Dust in the Mak 127?

[MikeWilson]

Hi all,

I've just literally today received my first telescope and I'm wondering if it's usual to see dust particles in the tube, sitting on what appears to be just behind the primary objective lens?

Is this normal to see dust when you look into the front of your telescope? Will this affect performance?

I'll post some pictures in just a moment...

Best,

Mike

[MikeWilson]

[beamish]

Frankly it wouldn't be worth the hassle opening it up and cleaning-you'd end up doing nothing but opening and cleaning for the rest of your natural puff ( Trust me ). It won't make any noticeable difference IMO

[Macavity]

I think, if it is NEW, I'd be looking to have a "friendly chat" with the retailer.

Of the two Skywatcher MAKs, I have bought, new, the internal dust content

was (functionally) zero. Odd as it may seem, I would check carefully WHERE

this apparent dust is located - Internal reflections within the corrector plate

can be quite deceptive y'see! If on the outside, a blower or other approved

cleaning method will work well. One of those ultra-bright white LED torches

is useful in the diagnostic process...

[MikeWilson]

Brand spanking new. No evidence of any return or anything like that. FLO have been very supportive and I've followed their advice (and yours) to check the dust. I can confirm it's inside the tube. Quite a lot of it, too.

[beamish]

Sorry Mike , I wasn't try to make light of it-of course if it is Brand Spanking and there's alot of dust inside get it changed, that's just not what you'd expect. Having two scopes with front end plates I am aware that no matter how careful you are it will always seem to find a way in.

My apologies.

[Takahashi]

This is a fairly common problem with SkyWatcher and other mass-produced scopes. Cheap metal scraping against cheap metal = loose debris. Of the three SW scopes I've owned, the MakCass was without doubt the worst culprit, due mainly to it's enclosed design, and apparent "magnetic" quality of the corrector plate. I removed the front cell and blew the worst particles off, and (very carefully, after wiping the threads clean of other shards) replaced the cell. Until now, there's been no significant return of the little buggers. Front-cell removal was very easy, but this wasn't a problem for me due to the warranty having already expired. Yours may be a different case.

[MikeWilson]

Thanks for the advice guys, and no need to apologise, beamish

FLO have been very supportive and have offered to replace the part. I feel a little bad about that and wouldn't normally make a fuss (there is some slight damage on the mount but the mount has a somewhat flimsy plastic fascia) but there really is quite a lot of dust in there. It should have been picked up on at the Chinese assembly factory.

I agree that the corrector plate appears to be magnetic though - if these are flecks of metal they are very well fixed into the positions they're in! Although they aren't oriented in any particular way, the distribution of particles seems to be fairly uniform.

Anyway, buyer beware when looking at these enclosed tubes. I did (mistakenly) believe that enclosed tubes would involve less cleaning or have less problems than the open design tubes. Worth thinking about..