I've just received a brand new Sharpstar 76edph and was lucky enough to have a couple of clear hours to test it and would like some advice regarding what seem to be huge issues with it...
Firstly the dew shield is so loose that anywhere above about 35-40deg of inclination it slips down the body rendering it useless without modification, secondly the focus locking screw does not lock the focus tube at all, I dare not try and tighten it any harder or I feel like I will strip the threads. It makes no difference at all to the relatively little force it requires to move the focuser tube.
Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated, to me these are issues I might accept from a well used scope in need of adjustment or a bottom rung price bracket scope, but for something fresh from the factory costing a fair amount it strikes me as appalling build quality.. I have a feeling it may just be a particularly bad batch I'm at the recieveing end of?
The optics in these are great so it's a real shame, but after a couple of hours of use I think unless there is something fairly major I'm missing with regard to both the focuser lock screw and dew shield it's probably going to end up being returned in favour of something better quality.