Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wrote my original review of this scope nearly 13 years ago when I first got it. I still have it and use it today. I thought I'd write a followup to my original review noting a few things I've learned as a long-term owner. First, I have had to clean the primary and secondary mirrors, which is probably expected. Despite always keeping the caps on, dust does get in. It was VERY easy to do this. The primary comes off easily by removing just 4 screws and the secondary is mounted on the spider and comes off equally easily. Second, and perhaps not so good, I have had to clean and relubricate the focuser. The lubricant originally used by Celestron became very thick and sticky. Also, the teflon tape used to line the focuser tube began to wear. Both of these introduced a lot of play into the focuser assembly. I needed to put new low friction lining tape into the focuser tube. Instead of teflon tape, I used UHMW (ultra high molecular weight) tape, which wasn't as widely available then. This really cleaned up the focuser action and made it much more sensitive. The only thing that completely failed on the scope is the small leveling bubble on the top of one of the tripod legs. It completely lost its internal fluid and is now useless and can't be removed/replaced/fixed. Not a major issue, as I use it mostly on level ground and have marked the lower tripod legs for midway adjustment. Over the years, I bought just about every accessory you can get for this scope. I've operated it remotely from my laptop, I bought the NexImage CCD camera and stacked frames from it for astrophotography, I've bought a mylar solar viewing shield and I've bought a number of 2" Celestron E-Lux Kellner eyepieces for it. From my perspective, the fact that this low cost scope can accept 2" EPs is one of the main value points and really what makes this scope. If you don't use the 2" EP feature, you're really missing out. The drive motors have held up well over the years and the Goto software, although not updateable on this older controller, still works well. If I had advice for Celestron, I would advise them to update the focuser design with a better focuser more fitting a $500 scope, as the one included is more befitting a child's telescope. It works acceptably, but wears over time and could have been much better. A slightly finer rack/pinion and tighter tolerances on the tube sleeve would have made a huge difference in my ability to enjoy this scope over the years. When I first got my scope, the secondary mirror was significantly off-center as pasted onto the spider mount plate. I spotted this immediately and was able to remove it and place it correctly. This was a Q/A issue in assembly, which should have been spotted, as you could actually see the edge of the secondary mirror in normal viewing. Fixing it greatly improved the scope's performance. A first-time scope owner may not have spotted this and would probably have been leery of pulling the secondary mirror off and recentering it. The only other thing that could be improved is the vibration dampening. This is one of the most vibration prone scopes I've used. It is necessary to buy anti-vibration foot-pads, but I also added some thin rubber strips from a bicycle inner tube in the dovetail mount for the Optical Tube Assembly (OTA). This helped somewhat. However, the main thing I did was add a significant weight on the tripod tray every time I used it. That really helped. Celestron might included additional dampening and if not added weight, then advice on how to add it. These are fairly minor findings after 13 years, as the main aspects of this scope have all performed admirably. The mirrors are excellent, the features and accessories are great and the motors and software have proven solid. I expect to enjoy this scope for another 13 years.