Celestron 9.25 dirty/stained collector lens

[Raymond Locke]

The front glass of my telescope has small imperfections/or blemishes on the inside.  There are about 20 of them scattered all around.  Dont know how anything woulld get on the inside as I keep the back cap on all  the time.  And scope is contained in this toolcase all the time.
So I sent a request for a warranty replacement/repair.............and Celestron sent me this!

"Looks like it needs to be cleaned.
We do that, you would need to send your OTA in.

For a EDGE 9.25" it is $300+ shipping to Clean, lubricate, collimate,
do a complete corrector alignment & perform a final evaluation."

It looks like they want me to repackage the who telescope and pay $300.  Sounds like a lot of repackaging and $500 or so!!!

So the question is:  why wont they replace a the glass lens/how would dirt get on the inside/why cant I just take it our and clean it myself/ etc
Help!!!  Would the local Celestron Rep help since he can see what the problem is.  Or can someone look at it for me?

[Ed McDonough]

Ray:
Did these spots "just show up" recently or have they been there the whole time? How long ago did you notice these as I know you've had the scope for a while.

Send me an E mail and I'll see if I can pull any strings to defray costs. No promises. emcdonough@celestron.com.

Ed McDonough

[Raymond Locke]

After investigation and finally a decent reply from Celestron, It appears...and they admit....that the spots that have rings like Saturn...might be mold growth.  This may come from my storing the telescope in a non-air conditioned space ( my garage/workshop) allowing this summer's excessive humidity to make stuff grow!!     They sent me this link on how to store it.

https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/how-do-i-properly-store-my-telescope

However, with help from Sean and You Tube, I felt confident enough to clean the inside of my collector.  Worked fine...and now to check the collimation!

[Wolf Schutze]

** It is too dangerous to go alone **
** Take this to aide your journey **

https://asterism.org/resources/collimation-guide-for-schmidt-cassegrain-telescopes/

Wolf.

[Raymond Locke]

Thanks for the suggestion.  Don't think I'll need it as I was very careful to use register marks and put the collector plate back exactly.  But I will check again if we ever get a clear night,...over50 degrees.