The order was placed online 3/22/2022 with B&H in the USA because their telescopes were in stock and they shipped to Taiwan. The telescope ($1099) was ordered with Celestron's 5-Amp AC Adapter ($85.95). This came to $1184.95 subtotal with International DHL Express shipping $113.81 and duties and tax at $107.33 for a total of $1406.09. Estimated delivery time was 4 to 7 days. In the final analysis, the package arrived in 7 days on Tuesday. B&H shipped the order the same day it was placed. The next option for shipping at 3-5 business days, not chosen, was Fed-ex at $227.81.
B&H included free, a Nitecore Tube v2 LED Keychain Flashlight (white light) and a Celestron 1.25" Moon Filter. Unfortunately after ordering and the order was shipped, the same web site suddenly reflected a telescope price at $999 instead of $1099. B&H was contacted by the online form with no reply. Then the message was sent by email and a resolution has not yet arrived as of Thursday March 31. The telescope arrived Tuesday morning at 11:45am local time. Several calls were placed to DHL Taiwan regarding the shipment when in transit due to some very strange tracking reports coming out of Hong Kong. More on this later.
The package appeared outside in the hallway, set by the door. It was lifted and carried into the room by 2 people. When lifted, it made a sound like the jingling of broken glass. The single box weighed about 45 lbs. When unboxed, the set screw on the visual back had come loose and was jiggling around but nothing was harmed or scratched. The order was divided into two boxes, one for the telescope and one for the AC Adapter. The AC power adapter had arrived on Monday, a day earlier in a small box.
Tracking reports were maddening. At first, they indicated the shipment running in a circle and going to and from repeat states. It seemed to take ages to leave the country. The reports continuously reported it would clear customs during transit. Apparently that never happened. It went from state to state and eventually ended up in South Korea. After Korea, it was shipped into Hong Kong where COVID is a big problem. Suddenly the reports became strange. They claimed an accident happened and authorities would permanently hold the package until the law was changed or otherwise. Another oddity, each time the tracking report was reviewed, the shipping agency rewrote the tracking steps. It seemed the package would be destroyed along with the plane and the delivery man died. Putting these horrors aside, phone calls were made to the Taiwan agency where they said it would be delivered on Monday. On Monday, only the AC adapter was received and the telescope was still stuck in Hong Kong, permanently, they said. It was surmised the small box caught one plane and the big box waited for the next plane. It finally arrived in Taiwan and was cleared, then sent out for delivery on Tuesday morning.
Photos were taken showing the unboxing and later the telescope was assembled. The red dot finder did not fit onto its slide mount and was set aside along with the slide mount that was removed from the OTA. A different Celestron lightweight finderscope was mounted on the OTA. The retainer on the power cord had no room to lock onto the power jack on the telescope mount so the cord was wrapped around the base of the mount arm. Batteries were installed so the tube could be moved to a better position. After selecting English on the hand controller, the tube moved by pressing the arrow buttons. The tripod was extended and leveled using the tiny bubble level. The plan is to add a zippered pouch to prevent losing the parts.
The star diagonal was attached and the 25mm Plossl eyepiece inserted. Do not set anything on the battery compartment lid as it curves and things will fall off. When the power is on, the hand controller is lit. Be sure to turn off the power when working on the telescope to save batteries. As this telescope will, for the most part, focus on the Moon and planets, a Bahtinov mask is not needed. However, the reason the more powerful AC adapter was chosen is because the telescope will be expanded with accessories that draw more power such as the WIFI module, dew heater (or hair dryer) and Motor Focuser. Visual inspection shows a superbly crafted telescope without any obvious flaws.
The night is overcast so an optical analysis will need to wait. As the viewing sky is limited to a small east section obscured by a short roof and tall skyscrapers to the left and right, two and three star alignment will not work, therefore the telescope must compensate by using Solar System Alignment. As the site is extremely light polluted and no stars may be visible, this is likely the only viable option. On some nights when the haze is less, a few stars may become visible and the one star alignment may work. All in all, this is the perfect telescope for these urban light polluted and hazy sky conditions.
