telescope update

I picked up the new telescope this morning and so far, all is well. Fearing another lemon, I started by simply doing a fake alignment on the dining room table (this scope is compact enough that it can actually be used on a tabletop) and the scope performed flawlessly. Having worked with the new scope, I can now confidently conclude that something was very wrong with the first one I received last week. The first one produced a gritty, mechanical sound when the gearbox was engaged. The new scope is silent by comparison and slews smoothly. After examining the packing of the new scope, I suspect the first one I received was a reconditioned unit that had already been sent back to Meade for repairs. Clearly the repairs failed. In any event, I used the new telescope for a few hours tonight, saw Jupiter again, and confirmed that the sky tracking is near perfect. Tomorrow night's challenge will be working on the initial alignment of the telescope.