Today Eliatosha, Eliona and I rebuilt the 3″ Celestron refractor and a smaller, longer focal length Meade refractor telescope. It took a few hours to fully disassemble, clean the lenses, and put them together again. But the end result, the Celestron in particular, is stunning. The quality of the image is simply magical.
Then we tested a dozen eye pieces in each telescope, finding the ideal combination. For the Celestron, in fact, the Celestron brand 25mm and 12mm eye pieces delivered the best image. In the Meade, with a noted lower quality we decided to retain the higher quality Meade eye pieces for other instruments.
The final assembles are now color coded with electrical tape such that if a part is misplaced it will readily find its home position.
It feels good to bring these instruments back to nearly factory conditions. They won’t be used if the images are not bright and crisp. Now, we have two dozen eye pieces to clean, test, sort, and store; some for use, others saved for future telescopes.
I am amazed by how many instruments we have in all, ten years of Chuck, Sue, and others bringing telescopes to this country. Thank you!
