[RickS (Rick)]

Yesterday, my much anticipated new AG12 arrived from the UK. As you can imagine I was very excited, especially since the journey from the UK took longer than expected with the scope bouncing around Heathrow for several days until I rang the courier to ask what was going on. I didn't get a useful answer, but the scope finally did get on a plane for Australia.

The shipment finally arrived yesterday - two boxes in the morning and the final box of three in the afternoon. I raced home from work as soon as I could and started unpacking. Everything looked great until I got to the last well wrapped bundle containing the mirror cell and mirror. I was aghast... the pictures attached show you what I found inside. It looks like somebody tried a destructive drop test on the carton, perhaps encouraged by all the "Fragile" stickers.

The good news is that Orion Optics responded to my email tale of woe very promptly and it looks like I'll have the scope up and running before too much longer. I also can't fault their packing. Given the damage to the solid metal mirror cell it looks like the package has been subject to serious deceleration.

I'll let you know how the story turns out. Coming on top of a very expensive CCD camera that had to be returned to the USA for "evaluation" of the sensor I feel like I deserve some good luck.

Speaking of which, does the seven years of bad luck superstition apply to couriers?

Cheers,
Rick.