Celestron Nexstar 6 SE Unboxing

Celestron Nexstar 6 SE Unboxing
On Tuesday March 29, 2022, the Celestron Nexstar 6 SE telescope arrived and was placed next to the door at about 11:45 am.

The approximately 45 lb box appeared set on its side to take up minimal space in the traffic hallway next to the owners home door. When moved, it made a frightening rattling and broken glass sound. As it was marked 2-people lift, it was carried in by two people and correctly set on its bottom.

The box itself had incurred some damage and had been carefully covered over with clear strapping tape. It had a couple puncture wounds on the top lid, also covered with tape. The box was opened once or twice from the time of its original sealing. All things considered it appeared in relatively nominal condition after traveling from the USA, to South Korea, to Hong Kong, and finally to Taiwan.

The side of the box had a rather large deep incursion which was mended with clear strapping tape. 

The box top had received two puncture wounds shown on the right side of the lid as shown in this photo.

With pure luck, these two puncture wounds did not penetrate the second sealed boxing layer. So far, the telescope and tripod were packed well in these two boxes and were protected from any visible damage at this stage in the unboxing.

Opening the inside large box revealed a series of smaller boxes. From left to right counterclockwise, the boxes contained the telescope mount, the optical tube assembly (OTA), a cardboard spacer, and the box holding the eyepiece, finder, and star diagonal.

When opened, the tube assembly was found connected to the mount, connected on the arm. Two pieces of protective foam encircled this part of the telescope.

The tripod was another story. As seen at the top in the photo, the pointy side of the legs had dug into the protective foam, gouging out a large area.

To the left in another box was the wrench and the tripod leg spacer plate.

The box aat left contained a 25mm Celestron Plossl eyepiece, a Celestron 1.25-inch diagonal mirror, and a red dot finder found to not fit onto the already installed slide mount on the OTA.

Now it was time to set the parts on the table and inspect in more detail.

In the next post, we'll learn more about the alarming broken glass sound.