Two surprises

Arrived home at dusk last night after a less-than-successful puppy expedition that had left us both a bit tense. As I got out of the car, the first thing that caught my eye was a beautiful line up of the crescent moon and Venus in the west, the first of two happy surprises.

There's something restorative about such a sight - not all that unusual, but an interesting reminder that the world is a lot more than the individual setbacks (or accomplishments) of any given day. There's something reassuring about these two bright orbs standing one over the other, looking down on me that made me want to smile.

Bob Magnuson, a few miles away in Tiverton, was watching the same event more closely than I and got thi wonderful photograph.

I looked around for some local solution even consideed repairing it myself and decided that would be foolish. So I bit the bullet and called Meade. The repair bill would be something in the order of $300 and I'd have to pack it up and ship it, of course. Ouch!

But there was another solution I learned about simply because I asked. Sky Assurance. This is essentially an extended warranty. I just didn't think I could get it after the fact. But it works like this. I buy the Sky Assurance policy for about $180 which essentially says theyll pay for any repair, plus shipping to and from Meade. That seemed reasonable. But could it possibly apply after-the-fact? "Yes," the Meade agent explained, if I was ready to be patient for amonth. That is, the policy would not be effective for 30 days.

OK - I fortunately have other scopes, so I waited 30-days, then called Meade again explaining I had Sky Assurance and wanted to send in the LX90 for repairs. Great. They then told me to wait for an appropiate shipping box. They sent it. It's custom made for the scope. I pack it up. Call UPS and they come and pick up the scope. That's it. About as hassle-free as it gets. I think it went out the second week in January, so I was expecting to hear from Meade soon saying they were shipping. That call - or email - I didn't get.

But that - I hope - is the only glitch. I haven't tried the scope yet, but i have unpacked it and the paperwork indicates it's been repaired. It also looks brand-new to me. That is, I know it's my scope, but both the primary mirror and corrector plate have had a cleaning, I'm sure. What's more, it looks like I have a new controller - my old ne was not broken as far as I knew - for this one came in a plastic bag, packed with the scope and has a piece of clear tape over it's window. I thought they might update the firmware - but it looks to me like they took a shortcut and just threw in a new hand controller which would have updated firmware, I assume.

This, btw - is becoming more and more the norm of my dealings with large businesses lately. They seem to have put a premium on customer satisfaction, especially when it comes to repairing or replacing something, and keeping this customer happy does work. I'm much more likely to recommend - or return to - Meade when it comes to another purchase because of the way they handled this. Oh - and my Sky Assurance gives me another 10 months of peace of mind in case I do something stupid again - hich is entirely possible.