telescope setup

So after i had moved all the boxes out of the way, it was time to assemble the telescope, which turned out to be much easier then what i remembered from setting up the LX-10 many years ago.

There's a nice color "quick setup guide" that comes in the box. It nicely illustrates all the necessary steps. There are setup videos on youtube as well. Some of them look like they are produced by Celestron themselves. Just search for "Nexstar setup" and a bunch of movies turn up.

Tripod

I first put up the tripod, which is surprisingly light and almost flimsy compared to my heavy meade field tripod on the LX-10. Attaching the accessory tray was easy using the detailed "quick setup" descriptions. I wonder how this much lighter tripod will handle out in my backyard. I'm a little afraid it might be too light...

Optical Tube

Next came the optical tube assembly (also called "OTA"). The optical tube came packed with the mirror pointing down at the bottom of the single fork arm which made it a little harder to lift it onto the tripod. I quickly checked the manual if the tube could be moved manually. It said that this could be done, so i moved it to a 90 degree angle and then put it on top of the tripod. (since i originally wrote this blog entry, lots of people have told me that the OTA should really not be moved manually - one should always move it while powered and by using the hand controller)

There are three screws that stick through the top of the tripod that fit right into the bottom of the scope. One of them could not be screwed in all the way, even after removing the telescope from the tripod serveral times and re-arranging it on the tripod.

Even with one of the three screws only partially screwed in, i decided not to spend any more time fiddling with that last stubborn screw. There were two or three strips of tape accross the hand controller and the optical tube cap that had to be removed.

Starfinder finderscope

Next came the Starpointer finderscope. The instructions said that it should be installed by sliding it over the fitting on the OTA. After several tries i could not get it to fit and had to get a screwdriver to slightly loosen the bottom part so that it would slide onto the fitting. The starpointer is made from plastic and i wish it would be made from metal. The future will show how well it holds up.

Star diagonal and eyepiece

The star diagonal seems to be very good quality and (i think) does not incorporate any plastic parts like the Meade diagonal did that came with the LX-10. The 25mm eyepiece seems to be of a good quality as well, but i'm no expert and i guess i'll just have to wait for the first night out to see if i like it or not.

Kendrick heated dew cap
This heated dew cap (item Nr. 2032.ZC) does not come with the telescope - i ordered it separately. I think that a heated dew cap is a very important and necessary item if you want to observe for a couple of hours without having to worry about getting your telescope all fogged up. Especially in spring and autumn. I once took my LX-10 to a friends house with a big crowd waiting to marvel at the sky only to realize, that everything was covered in dew which turned the telescope unusable.

This dew cap is quite a bit smaller than the one i was used to on the 8" SCT but otherwise looks to be of great quality as well. It works the same way as my old dew cap by using a velcro strip to fasten the cap around the optical tube. It all fit perfectly the first time i tried it. The first night out will show if it works as advertised.