then I must rotate the ring until the beam shines on the disc?

In the top (flamed) postition they are too high and in the lower (iced) position they are too low to line up with the rotating rings. I don't seem to be understanding things correctly.

It's funny people complain puzzles are so easy and obvious and then there's people like the op that ask how to do them.

I do not seem able to adjust where the rays hit no matter what I use (ice or flame) When I use flame bolt all the beams go to a position with one beam higher than the moving rings and the other two both on the innermost (highest) ring. ie only the inside hightest ring has a beam on it. When I use frost bite the one beam is on the middle ring and the other two are below the outermost ring - once again only the middle ring has a beam on it. This happens every time and the positions that the beams land on does not change. These positions obviously will not line up with the mirrored discs on the three moving rings.

Is this a glitch in the game or will the beams miraculously suddenly reposition onto the moving rings if I continue hitting the gem with ice spike and flame bolt until I am bored out of my skull?

Are those the spells provided by the tomes you can find by the controls? I used flames and frost bite (im pretty sure thats where i got them too), and used a steady stream. I think fire bolt and ice spike are the incorrect spells (right elements just not 'style')

You use fire and ice to balance out the position of the beams...so if the fire stream pushed em too far one direction then use frost bite to bring em back a bit, you want each beam to be centered on a rotating ring, not in between them or anything.

Okay, finally got the darned thing to work - using the weaker spells as you suggested - I had been using the strong spells from up at the controls where I had a better view. I tried using the weaker spells from below and although I swear they didn't look as if they lined up they worked so who am I to complain!

Yeah i think the beams moved according to damage. Spike damage like the bolts would move them instantly to the ending positions but the DoT spells did it incrementally. Glad you got it figured out....one of the more interesting puzzles of the game as well.

Don't feel bad, I spent a good 40 minutes on the damn thing with the exact same problem, the beams never moved to the center (always to the very edges) of the rotating mirrors cause I kept using firebolt and ice spike instead of flames and frostbite.

I was pretty annoyed about it.