As a beginner, I seem to have been communicating with Celestron support on a regular basis. I know from many comments I have read on the net that many people have not had much luck, my experience however has been very good.

And a myriad of answers have wormed their way over time and space to enlighten me on what I was doing wrong. One might say that I am very pragmatic and logic, so after days of reading the setting the setup manual for the C8_SGT_XLT it was time to put theory into practise. Hmmm page xyz of the manual, hang-on mate, there seems to be a bit missing here, what did that say again?

Now I am not that sceptical to believe that the english text was translated from chinese, but at times I could be convinced. There was some pretty important need to know critical information left out or assumed. I was beginning to feel like the gun toting crazy dude in the film "Screamers" after he blew up all the monsters and ran out of ammo.

For example. loosen the DEC clutch, align the index marks etc - BUT no-where does it say retighten the clutch. Obvious you might say. Yeah, pigs can fly and alligators are docile creatures.

So off goes another support question (or two) to Celestron. This time I was a bit steamed. After pouring through heaps of pdf and faq files, I still didnt have any answers that made sense. So in my email what was a guy to do?

I suggested that they should have setup video's on their web site, you know, that show people how to setup their darn equipment. Thought nothing of it again till a few weeks or so later when I was checking the support site again, and stuff me, whats there now? A set of videos. Except the one I really wanted anyhow for the C8-SGT_XLT. Probably too late anyhow as I think I have the setup sussed now.

Now dont get me wrong, I am not claiming credit for this, I would like to believe its pure co-incidence, but a small part of me believes Celestron does listen......