a-l-e-x
21-July-2008, 05:14 AM
First of all, I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who gave me advice about making the purchase of a telescope that combines both aperture and portability. It took me six months to decide, but I finally did: the Nexstar 8 SE. Orion has a great installment billing option so I'd advise people to go for it if they are thinking about getting one soon. There's also a $200 mail in rebate that lasts until July 31st.
I got the telescope Saturday and it came with everything except the bubble level. No problem since those are fairly common. Something unusual is that I thought the ota would come attached to the se mount, but they were in separate boxes. I havent attached it yet, but I hope it isnt too big of a deal.
Now comes the part where Im not sure what to do. When I unscrewed the lens cover (not easy on this scope, it gets stuck), I found there's what look to be scratches or smudges on the corrector. Im not sure how they got there (could it be from my struggles to remove the lens cover and it maybe hitting the corrector?) and I dont know if it'll impact performance at all. So I leave it up to the experts on here to decide whether I should a) exchange the ota b) try to clean it or c) leave it alone because, maybe, it wont affect performance at all and cleaning might damage the coatings? Here are some images that I took with flash on-- the marks arent as clear as they are visually, but they do give you an idea.
Please take a look at the bottom left of the images and also slightly to the lower right... you'll see two scratches there, which I used a camera flash to help illuminate. There's actually a couple more smaller scratches that run parallel to the ones you can already see-- but you should get an idea from the image I posted. Should I use some kind of lens cleaner, or the lens pen/brush combo I use with my lenses, return the ota and have them replace it with a new one, or should I just leave it untouched and not risk the coatings getting messed up-- will these little scratches impact the image at all, or not enough to make any difference? Thanks!
By the way, let me know if you want bigger images emailed to you-- the originals are 7 MP.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198347.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198348.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198349.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198350.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198351.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198355.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198356.jpg
Just to be more specific, you can see a couple of the scratches right under where the label on the side of the corrector says "schmidt cassegrain" in the first few images and another couple of scratches near the 8" (203mm) label on the last two. You might have to scroll around a bit-- sorry about that. I think the first three images and the last two are the clearest. The more I look at them, the more I worry. Are these the sort of marks that are common on corrector plates, either new or after some use?
I got the telescope Saturday and it came with everything except the bubble level. No problem since those are fairly common. Something unusual is that I thought the ota would come attached to the se mount, but they were in separate boxes. I havent attached it yet, but I hope it isnt too big of a deal.
Now comes the part where Im not sure what to do. When I unscrewed the lens cover (not easy on this scope, it gets stuck), I found there's what look to be scratches or smudges on the corrector. Im not sure how they got there (could it be from my struggles to remove the lens cover and it maybe hitting the corrector?) and I dont know if it'll impact performance at all. So I leave it up to the experts on here to decide whether I should a) exchange the ota b) try to clean it or c) leave it alone because, maybe, it wont affect performance at all and cleaning might damage the coatings? Here are some images that I took with flash on-- the marks arent as clear as they are visually, but they do give you an idea.
Please take a look at the bottom left of the images and also slightly to the lower right... you'll see two scratches there, which I used a camera flash to help illuminate. There's actually a couple more smaller scratches that run parallel to the ones you can already see-- but you should get an idea from the image I posted. Should I use some kind of lens cleaner, or the lens pen/brush combo I use with my lenses, return the ota and have them replace it with a new one, or should I just leave it untouched and not risk the coatings getting messed up-- will these little scratches impact the image at all, or not enough to make any difference? Thanks!
By the way, let me know if you want bigger images emailed to you-- the originals are 7 MP.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198347.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198348.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198349.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198350.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198351.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198355.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a265/alexreynolds/P7198356.jpg
Just to be more specific, you can see a couple of the scratches right under where the label on the side of the corrector says "schmidt cassegrain" in the first few images and another couple of scratches near the 8" (203mm) label on the last two. You might have to scroll around a bit-- sorry about that. I think the first three images and the last two are the clearest. The more I look at them, the more I worry. Are these the sort of marks that are common on corrector plates, either new or after some use?