Telescope Reviews: CGE disaster potential

Jerry,

The head of the repair department at Celestron sent me an e-mail late Friday asking how the mount was doing and whether or not I liked the improvement they made to the tripod. Of course I do and the mount came back in better shape than before the crash so I could not have asked for anything more on the repairs they did. They really took their time and were very thorough. I was very impressed with their support techs also as they called me every so often to give me status updates which was unexpected as well. If someone from Celestron is reading these forums I want to give a big thanks to Derek and Daniel!

I did ask him if the casting was going to be standard going forward which one would assume so since the casting obviously is not a quick throw it in place design. I made one improvement suggestion to him about it in regards to it being a little larger than the old one it hits the inside of the tripod legs when the legs are fully retracted (storage mode) and rubs against the legs leaving a mark (metal on metal). This is small potatoes to me but someone may care about this. I am sure they will address it, and of course I asked him if I could get one for my other CGE.

I also made the suggestion to him about re-designing the lower spreader just a little more to take out the plastic rings that tie the lower spreader bars to the tripod legs. These have always been a source of frustration for me as they want to slide up the tripod legs anywhere from .5-1.5 inches when a load is put on the tripod. Granted they never can slide all the way up the legs as they are eventually stopped by the force of the spreader bars but they cause the tripod to lose leveling as the legs are able to spread out a little bit more. I think that having the plastic rings gone by either having the lower spreader bars tying directly to the lower casters or to metal rings permanently affixed to the tripod leg (riveted to the leg somehow) will really take the CGE tripod to a new level of stability and rigidness. We will see what he comes back with.

For now though the cause of the crash has been remedied and for that I am grateful. Way to go Celestron!

--------------------
Best Regards,

Daniel

Scopes
--------------------------------
Meade 12'' LX200R #1
Meade 12'' LX200R #2
Orion Premium 102ED
William Optics 66SD
William Optics 66ZS

Mounts
--------------------------------
Celestron CGE #1
Celestron CGE #2
Meade LXD750