PST serial # list.

You can add 94017 to the Sick list. Headed back to Meade today for repair.

Time for an update, especially with a new page just started.
It's good to have the list high on the page, ya know?
Thanks everybody for your serial numbers and info, couldn't do this withoutcha!
Rich
---------------------------------
94017 sick - Rod Nabholz "rnabholz" in Iowa
94115 sick - "PEterW" in SW London, Repaired with clear blue objective.
94229 sick? - Rick in Tokyo
94230 sick - Joe Bergeron in NY - repaired twice, last time with clear blue lens.
94262 sick - JHM in Colorado.
94343 sick - John Kocijanski in NY. Repaired by Coronado once, now sick again!
94366 sick - Phil Wheeler in LA. Purchased in July 2004.
94369 sick - Mike McShan in Oklahoma City. Sending it in for repair.
94595 sick - Chris Reich "Bucephelus" in California. LOST BY MEADE.
94600 sick - Mogster in Manchester. Replaced by Meade Germany, see 103825
94606 sick - Gary Meehan "AXAF" in Boston. Repaired by Meade with a clear blue objective.
94645 not sick - John Hoare in Kildare, Eire
94769 sick? - Dave LoPresti in Conn.
94991 sick - David "ad701xx" in Oregon. "Replaced objective lens and ITF. Clean optics"
95009 sick - Aaron McNeely in Indiana, repaired with blue/transparent obj. No bubbles.
95104 was blue, now gold - Tom Lawson "Guner" in NJ - repaired twice!
95166 sick - James Suarez "Jim7728" in NYC, repaired twice, 2nd time with blue/clear objective & new ITF/etalon. Works great now.
95414 sick - Mike Krzywonski in Texas, repaired by Meade, OK now.
95424 sick - Julio Cesar in Madrid - before repair. Replaced with new scope.
95769 sick - Joan Koch "StargazerJMK", Tacoma. Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF/etalon.
95919 sick - Ron T. "AstroRon" in Maine.
96038 not sick - Stephen Ames "darkstar528" in Kentucky.
96144 sick - Bruce Cosgrove "BRCoz" in Calif. Repaired with clear blue objective.
96325 sick - DAVIDG in Delaware. Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF/etalon.
96367 sick - "Zoomster" in Fla.- now repaired.
96400 sick - "Mogster" in Manchester UK, replaced by Meade Germany with blue #103825
96448 sick - Mike Rosolina "Special Ed" in West Va. Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF/etalon.
96512 sick - Dave "DMI" Left a message for Mr. Wiggins.
96603 sick - K.W. Tong "TONGKW" in Hong Kong. Sent to Meade (Coronado), now repaired.
96605 sick - SO King-yan Oldfield in Hong Kong.
96618 sick - Doug D. in Virginia. Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF/etalon.
96714 sick - Darren Hiebert in Alabama, repaired, sick again!
96969 sick - CESDewar in Georgia, repaired with blue objective.
97148 sick - Bill Leslie "bill-in-forres" Scotland. Replaced by BC&F (Meade).
97449 not sick yet, blue - Steve Durham in NY
97468 sick - Bruce Raemsch "Carpe Noctum" in Cal., returned, lost by Meade, replaced.

97491 gold - Daniel Steinke in Illinois - bought used, repaired?
97575 sick - "EmielVeldhuis" in Zwolle, Netherlands. Repaired with gold obj by Meade Germany, then replaced by them with new, blue objective scope.
98031 sick - Brian "Solar B" in Scotland. Repaired with new blue objective, new ERF/BF/Spacer.
98131 not sick, blue/transparent - Gustavo Phols in Mexico (already repaired?)
98569 sick - Joplin Motisher. Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF tested.
98670 sick & gold (yellow?) "Davo" in Scotland

98773 sick - Gregor(slo) in Slovenia (the old scope)
98994 sick - Steve Riegel "molniyabeer" in Italia, repaired, blue objective now.
99193 sick - Karoly "kfjpal" in Hungary. Might send it to Meade Germany or Broadhurst, Clarkson & Fuller in UK.
99309 sick - Michelle "JARSHEART" in Fla. "Replace objective lens and ITF, clean optics."
99335 sick - Kelly "Trombone" Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF/etalon. Traded to Bobby "Strgazr27" on Long Island?
99492 sick - "Solar1" in Texas. Sent back to Meade 3/8/07
99493 sick - Adrian Guzman "solmax" in San Jose, CA. Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF/etalon.
99520 sick - DanJ in North Carolina. Repaired, new blue objective, cleaned optics.
99729 sick - Kurt Fisher, "canopus56" in Salt Lake City. Repaired with clear blue objective.
99760 sick - (brand new in box - Discovery Store) - Steven Kim "kimsc321" in NJ
99801 unknown -- STOLEN -- Erika Rix in Ohio
99807 sick - "Ike" Stewart, Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF/etalon.
100051 sick - Trevor Durity in Galway, Eire (Ben Ritchie's old scope) - sent to Meade for repair. --REPLACED--
100292 not sick - Marcus Thompson "JAT Observatory" in Pennsylvania.
100349 not sick - Chris Schroeder in Wisconsin
100353 not sick - Jeff Wilson "birddog06" in Oregon.
100360 sick - Rick in Tokyo
100407 slightly sick - Stephane in Belgium.
100657 sick - Barry "CactusButt" in Texas. Will be sent back after TSP 2007.
100658 sick - Jim from NJ Night Sky. Repaired with clear blue objective & ITF/etalon.

100706 gold - Ed Kessler in PA, sold to JD Sherman in New Jersey?
100727 gold - Bill K. "SprintCar Driver" in California
100914 gold - Quentin Rakestraw
100922 gold - justin2992 in Philly
100942 gold - LBartolomei in Minnesota
101040 gold - "jgraham" in Ohio
101073 gold - Bart Goosens in Belgium.
101147 gold - Julio Cesar's friend Oriol in Barcelona
101168 gold - Julio Cesar's replacement PST
101230 gold - me
101306 gold - Luke Leege "LLEGE" in Rochester
101312 gold - "dengwer" in Texas.
101337 gold - Gerald Bokowy "chemkelly" in Illinois

101339 blue - Dean Mohr, Salt Lake City
101344 blue - Rob Willett in London.
101369 blue - James Suarez "Jim7728" in NY - the new one.
101489 blue - FLNightSky in Florida?
101526 blue - spacydee in Los Angeles, California.
101627 blue - Gregor(slo) in Slovenia (the new replacement scope)
101680 blue - Bill "Bonco" in Fla. Not sick.
101742 blue - "EmielVeldhuis" in Zwolle, Netherlands, new scope, best contrast.
101860 blue - Trevor Durity in Galway, Eire. The replacement scope.
101976 blue - Bill "Downward Bound" in Seattle.
101978 blue? - "Tarsier"
102xxx clear-blue/sick/bubbles - (brand new in box - Adorama NYC) - Steven Kim "kimsc321" in NJ
102024 clear-blue/sick/bubbles - (brand new in box - #2 Adorama NYC) - Steven Kim "kimsc321" in NJ, bubbles are very small.
102196 blue - Adam "soreneck" in Toronto
102228 blue - "omahaastro" in Omaha. No bubbles.
102392 blue - Bill Leslie, "bill-in-forres" Scotland. Free replacement for # 97148.
102701 blue - Myles in Seattle.
103552 blue - Ben Ritchie in Bosham, UK, new scope, sold to Mark Walters, "sol" in Wales.
103825 blue - "Mogster" in Manchester, UK, replacement for sick scope.
---------------------------------
The first group are the ones that had the problem. Reflective blue lenses, one transparent...
The second group are the gold ones.
The last group are the new type, with blue lenses (transparent). Not sick.

If your PST or BF is sick, call Coronado/Meade:
1 (800) 626-3233 - Dave Wiggins ext 6289
Wayne.Motonaga@meade.com -- Not actually in the repair dept. Told Chris to "Be patient." :-(
Eddie Salgado -- "Very helpful"

For Meade PST repairs in Europe, contact Meade Germany: service.apd@meade.de
http://www.meade.de/.../employees.html
Sven Koenigsfeld - Tel. 0049-2872-8074-153

Thanks for this thread.

I took my PST (#94366, purchased in July 2004) to Meade (35 min drive) on Tuesday, three days ago.

What is a typical turnaround time? I'm assuming I will get it back in the "The last group are the new type, with blue lenses (transparent). Not sick." configuration.

Phil,

I live in Orange County and also dropped mine off for the repair, as well as an adjusment on the tuning ring, last year about this time. Meade called me 10 days later and said it was ready for pick up. No problems since the repairs.

Pat

Phil,

I live in Orange County and also dropped mine off for the repair, as well as an adjusment on the tuning ring, last year about this time. Meade called me 10 days later and said it was ready for pick up. No problems since the repairs.

Pat

Thanks, Pat. May mine go as quickly!

Hello Richard,just got my hands on a gold unit. Just bought it with my eye on furter modification of it. A couple of days ago, I could compare it to my good old blue one...
101742 blue vs 101103 gold.

The blue one was better with imaging proms and disc detail and showing detailed Prominence features, visually.
The gold one was a winner at visual solar disc features. The gold unit has a much darker image.

Greetz emiel

Thank you, Emiel!
Now -THAT- is news you can use! It looks like the blue is maybe overall a little better, though the gold is OK for visual work. Since I'm not imaging the Sun yet that shouldn't be a problem for me.

By the way, where are the sunspots we were promised?
Rich

another comparing set of images, this time with a little sunspotgroup...just for you Richard!
It was made the same day as the pictures above. Made two different comparings, just to make sure my testing was right. More testing with different F/ratio's and with more visual/tuning testing will follow. Important note: The gold unit is not sick (yet)!.
greetz emiel

This is great work, Emiel! Keep up the super detective work!
I wonder if any other PSTs in Belge can join in the fun? It would be great to have an old/blue (not yet sick) scope in the test.
Rich

Hee Richard...I live in Holland, not Belgium hahaha
Nick Howes thought it was some astigmatism on the gold one, have to do more tests to find that out...
Maybe I can test some PST unit more (hopefully a blue one)...Just got contacted with a guy who just bought a PST. He wants to compare it with mine, visually and with a webcam. The dude said it was a very good unit...this story will continue
BTW: Thanks, I do my best;).
greetz emiel

Oops! :o
Nederland, of course, not Belge! Gad, I'll have to get my head examined!
Maybe new glasses...
Keep the good PST shoot-out going, this is interesting!
Rich

Hi Rich,

I know you have been keeping this list for sometime now. Have you any idea of how many PST's are out there among amateurs based on the serial numbers and your list? I was just curious and trying to get some idea of how many amateurs there are who are currently doing narrow band observing/imaging. Of course there are a lot of folks who have other filters, but knowing how many PST's are out there would give some indication of how popular this aspect of amateur astronomy has become.

Thanks,

Pat

Hard to know exactly, Pat, but it looks like 9,300 or more unless there are gaps in the serial numbers that we don't know about.

With the impending move of Meade manufacturing out of the country, it would be a good idea for all of us to inspect our PSTs now and get them fixed ASAP. It's hard to know what effect the offshore move will have. If it's Mexico it won't have much effect. If it's Singapore, maybe they'll ignore the warranties (purely speculation of course). I hope not! But that's a lot of potentially sick scopes out there!
Rich

Thanks Rich. Wow, that is kind of an eye opening number of just PST's out there. But I do seem to recall Craig Weatherwax of OPT telling me that they were getting orders for PST's at the rate of about 100 per week a few years ago shortly after Coronado introduced them.

Pat

You can add 94017 to the Sick list. Headed back to Meade today for repair.

The scope was returned today with a nice clear blue objective. Haven't had it out yet, but will soon.

This is a great service you are doing Rich. Your list was just mentioned to me and i would like to add myself to it.
Serial# 95594 sick Brian D, NY Repaired 09/13/06 Replaced objective (Blue) and ITF.
Thank you, Brian

What is the best way to contact Meade regarding a "sick" PST? I noticed mine has begun to "rust." I purchased it new 10/2004. I e-mailed them a week ago but no response.

Thanks,
Cuda

Just took a look at our club PST. Serial #96682, definitely sick. I'll be contacting them on Monday.

$pace @ce

I just purchased this PST, used.
Serial #.94101

If seen from front. it seemed OK, but looking from a certain angle under Sun light it seems it has rust.

Is it so?

See:
http://www.cloudynig...php?photo=12645

Sorry, but it looks like rust to me...

Emiiel...

101103 looks astigmatic, look at the cross hatching and lack of clarity in the image, compared to the other one (blue), that is not a "gold objective or rust" problem, that is astigmatism.. exactly what I was seeing with my old PST, and now gone totally with the new one (though still to batter it at F40 next summer!)

Thanx Nick!...but do you know what to do about that?
greetz emiel

Send it back to your dealer..

It's a misalignment in the prism sadly and whilst you may be able to adjust it yourself, I personally would not risk it

Sorry, but it looks like rust to me...

So, bad news...

I'll try to contact Coronado and Meade Europe, and I'll let you now

The worst new is that I have not any garancy or any original box, ecause I bought it used.
I checked it in the shop and it looked nice, and the view seemed good.

I noticed the rust only looking from a certain angle from the side

Heee Nick and others,
just wrote Meade Germany a mail about the astigmatism problem. Let you guys know, when I recieved some answers and what to do...it's 4 months after the warranty limit, so I don't know if it will cost me money to get the problem fixed. Added the images above too, so they can see it for themselves...

@ Claudio: You just can sent it back, no need of original box or warranty is necessary...the rust problem is caused by the factory, so Meade is repearing them for free...You only pay for sending it to them. Just contact them before you sent it: info@meade.de Good luck, and let me know, when you hear from them!

Greetz emiel