[Stefan Buda]

I was approached by an IIS member who hasn't been able to get his FLT98 working anywhere near expectation and had such a bad experience with WO customer service that he gave up on them.
The scope was producing severely elongated stars on one side of the field and non symmetrical vignetting.
The owner of the scope had done a lot of tests showing that the problem was somewhere at the front of the OTA.

After receiving the the OTA, I turned a fixture on the lathe and screwed on the lens assembly for a spin to check the alignment of the lenses. Reflections from a laser showed only slight wobbles - not enough to explain the aberrations seen.

Next a visual examination of the front end of the CF tube showed a gap where the front aluminium ring was glued on, suggesting that the ring was not properly pushed home when it was bonded to the CF tube.

Next I will make a fixture so that I can screw on the tube and give it a spin.