Merlin66
05-12-2007, 01:36 AM
I thought with all the clouds around here, broken occasionally by glints of sunshine, that I could add to my "enjoyment" by buying a Cornado PST. It seemed to fit well with the other spectroscope stuff I'm still learning to do.
Looking at the current prices I thought a good secondhand one would be the way to go....... that's where the story starts.
Being based in the UK and having just found the Customs guys over here can hit you HARD for import duty ( think in terms of 40% of the declared value!!!) I decided to find one locally. After a bit of haggling I found one at a reasonable price and looked forward to its receipt. About a week later ( never mind the "guaranteed delivery tomorrow") it arrived. Beautiful case, beautiful scope, clean and complete with the 12mm eyepiece. Believe it or not there was actually a clear patch of sky and the sun was shining through.... no instruction manual but pretty self evident as to what to do; line it up adjust the focus knob...not much so far.. Ah the filter needs to be "tuned" also ( to get the Ha defined) quick turn of the knurlled section on the beautiful gold anodised tube.... still not much... infact the edge of the image of the Sun looks a bit fuzzy and there's a trace of a double (?) image. Another go round of the knobs, change eyepieces to a "known" TV Plossl... still no improvement, certainly no promenaces or any other surface detail. I know the Sun is pretty quiet at the moment but there should be something, somewhere... The clouds came over and put me out of my misery.
As I lifted the scope of the tripod I looked at the front element; it's a 40mm achromat ( I believe) suitably coated to act as an "Energy Rejection Filter", I've heard its a bit like having a broad band Ha filter to minimise the heat getting into the sensitive monochromator filter mechanism at the eyepiece end of the tube. The golden colour masked a dirty brown ring which almost cover half the aperture. The exterior looked clean and crisp so the marking must be on the inside.... Damn. Well I've stripped a few lenses in my time maybe I'll have to take the front element out and clean the back.
About now something rang in the back of my mind, something I'd come across during the Google search on PST's " rusting ERF" Was this "rust"? ( It's not really rust, but certainly looks like it! It's actually the coating of the ERF lens breaking down.) Couldn't find any pictures on the Cloudy night forum, which lists the various serial numbers of the affected scopes ( apparently there was a "batch" of ERF's which had a defective coating; Cornado/ Meade have now acknowledged the problem, BUT repairs are limited to the original buyer with his receipt).
Sounded like the one I had was suffering from "rust".... OK, what about a replacement ERF, they must be available, let's check it out. Whoooops, bad decision. ALL the local distributers must have heard me coming and the prices varied from $250 to $600 Aus equivalent!!!
No real option but to go back to the seller and tell him the news and try and get the money refunded.... Disbelief, distrust, disturbed " never heard of this 'rust' thing", " It was OK when I shipped it"; "You must have damaged it while setting it up" As Billy Connally would say " It was the big yin that did it" Anything/ anyone other than me...
It took a lot of talking, various photos ( see attached...now you too can recognise a 'rusty' PST) and a couple of extracts from the Cloudy Night listing to convince him of the problem. Another week later I had my money back ( thank you!) and he was shaking his head ( he had bought it third hand and obviously has no 'original' receipts to help)
What to do now? I still liked the idea of a PST just had to find one which was OK. Back to the Buy and Sell lists....
Found one, good price, sent photo of the rust and asked for confirmation of a 'rust free' ERF; by email the seller claimed "there was no rust on the ERF"...
I couldn't help myself and guaranteed to buy IF he sent a photo of the ERF to ensure it was OK ( By now I was an expert, and know all the suspect serial numbers etc etc!).... deal fell through when he finally acknowledged that "well, maybe, just a little, there is SOME marking on the back of the gold ERF"
Two strikes down...time to give up?? No, not me the maschocist....
Here we go again; "yes its still for sale", " no, there's no 'rust' I bought it new myself late last year and only used it on a Sunday before going to Church"
OK I heard myself saying, send a photo and I'll send the money....
SILENCE.... another email, SILENCE Oh Oh Finally I got an email saying he had "carefully studied the ERF, and well, maybe there was faint markings at the edge" BUT as he still had the original receipts he was going to get it repaired - he thanked me for pointing out the problem - life goes on.
After a few weeks I gave up trying to find a 'rust' free PST ( Is this boring you yet?)
Well late last week, guess what, the guy came back to me saying he had had the PST repaired and had new recepits and documentation " Looks great with its new BLUE coating" better still the price was reduced "due to the hassles".
Just picked it up this morning.... looks 100% beautiful case, beautiful gold anodised tube, clean and complete with the 12mm eyepiece... isn't this where I started!!!
So after almost three months of "experience" I think I'm going to be happy; just need a bit of clear sky....
to be continued.........
Looking at the current prices I thought a good secondhand one would be the way to go....... that's where the story starts.
Being based in the UK and having just found the Customs guys over here can hit you HARD for import duty ( think in terms of 40% of the declared value!!!) I decided to find one locally. After a bit of haggling I found one at a reasonable price and looked forward to its receipt. About a week later ( never mind the "guaranteed delivery tomorrow") it arrived. Beautiful case, beautiful scope, clean and complete with the 12mm eyepiece. Believe it or not there was actually a clear patch of sky and the sun was shining through.... no instruction manual but pretty self evident as to what to do; line it up adjust the focus knob...not much so far.. Ah the filter needs to be "tuned" also ( to get the Ha defined) quick turn of the knurlled section on the beautiful gold anodised tube.... still not much... infact the edge of the image of the Sun looks a bit fuzzy and there's a trace of a double (?) image. Another go round of the knobs, change eyepieces to a "known" TV Plossl... still no improvement, certainly no promenaces or any other surface detail. I know the Sun is pretty quiet at the moment but there should be something, somewhere... The clouds came over and put me out of my misery.
As I lifted the scope of the tripod I looked at the front element; it's a 40mm achromat ( I believe) suitably coated to act as an "Energy Rejection Filter", I've heard its a bit like having a broad band Ha filter to minimise the heat getting into the sensitive monochromator filter mechanism at the eyepiece end of the tube. The golden colour masked a dirty brown ring which almost cover half the aperture. The exterior looked clean and crisp so the marking must be on the inside.... Damn. Well I've stripped a few lenses in my time maybe I'll have to take the front element out and clean the back.
About now something rang in the back of my mind, something I'd come across during the Google search on PST's " rusting ERF" Was this "rust"? ( It's not really rust, but certainly looks like it! It's actually the coating of the ERF lens breaking down.) Couldn't find any pictures on the Cloudy night forum, which lists the various serial numbers of the affected scopes ( apparently there was a "batch" of ERF's which had a defective coating; Cornado/ Meade have now acknowledged the problem, BUT repairs are limited to the original buyer with his receipt).
Sounded like the one I had was suffering from "rust".... OK, what about a replacement ERF, they must be available, let's check it out. Whoooops, bad decision. ALL the local distributers must have heard me coming and the prices varied from $250 to $600 Aus equivalent!!!
No real option but to go back to the seller and tell him the news and try and get the money refunded.... Disbelief, distrust, disturbed " never heard of this 'rust' thing", " It was OK when I shipped it"; "You must have damaged it while setting it up" As Billy Connally would say " It was the big yin that did it" Anything/ anyone other than me...
It took a lot of talking, various photos ( see attached...now you too can recognise a 'rusty' PST) and a couple of extracts from the Cloudy Night listing to convince him of the problem. Another week later I had my money back ( thank you!) and he was shaking his head ( he had bought it third hand and obviously has no 'original' receipts to help)
What to do now? I still liked the idea of a PST just had to find one which was OK. Back to the Buy and Sell lists....
Found one, good price, sent photo of the rust and asked for confirmation of a 'rust free' ERF; by email the seller claimed "there was no rust on the ERF"...
I couldn't help myself and guaranteed to buy IF he sent a photo of the ERF to ensure it was OK ( By now I was an expert, and know all the suspect serial numbers etc etc!).... deal fell through when he finally acknowledged that "well, maybe, just a little, there is SOME marking on the back of the gold ERF"
Two strikes down...time to give up?? No, not me the maschocist....
Here we go again; "yes its still for sale", " no, there's no 'rust' I bought it new myself late last year and only used it on a Sunday before going to Church"
OK I heard myself saying, send a photo and I'll send the money....
SILENCE.... another email, SILENCE Oh Oh Finally I got an email saying he had "carefully studied the ERF, and well, maybe there was faint markings at the edge" BUT as he still had the original receipts he was going to get it repaired - he thanked me for pointing out the problem - life goes on.
After a few weeks I gave up trying to find a 'rust' free PST ( Is this boring you yet?)
Well late last week, guess what, the guy came back to me saying he had had the PST repaired and had new recepits and documentation " Looks great with its new BLUE coating" better still the price was reduced "due to the hassles".
Just picked it up this morning.... looks 100% beautiful case, beautiful gold anodised tube, clean and complete with the 12mm eyepiece... isn't this where I started!!!
So after almost three months of "experience" I think I'm going to be happy; just need a bit of clear sky....
to be continued.........