I spent the holiday doing some overdue maintenance on the scope collection. Coming off my very successful alignment/collimation of the ancient Meade 10"
More than once, I tried to get this thing setup correctly. I had a feeling that something was not quite right with this thing, when I was not able to even get the stock finder aligned with the scope. I had examined the scope using a Glatter Laser collimator, and could never seem to get it aligned using just the primary/secondary adjustments. After some research, I went out and bought the collimation ring (which was back-ordered) but never messed around with it after moving onto other things.
But with the 10" out back, I cannot see the south too well. I wanted to grab Jupiter, and a nice portable scope like this on say the AVX would have been nice. The observatory is going to be a while still, until I get myself a backhoe-loader or pony-up a huge chunk of change to a landscaper. I have my eye on a Case 580 4x4 which would work for snoww as well. But I digress...
After watching a few different videos, I felt that I was ready to get started today. I put the collimation ring on the scope, got all my allen wrenches together, and started with the focuser collimation. It was not close. Not remotely close. After making the adjustments, I managed to get it all squared-up nicely. Moved on to the secondary, which ligned-up nicely. Then the Primary...which I also got ligned up spot-on. With the coincentric attachment, it all looked just beautiful. I was feeling pretty darn good about myself at this point. I had tightened-up most of the screws, and wanted to turn the focuser a bit so that I could torque it all down. But then I looked at the pattern. And that feeling of angst with this thing returned.
If the focuser is rotated at all, the alignment goes to crap. And this is with the focuser all the way in, and everything locked-down. All the screws looked solid, and nothing appeared to be loose. But this thing is so dang out of square, it could only be aligned in one position. Not happy. Not at all.
I am not sure how something like this ever got out of QC. And this was bought directly from Orion. I can remember writing them about the "finder issue" when I first got this thing. It should have setup a flag, but I had intended on using a
Sooooo, I am considering getting a Moonlight for this thing. It will cost more than the rest of the scope. There are some used ones out there, but ...
I was considering donating this thing a short while ago, but in retrospect, Iam glad that I did not. Well, maybe to someone who I want to get all 'issed-off, or who loves endless challenges. It would be good to give to a mortal enemy I suppose. Otherwise, I am not a very happy man with this thing. A lot of time was spent figuring things out. I guess I learned a lot in the process, and certainly a "you get what you pay for" lesson as well. Not happy with Orion though. Maybe I will write them.
Has anyone experienced remedying these
I can see that they sell
Any pointers would be appreciated.