Secondary Rotated on Edge HD 11" and fixed
the index point is indicated by red arrow .. I removed the secondary baffle "nut" which caused the problem and attempted to re-thread it onto the secondary holder . Didn't think it was going to work till I spread a tiny drop of 3 in 1 oil around the threads on secondary holder . I was then able to re-thread the baffle without much difficulty at all .
This baffle nut is pretty thin plastic so had to be careful when threading . All of the work removing the old gasket , replacing with new Starizona gasket and rethreading the baffle back on the secondary holder was of course done with the corrector plate completely removed from the OTA . I noticed that when threading the baffle back on to the holder it would go on for a little way then seem tight but it was not . After working it back and forth lightly a few times it seated properly . I am thinking this was the heart of my problem in the first place .I think the factory thought it was tight but it wasn't . I then removed the felt type gasget that was on the outside part of the secondary holder and replaced it with one from Starizona . Its a special soft rubber gasget {Sorbothane} that i suspect would hold the secondary holder against the corrector much better than the felt gasget that was factory installed . I then screwed the baffle nut on to the secondary holder with the pin slot pointing to the index mark on the corrector marked by the factory which is at 3:00 . I tightened good and tight by screwing the baffle on and holding the secondary holder in place . I then cleaned the corrector with a liittle alcohol and lint free wipes from CT. Clean Room very gently . Cleaned the inside of the OTA which had very little in it and didn't touch the primary as it looked pristine .
Then put the corrector back in very gently setting it back on the two set screws I didn't adjust then re-tightened the ones i did back by two turns . Just opposite what i did when i removed the coreector . I then replaced the outer corrector ring with the eight screws and the secondary mirror . Stood around 3 or 4 feet away looking at the secondary holder with the mirror out and the shadows and rings look concentric with the mirror . Focused on a tree around 200 to 300 yards away and the view looks pretty good but still need to get out at night and check collumation on a star .
I did notice a couple things I wasn't happy with when I removed the ring around the corrector . There was two chips on the end of the corrector one of them looked almost 1/8" deep the other much smaller . I also noticed very small rough chipped areas around the center hole in the corrector on one side . Nothing I did and never seemed to affect the view in the scope but still disapponted that Celestron would sell something like that without replacing it . Suppose I never would have known if it wasn't for this incident .
I am happy to say that after this process i did need to re-columate which went quickly as stars came to a pinpoint after ust a few slight turns of the columation screws on the secondary . Switching drom F7 with HD reducer to F2 with Hyperstar lll is a breeze and secondary stays put just as it should . Celestron should put the Starizona's Sorbothane rubber gaskets in all their fastar compatible scopes . It could save a major fix ! Clear Skies ! Tony Boucher ************