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Cheers for the information Peter. I won't worry about the tube scratch in this case (nor the dust for that matter), if it's common and only an aesthetic issue. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't part of a bigger problem. Thanks for clearing that up.
Had a quick look at ~9am and got focus with sunspot and prominence detail - perhaps there were tree/cloud obstructions or the diagonal tube was not drawn out far enough yesterday.
For visual use I probably wouldn't be able to tell if there were muddy paw prints and scratches on both the etalon and filter surfaces, but for imaging where you're already pushing the boundaries of the optics on a small sensor at high magnification, you'd want factory-clean optics (no oily fingerprints/residue eating at the coatings, nor scruffs) out of the box - especially at that price. Given 80% of what I do with my gear is imaging, this causes some concern.
I've fired off an email to the retailer (one of the three official dealers, not the "unofficial" one), will see what they have to say. Happy to give more detail about the retailer once the issue is sorted out - the resolution is often just as important as the original "woes", so I don't want to bag them as they've been good in the past. Though given the price I quoted, shouldn't be hard to guess.
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