New 130 PDS issues

[Trevor-Austin]

I purchased a brand new 130PDS from Rother valley a couple of months ago. Although I’ve been using telescopes for 20+ years it’s my first new one, had older LX200s and 90s, etc. so quite excited:) 

in first light it seemed great until the very centre of the secondary dewed up like a fingerprint. Very odd looking mark.

it had gone by the next day but basically every time it got cold this centre mark would appear, although the rest of the mirror was fine. 
 

on the advice of Rother valley I cleaned it and also added a few shield to heat the tube and a heated dew shield and the backyard universe secondary cover. Seemed to get some pictures I was very happy with after that.

obviously not had much use since with such awful weather. But yesterday was clearish but I just couldn’t seem to get it collimated.

And then the clouds came in so I gave up.

today I put it out, wasn’t to collimated and couldn’t get a reflection. Then looked into my Focuser Andy he secondary was missing. It had fallen off, and sitting on the mirror mask on the primary.

has anybody ever had this before? Seems crazy on a new scope, and also the stick pad quite clearly was only making partial contact on the mirror, roughly coinciding with the weird mark I’d seen from new. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Drew]

Time to contact RVO again.  

Edited February 26 by Peter Drew

[Trevor-Austin]

Well I did with the odd mark but we agreed to carry on with it.

but I’ve just sent them the pictures about the secondary falling off and I’m sure they’ll sort it somehow, just wondering if it’s a common thing. 

[Adam J]

3 hours ago, Trevor-Austin said:

I purchased a brand new 130PDS from Rother valley a couple of months ago. Although I’ve been using telescopes for 20+ years it’s my first new one, had older LX200s and 90s, etc. so quite excited:) 

in first light it seemed great until the very centre of the secondary dewed up like a fingerprint. Very odd looking mark.

it had gone by the next day but basically every time it got cold this centre mark would appear, although the rest of the mirror was fine. 
 

on the advice of Rother valley I cleaned it and also added a few shield to heat the tube and a heated dew shield and the backyard universe secondary cover. Seemed to get some pictures I was very happy with after that.

obviously not had much use since with such awful weather. But yesterday was clearish but I just couldn’t seem to get it collimated.

And then the clouds came in so I gave up.

today I put it out, wasn’t to collimated and couldn’t get a reflection. Then looked into my Focuser Andy he secondary was missing. It had fallen off, and sitting on the mirror mask on the primary.

has anybody ever had this before? Seems crazy on a new scope, and also the stick pad quite clearly was only making partial contact on the mirror, roughly coinciding with the weird mark I’d seen from new. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I feel i know what has happened here.....

They should not have gotten you to clean it yourself. When you cleaned it am guessing you used alcohol and unfortunately alcohol and glue don't play nicely together, you basically dissolved the glue with alcohol.

I view this as their fault though as they clearly did not give you sufficient instruction in how to clean the mirror. 

You can actually see on your picture of the pad how the alcohol has seeped in around the edges leaving a small untouched patch of glue in the centre of the adhesive pad. 

Adam 

Edited February 26 by Adam J

[Trevor-Austin]

Ah indeed, that does make sense! Although I was pretty careful with getting it only on the mirror, and when I say careful I mean like an old granny careful 😅

[Adam J]

13 minutes ago, Trevor-Austin said:

Ah indeed, that does make sense! Although I was pretty careful with getting it only on the mirror, and when I say careful I mean like an old granny careful 😅

Unfortunately pure alcohol has very low surface tension and so it flows really easy around things in a thin film in comparison to water. 

[Trevor-Austin]

I deliberately used 70%, rather than pure,  as that was recommended in the articles I could find but yes I understand your point.

[Backyardscope]

Demand you want a telescope replacement.

[Trevor-Austin]

They are organising a replacement mirror, which I’m happy with.