In many ways, this is identical to scope 29. Both are 8" Celestrons circa 1985
mounted on a wedge. They both have
built-in drive motors. This scope is configured for visual use with
some good
eyepieces and without an off axis guider.
It set up for 1.25" optics.
The optics are good.
The supplied controllers will track, but their
other
functions are either not working or not useful for a visual scope.
These are
not GO TO controllers.
The optics are in good condition.
The scope has a very good illuminated reticle
finder. There
is a Rigel in the
box, but it needs to be mounted to the OTA.
It comes with three eyepieces; a 26mm
Plössl, a
TeleVue wide
view, and a 7 mm.
There are two controllers in the package, both
are
showing their age.
The first controller just moves RA. It operates from 12V. The
scope does seem to track objects well
enough for visual use. While this
controller has slow motion controls and they appear to change the
operation of
the motor the change is so subtle that it was barely noticeable. I found I had to fine-tune the RA position by
releasing the clutch slightly and moving the knob.
The second controller is more sophisticated. It
can control
both RA and DEC and claims to have different tracking rates. The basic
tracking
is working well enough for visual use. It uses a joystick to control
the adjustments. The RA adjustment again
appeared to be so subtitle
as to not be usable.
The Dec adjustment
was not working. The motor uses an
oversized
O ring as a belt to the manual adjustment shaft. The
belt was slipping. I did not try to clean
the parts to see if I
could get enough friction. The manual
adjustment works smoothly. I found it
easier to just use the manual dec adjustment when I was using the scope.
The second controller is supposed to operate
from both
12V and 120VAC, but I could only get it to operate from 120V.