Astrozap Aluminum Dew Shield

[steve-fung]

For those who may be interested in purchasing an Astrozap aluminum dew shield for their Celestron SCT, Joe Golias of Astrozap was very helpful in educating me about the newer Celestron OTAs that have a front end bevel, which requires the dew shield securing screws to attach beyond the bevel. If you have one of these newer Celestron SCTs, make sure you get the dew shield that has notches (1-1/2” depth) above and below to accommodate for the non-recessed mounting screw above and CGE/Losmandy dovetail below. Additionally, the newer OTAs have two small non-recessed pins located close to the front edge of the telescope that hold the lens cap in place via bayonet-type locking mechanism. Joe mentioned the newer dew shields have been redesigned to have slightly larger diameter to fit around these pins.

I told Joe that I have a Fastar/Hyperstar-compatible Celestron C9-1/4-A XLT SCT OTA in high-gloss black. Even though the Astrozap website lists AZ-254 in HD white and texture black, Joe stated that he can certainly paint one in high gloss black. I was instructed to order the AZ-T254-TB and to put a note in the customer message portion of the order form requesting the special high gloss black color. I was quite pleased when the package came within a week and everything fitted perfectly snug as stated.

Enclosed are several pictures I took of the OTA front end with measurements, without and with the dew shield in place.