Michigan based Carbon Scope Tubes is making available limited run of replacement carbon tubes for Celestron C-14 SCTs. These tubes are the exact same size as the original tube and are pre-drilled for easy installation and fit the orange, black, and grey series of Celestron telescopes scopes.
These replacement tubes are fully coated with the company’s flat black paint process on the interior of the tube to minimize reflections. All of Carbon Scope Tubes’ telescope tubes are professionally made of aerospace quality, compression wrapped carbon fiber. These premium tubes have an automotive two-part UV protected urethane clear coat for a beautiful, hi-gloss finish.
As the company notes, “Carbon fiber has vastly superior thermal expansion properties over aluminum. From my personal experience using a typical aluminum C-11, you need to refocus for every 1.5 to 2 degrees of temperature drop. Since the C-14 uses a longer tube, the effect is even greater. With our carbon tube, you can easily go many hours without refocusing. As an example, during a typical Michigan night, the temperature can easily drop 2 degrees per hour. Hence, exposures over 45 minutes were impossible. Now I can image most of the night without re-focusing.”
Changing out the tube is straight forward:
– Turn the focus knob to move the mirror as far back as it will go.
– Lay the scope on its side for the rest of the process and roll it as needed.
– Remove the screws that hold the corrector, then remove the corrector.
– If you are nervous about touching or damaging the mirror surface during this procedure, then it would be best to disassemble the focuser assembly, remove the stop ring from the baffle tube, and remove the mirror altogether.
– You now have access to the nuts and bolts holding the tube to the cells. Remove the nuts and bolt and then the tube.
– This is a good time to clean your optics and re-lube the scope.
– Reverse the process using the new tube.
– Minor collimation will be needed to complete the process.
The company also makes custom tubes upon request. They offer:
– Large Diameter Carbon Tubes
– Current diameter range 3″ to 24″ with lengths up to 90″
– Solid wall tube wall thickness from 0.05″ and up
– Structural housings for telescopes, metering tubes, and other optical instruments
– RF shielding for electronic assemblies
– Telescoping tubes and tapered tubes available
– Cutting, drilling, milling, bonding available
– Various finishes available from mill finish, to smooth sanded, to polished UV-blocking clear-coat
You can learn more about Carbon Scope Tubes’ replacement Celestron C-14 SCT tubes here.
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