Paul Murphy wrote:

Here's the letter I sent Celestron support and I'm wondering if I'm
over-reacting and most SCTs ship in such a state or if I really got an
unreasonably bad example. How clean should I expect an SCT to be?


You often will see lots more than will matter with the flashlight test.

That said, I don't think you are overeacting. Re "3. There are multiple
circular streaks and a horizontal streak where someone rubbed the mirror
with (I assume) a cloth.", perhaps that is part of the "hand figuring"!

The Nexstar8GPS I bought in 2003 was very clean .. only problem was that
the corrector was scratched due to a loose lens cap in shipping; that
made me inspect it carefully and it was pretty much immaculate. I took
it to Celestron (10 minute drive for me) and had them fix it. [The bad
news is that there are never good skies 10 minutes from Celestron!].

However, I wonder if any of what you describe would really affect
optical performance.

I would worry more about "When I unpacked the telescope, it was
literally covered in glass dust. On the base it was as if someone poured
half of a salt shaker out on it." indicating a *total* lack of
inspection before shipping. What else, less visible, slipped through,
in the drives, for example.

Phil