Welcome • User Guide
ToS • Privacy • Canary
Donate • Bugs • License

©2025 Poal.co

1.1K

Bought a $650 telescope for our son 6 years ago. For 6 months, could not get it to "align." (Short version... teach it where it is relative to the sky so it can find and track just about anything.) Contacted their tech support 6 times, complaining about the same thing, and always getting the same reply... "It's hard to do alignments. Keep practicing. You'll get it."

For 6 months, using a few of their tips and suggestions, and a few from a few forums, we: Bought a new power supply "just to rule it out." Bought an eyepiece with a reticle - they don't recommend using either of the 2 eyepieces that came with it to do alignments. Bought 2 different Barlow lenses (2x and 3x magnifier lenses) to make it more accurate for alignments. Bought a dovetail adapter to hold a level to confirm the built-in level is accurate. Bought 2 different collimators (laser aligning tool to make sure everything is square to itself.) Camera adapter, camera. Cell phone holder and adapter. Stabalizing pads to keep it steady. Balanced it to within 6 oz to keep it from drifting upward, with balance marks for the various combinations of lenses and adapters... I have balance marks on the tube and had to find the exact centerline of rotation of the mount so the balance marks on the tube line up on the mount. Countless hours practicing with almost zero success.

After 6 months, I'm convinced there is something wrong mechanically. (Actually, I was convinced when I had to balance the tube, because it moves up and down so easily that you can't use it without balancing it first, but that was back when I believed their tech support was trying to help. But I digress.) After 6 months of not working, I finally decided to look inside. Not sure what I'll find, I doubt there's a big red button that says "push here to fix it" or a little dude with a sliderule who needs new glasses... but who knows. The back cover of the thing is held on by 2 screws that are surprisingly loose. The back comes off, and inside I see (among all the wires and motors and shit) a nut on a threaded shaft... the pivot for the up-and-down movement... and the nut is loose. Almost tightened down against the bearing, but sloppy loose. It's letting the moving part of the mount sag and flop around as it rotates.

There it is. The root cause. I snugged it up finger tight, and immediately was able to align the stupid thing. Told Celestron. A few nights later, the nut is loose again. It sits right against the bearing, so every time it moves 'up,' it loosens it a little. "Celestron? How tight should I make this nut to keep it from loosening every time the tube moves up and down?" "You shouldn't adjust that. Alignments are hard. Keep practicing."

Now, 6 years later, after lots of hand-tightening every time we get it out, which is about once a year at this point, I decide to ask on an astronomy forum about how tight the nut should be. I figure maybe if it wasn't such a pain in the ass to use, I might get it out more often. I had tried tightening it up with a wrench a few years ago, just a little past finger-tight, and it became almost impossible to move the tube. (It's on a slip clutch, so you can move it by hand without using the sope's motors.) I figured a lock nut ("Nylock") would be a good way to set it and forget it, so went searching for maybe a torque spec or known method to prevent it coming unscrewed. One forum asked for a picture of the nut in question, and immediately they wnt nuts... the bearing wasn't seated fully or correctly, and was at a slight angle.

I went back to Celestron. "Here's the problem. It wasn't assembled correctly. How do I get a new bearing... and probably drive gears too after years of using misaligned hardware?" I'm thinking I have the original emails from 6 years ago, which in hindsight point to exactly this as the problem, so the least they could do is say "oops our bad let us fix it for you cuz we're cool like that kthxbai." However, it only had a 2-year warranty. "Oh, you need a new motor and control board. $200 if we ship the parts to you."

I decided to try forcing the bearing in straight, just to see if it's able to. It's in an aluminum frame, the pivot rod is only 1/4" diameter, hanging a 3-foot tube with a 5-inch glass mirror on it for 6 years may have squished the bearing into the aluminum. It had, a little. I was able to get it in straight(er) but couldn't put enough force on it to drive it home. Their bearing is pretty flimsy, I don't know why the FUCK they didn't use something even slightly stonger. But anyway. Put it back together, balanced it, powered it up...

"Communication error with drive unit." New hand controller: $120.

tldr Spent $650 on a telescope that as it turns out was assembled wrong, so it wouldn't work right. Celestron says it's a 'practice' issue after purchasing a few hundred dollers in shit to rule out various probable causes. Didn't find out the assembly problem until after 6 years. It's not longer under warranty, so $200 for parts so === I === can fix it at home. And now the hand controller isn't working right.

Fuck them.

Bought a $650 telescope for our son 6 years ago. For 6 months, could not get it to "align." (Short version... teach it where it is relative to the sky so it can find and track just about anything.) Contacted their tech support 6 times, complaining about the same thing, and always getting the same reply... "It's hard to do alignments. Keep practicing. You'll get it." For 6 months, using a few of their tips and suggestions, and a few from a few forums, we: Bought a new power supply "just to rule it out." Bought an eyepiece with a reticle - they don't recommend using either of the 2 eyepieces that came with it to do alignments. Bought 2 different Barlow lenses (2x and 3x magnifier lenses) to make it more accurate for alignments. Bought a dovetail adapter to hold a level to confirm the built-in level is accurate. Bought 2 different collimators (laser aligning tool to make sure everything is square to itself.) Camera adapter, camera. Cell phone holder and adapter. Stabalizing pads to keep it steady. Balanced it to within 6 oz to keep it from drifting upward, with balance marks for the various combinations of lenses and adapters... I have balance marks on the tube and had to find the exact centerline of rotation of the mount so the balance marks on the tube line up on the mount. Countless hours practicing with almost zero success. After 6 months, I'm convinced there is something wrong mechanically. (Actually, I was convinced when I had to balance the tube, because it moves up and down so easily that you can't use it *without* balancing it first, but that was back when I believed their tech support was trying to help. But I digress.) After 6 months of not working, I finally decided to look inside. Not sure what I'll find, I doubt there's a big red button that says "push here to fix it" or a little dude with a sliderule who needs new glasses... but who knows. The back cover of the thing is held on by 2 screws that are surprisingly loose. The back comes off, and inside I see (among all the wires and motors and shit) a nut on a threaded shaft... the pivot for the up-and-down movement... and the nut is loose. Almost tightened down against the bearing, but sloppy loose. It's letting the moving part of the mount sag and flop around as it rotates. There it is. The root cause. I snugged it up finger tight, and immediately was able to align the stupid thing. Told Celestron. A few nights later, the nut is loose again. It sits right against the bearing, so every time it moves 'up,' it loosens it a little. "Celestron? How tight should I make this nut to keep it from loosening every time the tube moves up and down?" "You shouldn't adjust that. Alignments are hard. Keep practicing." Now, 6 years later, after lots of hand-tightening every time we get it out, which is about once a year at this point, I decide to ask on an astronomy forum about how tight the nut should be. I figure maybe if it wasn't such a pain in the ass to use, I might get it out more often. I had tried tightening it up with a wrench a few years ago, just a little past finger-tight, and it became almost impossible to move the tube. (It's on a slip clutch, so you can move it by hand without using the sope's motors.) I figured a lock nut ("Nylock") would be a good way to set it and forget it, so went searching for maybe a torque spec or known method to prevent it coming unscrewed. One forum asked for a picture of the nut in question, and immediately they wnt nuts... the bearing wasn't seated fully or correctly, and was at a slight angle. I went back to Celestron. "Here's the problem. It wasn't assembled correctly. How do I get a new bearing... and probably drive gears too after years of using misaligned hardware?" I'm thinking I have the original emails from 6 years ago, which in hindsight point to exactly this as the problem, so the least they could do is say "oops our bad let us fix it for you cuz we're cool like that kthxbai." However, it only had a 2-year warranty. "Oh, you need a new motor and control board. $200 if we ship the parts to you." I decided to try forcing the bearing in straight, just to see if it's able to. It's in an aluminum frame, the pivot rod is only 1/4" diameter, hanging a 3-foot tube with a 5-inch glass mirror on it for 6 years may have squished the bearing into the aluminum. It had, a little. I was able to get it in straight(er) but couldn't put enough force on it to drive it home. Their bearing is pretty flimsy, I don't know why the FUCK they didn't use something even slightly stonger. But anyway. Put it back together, balanced it, powered it up... "Communication error with drive unit." New hand controller: $120. tldr Spent $650 on a telescope that as it turns out was assembled wrong, so it wouldn't work right. Celestron says it's a 'practice' issue after purchasing a few hundred dollers in shit to rule out various probable causes. Didn't find out the assembly problem until after 6 years. It's not longer under warranty, so $200 for parts so === I === can fix it at home. And now the hand controller isn't working right. Fuck them.

(post is archived)

You are currently inside a comment thread.
Click here to see all the comments (13).
[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

Buy any other brand. Found out last night the replacement parts they told me I need aren't the right parts anyway.

They are a cluster with a capital F.