philwright66

Ordered a VX10L 10" F6.3 with 1/10 pv wave optics on the 3rd january and had an email from them stating it should be ready by the 20th january. With the VAT the total price was £950,which i found to be a great price for such a large,british made 'scope with excellent certified optics.i was considering several other 'scopes such as a celestron 9.25/11,or a skywatcher 250p,but went with the OO VX10L due to it's tiny secondary obstruction and reputation for great optics.

Received an email from OO on the 10th stating that my 'scope had shipped via UPS for next day delivery. On the 11th my partner waited in for the box to arrive. The huge box turned up around 3pm and the delivery driver stood it on it's end in the hallway. i put the box down on it's side and opened it. i was very impressed with the size of the tube still snugly packed. i left it an hour to acclimatise the cold 'scope to the warm room before i removed it from the packaging.

On removing the ota from the box, i noticed a piece of black triangular alloy left in the box at the primary end - and it dawned on me that it was a piece from the mirror cell. shock had already set in when two more triangular pieces were found unattached to anything. Grabbed a torch to have a good look at the mirror+cell and my worst fear came to reality. The primary mirror had come loose from the cell and had been tumbling around in the tube.Decided to disassemble the whole cell to secure the primary,and figure out how much damage was done. Shards of mirror-glass were in the tube as i took the cell out. On inspecting the primary mirror, the damage didn't seem too severe - a few scuffs,scratches and chips but nothing major. Yet the shards of mirror-glass didn't seem to 'fit' the primary damage. Shone the torch up the tube at the secondary assembly,and noticed one of the four vanes severely bent out of shape. Obviously been impacted by the primary mirror. took the protective wrapping off the secondary mirror and noticed a huge chunk of it missing. So that solved reason for the the shards of mirror in the tube.

Emailed OO notifying them of the damage.They stated that they would sort it out to my satisfaction straight away. I said i would send the damaged optics back ,instead of the whole 'scope. OO arranged for UPS to pick up the cardboard box containing the damaged items on the 14th january,and i received an email stating my replacement items would be sent out on the17th. Received the new mirrors +cell/secondary assembly on the 18th. Fitted the new mirrors today,and they are looking very nice! I'm happy now

So it seems that UPS must have been really chucking the 'scope package about to cause the primary mirror to come loose.Not good. Still, Orion Optics really were very rapid in sorting the problem and getting replacement parts back to me. Superb customer service.

Here is the new primary mirror prior to fitting in the tube:

Cheers,Phil