i'm one of those that had the runaway declination problem, right out of the
box. on the advice of others in this list, i talked to john at meade a
couple times, and he advised me in exactly the way others said he would.

first we checked cables, with no joy.

then he sent me a repair kit, which i installed, learning a lot about my
scope in the process. the runaway declination stopped, but so did
everything else. the scope was completely dead.

next, john had me send all the electronics to him for factory rehab. they
arrived here a couple days ago, and i stayed up late reassembling. no
doubt i could have done it faster, but i took my time and was very
deliberate. (by the way, that white thermoconducting gunk can be removed
with alcohol, though not exactly easily.)

the next night was perfectly clear, with fairly steady air. unfortunately,
it was jan 31, the blue moon. i looked at m42 (of course), and it was
there, but i couldn't see much. so i looked at the moon, and couldn't see
much. (my wife was not sure she ever got it focused, it was so flat.) but
what the heck, i did at least get to look through it. new moon is coming...

total elapsed time from first delivery to operational scope: about 5
weeks. it's too bad the scope didn't work perfectly out of the box, but if
it did, i would not have had the time or the motivation to learn so much by
reading Doc G's website, the mapug archives, and a whole slew of other
stuff. when all you have is lemons, make lemonade.

i think that meade is selling a very nice instrument, with a lot of
features and quality, for a remarkable price. to do so requires mass
production, and there will be a few flawed units. i got one. meade made
good on it for me, and considering the complexity and the shipping times, i
think they did right by me. i'm happy with them again.

of course, if anything ever breaks again, i will instantly forget about
this warm glow i am now basking in, and become just another ornery
unreasonable demanding end user. but not today -- today i am manic.


-------------------- http://www.pressenter.com -----------------------
PressEnter! | River Falls: 715-426-2100 Superior: 715-395-0311
P.O. Box 409 | Eau Claire: 715-830-1273 Menomonie: 715-232-0430
421 N 2nd Street | New Richmond: 715-246-7060 La Crosse: 608-785-1411
River Falls, WI 54022 | Twin Cities: 651-436-5254 Red Wing: 715-792-5279

View index by [date] [author] [subject]
Previous message: Re: [M]: My new LX200, Andy Wallace
Next message: Re: [M]: RE: New ETX with LX200 controls, J Nordby
Next message in thread: Re: [M]: LX200: Not broken anymore!, M. Gartland