Hasn’t been cleaned in a decade and it’s in fairly rough shape. I know I don’t want to be cleaning it by the minutes but it was way overdue - I’m still unsure whether the marks will turn out to be stubborn dust or something worse due to damp conditions. Now, of course, cleaning’s going to have to wait until I can re-house it. I reckon that’s responsible for the degradation of the screws too.
This is why I wanted a pro service - I emailed someone reputable local to me but he said he wasn’t taking on any more scopes and urged me to watch some good video tutorials and do it myself ... now I’m sitting here with a trip to a dark sky site booked for next weekend and no scope 😔 Hope I can get these screws worked out and replaced by then! Bit worried about the short one.