Hi fellow loungers.

I've had my Celestron C8N for nearly 8 years. Had many a good night under the stars with it.

I have never used it to anywhere near to its full potential, I have neglected it and not used it much the last few years.

Started to service it today, beginning with the focuser which seemed a bit sticky.

First thing I noticed was there is in fact a screw on the back of the focuser that locks the focuser in position when tightened. This was done up slightly and was making the focuser stiffer to use.

Stripped the focuser down removed the clear, very sticky grease and used some teflon grease instead.

Reassembled everything and it feels much smoother to use now.

Since I've had the scope I have had trouble aligning the finderscope, noticed that I had in fact assembled it wrongly in the first place. Basically I had the mounting bracket the wrong way round. Reassembled it correctly and hopefully it should be easier to use now.

My excuse for these basic errors is that I never really look at the scope in daylight. My sessions have been very impromptu as in ' its a clear night tonight I will get the scope out '. No planning or preparation involved at all really. Thats changing this year as I am determined to get more and better use from what is a pretty good telescope.

Collimation is the next thing on the list.