From: jpcanning@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Subject: Celestron Fluorite 102
Organization: Memorial University. St.John's Nfld, Canada
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 00:06:12 GMT


The following is a history of my experiences with Celestron International
and their equipment.

        In April of this year(1992) I purchased a Celestron SPC-102F
fluorite refractor with various Celestron accessories. After
reading the review in Astronomy Magizine, I believe it was the
June 1990 edition, I decided to save up the bucks and invest it
in a quality refractor. Most, if not all of my observing time is
spent on the planets, so I wanted a telescope that would provide
clean, sharp images with little or no color intrusion. The scope
was getting excellent reviews and by the time I was ready to make
a purchase the SPC-102F was being offered at a sale price of
approximately $1800.00 U.S. I thought to myself, a scope of this
quality with a mount for this price, what a steal! or was it?

	When the scope arrived I set it up, brought it outside to
let it cool down, and then tried it out. Big DISAPPOINTMENT. The
images the scope produced never seemed to come to a sharp focus.
At the end of the night I brought the scope in for a closer
inspection. I noticed that when I removed the 1.25 inch adapter
from the focuser and pointed the scope at a bright light source,(
ie; a light bulb ), their appeared to be two pairs of parallel
scrapes running down the inside length of the optical tube. I
don't know if these scrapes would effect the image but I do
remember the rewiewer in Astronomy Magizine's article penalizing
one of the other manufacturers of telescopes for allowing the
interior of the telescope to be incompletely blackened out. I
noticed that when a bright star is just outside the field of view
arcs of light intrude on the image. I noticed this when viewing
the Ring nebula which is situated between two bright stars. I
checked the alinement of the optics the next day and they seemed
fine. When doing the star test the next night, the inside of
focus produced a diffractrion pattern with an overly bright outer
ring. The outside of focus image was a blob of light. I performed
the star test with a second magnitude star, at the zenith, with
150x -200x (I used a Telvue plossal and a high priced orthoscopic
eyepiece) at full aperture. A diagonal was not used. I performed
the star test on several nights under good to excellent observing
conditions. Over the next few weeks myself and another observer
(with almost twenty years of experience in observing and making
telescopes) tested the optics and we both came to the same
conclusion which was that the figure on the lens was under
corrected.
 
	The scope was returned to the manufacturer in exchange for
another telescope of the same type. After waiting several weeks
the new telescope arrived. This telescope had exactly the same
problems as the first scope except the problems were more severe.
In addition to a badly under corrected lens, portions of the
inside of the optical tube were not painted black and the two
pairs of parallel scrapes were also present. The focuser was
notchy and stiff when travelling in and out, particulary near and
at the point of focus. When trying to focus on a star or planet
the image would ooze through focus never comming to a sharp
image.

	I don't expect perfect optics and I would be a fool if I
did. I do, however, expect the images of stars and planets to
come into a reasonably sharp focus. Well as good as the
atmosphere will allow.

	I have spoken to a couple of other owners of these
telescopes and both of them seem to be satisfied with Celestrons
product. However, the people I spoke with have had their
telescopes for at least two years. I'm wondering if Celestron is
sacrificing quality for quanity. I've had two scopes from them
which would support that theory.

	If your a recent owner of one of these fine quality scopes I
would like to hear from you if you have been experiencing any
trouble with it.  If your thinking about buying one you might like
to change your mind.


John Canning

JPCANNING@kean.ucs.mun.ca