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I dropped it - Doh!

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Frankenstein

Frankenstein

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After my kids had poked and prodded my new Celestron X-Cel 8mm with their jam covered fingers, I decided that the lens needed cleaning - and yes all the bits fell out and one lens managed to find the only piece of exposed concrete in the room, and it's chipped!

I managed to get all the bits back in the right order (eventually - really good fun), and it's nice and clean but I can see the chip.

Is it possible to buy a replacement part?

Advice much appreciated.

One day I will contribute something positive - I promise.

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John

John

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Sorry to hear about your accident. I fear you will have to live with the chipped lens though. The only eyepiece brand which I know of that will replace a damaged lens is Tele Vue - and you have to send the eyepiece to their offices in the USA to have that done !.

It may still be usable if the chip is away from the central area of the lens ?

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Timm65

Timm65

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OMG, Dam you teapot lids. Me thinks it's stuffed. At an outside chance i would contact Celestron to see if you could get a replacement optic. But given they're production and supply system i very much doubt they would cater to such a request. But i would still ask them. Blame the kids! It might help.

Cheer and good luck

Tim

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John

John

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Honest opinion, any company that wouldn't replace said part I would say has p*ss poor customer service!

I fear you are going to be dissapointed then by the "service" on offer from the big name brands.

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lostinspace

lostinspace

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could it be worth a quick look in the sale part of the forum? you may be lucky and find someone has an old one for sale :evil6:

im just too carefull with my astro stuff that its inevitable something will get damaged.... you know that feeling, when it doesnt matter how carefull you are its still going to happen.... i just hope its nothing too important, i hate moving my scope around, i love it too much to hurt it :eek:

john

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AndyH

AndyH

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That sucks:(

But..............been there, done that.

I once had a 7.5mm Antares Speers Waler UWA eyepiece. There was annoying dust between the internal lens. Opened and the dust blown off, I dropped the lens and the edge caught the metal pedestal legs and chipped it. Couldn't live with the annoying views, so I dropped an email to the seller in Canada. Explained which lens. Didn't hold out much hope. Amazed when the email came back saying yes, a replacement lens was available and gave details of payment etc.

Turns out Antares have a lifetime warranty thing. Didn't need to send the eyepiece back over to Vancouver. The lens arrived with replacement instructions , a week later.

Top, top service and one to remember if you have Antares gear !!!

I always liked Canadians. Like them even more now, eh?

Cheers,

Andy.

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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I can top any support story here :eek:

I recently bought a Unitron 60mm refractor on their old 114 mount. Now this thing hasnt been made since the 70s and this particular one is almost as old as I am.

Unitron packed up making scopes a long while back.

Anyway the couriers managed to bust part of the mount - the spring pistons were amshed beyond repair. These are machined up components and completely not 'off the shelf' I phoned round a few engineering companies and it was looking like a pricey job and then I though 'why not call Unitron - you never know' so I gave them a ring.

A very nice guy at Unitron went off to have a look and a shuffle about amongst their spares bins and promised to call me back, which he did the following night to say 'your in luck - I found some tucked down the back of a cupboard.

They asked a very reasonable amount for the bits plus shipping and voila a few days later the bits arrived from the US.

Now THATS service - still having bits for a telescope you havent made for 40 years AND a really sweet guy who did some digging around and didnt do the modern version of customer service which is to be all sweetness and light but totally useless.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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A very nice guy at Unitron went off to have a look and a shuffle about amongst their spares bins and promised to call me back, which he did the following night to say 'your in luck - I found some tucked down the back of a cupboard.

amazing. I think this indicates a company still run by astronomers and people who care rather than a multicorp run by people who just want to mass produce.

don't get me wrong though, mass production has made great scopes available at a price we can all afford so it's got it's place but in the main it's only good when everything goes right.

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glowjet

glowjet

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After my kids had poked and prodded my new Celestron X-Cel 8mm with their jam covered fingers, I decided that the lens needed cleaning - and yes all the bits fell out and one lens managed to find the only piece of exposed concrete in the room, and it's chipped!

I managed to get all the bits back in the right order (eventually - really good fun), and it's nice and clean but I can see the chip.

Is it possible to buy a replacement part?

Advice much appreciated.

One day I will contribute something positive - I promise.

Thats almost £60 of Len's, if I have the right one, what happened was accidental, if you have a good house insurance on your contents, you may be able to make a claim. Not wishing lightening

to strike twice, have your gear listed on your contents insurance with value etc so that a future claim can be made if necessary.

John.

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FLO

FLO

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After my kids had poked and prodded my new Celestron X-Cel 8mm with their jam covered fingers, I decided that the lens needed cleaning - and yes all the bits fell out and one lens managed to find the only piece of exposed concrete in the room, and it's chipped!

I managed to get all the bits back in the right order (eventually - really good fun), and it's nice and clean but I can see the chip.

Is it possible to buy a replacement part?

Is it one of ours?

Steve

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Ant

Ant

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You may find that Celestron have a second - something with cosmetic marks, but the lenses are fine. Something that you can buy cheap.

Ask Steve and D hinds directly and see what they suggest. They might have something.

Most companies have spare parts available, but IMO this is not really a spare part in the normal sense.

Good luck

Ant

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John

John

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Sell the kids, Buy an Ethos. Job done....

Jarvo

I spoke to Tele Vue a couple of days ago and asked them if they could replace the top lens of my Nagler 31mm which has some markings on the lens coatings which are a bit unsightly though don't affect the performance at all. They were very helpful indeed, had the lens in stock and were able to give me a price for the replacement, eyepiece cleaning and shipping back to the UK ......

..... just $272.50 all in :)

I think I can live with the marks in the coatings :(

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FLO

FLO

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Well I used the eyepiece last night and Saturn finally delivered - very nice views, and the chips weren't a problem. I'll make a few enquiries to see if I can contact Celestron.

No need, if you send yours to a worthy cause we'll send you another.

Please don't drop or dismantle the replacemant :)

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glowjet

glowjet

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That is fantastic service aunt FLO, three days ago I managed to contact someone in the Cambridge University Press about the sad case of a mail order retail outlet, connected with Amazon, who sold me a new copy of Turn Left at Orion which arrived without the dust jacket, this was some two years ago, I was under the impression at the time the book was just a plain hard cover, having discovered the error, the book company refused to do anything about it as it was outside their 30 day limit. CUP were unable to help because the book was out of print at the time, having picked up the info from SGL that the book was in for reprint I contacted CUP again and to my amazement are sending me a new copy of the book free of charge, how about that!.

John.

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