Ages ago someone gave me a Bushnell Voyager 78-9675. It has sat in a box in my basement collecting dust for quite some time, so this weekend I thought I would dig it out and see if it was all in there. It is not. It is missing, at the very least, the cradle and the counterweight shaft, and various screws, and probably other bits, plus the dust cover was not really on it when I opened the box. Is there anything worthwhile I can do with this or should I call the recycler?
francopoli kleinbl00 and anyone else who has any ideas?
Edit: I'm not looking for telescope buying advice (yet). I have a crusty but serviceable Meade that I am still trying to figure out how to work and once I get that sorted, then I will refer back to purchasing advice, but will ask again because I am sure you will have updates.
I just wanted to know if this thing was useful in a non-buildable (by me) state for anything or if maybe my local observatory could repair it easily and let little kids mess with it. I mean, if it wasn't missing the counterweight shaft I could probably "engineer" it back together myself with some bits from the hardware store and give it to my cousin for his son or something.
So...
First off, Bushnell optics aren't great. Even for cheap binoculars they're not really the ones you want. And your Voyager isn't even a refractor - it's a tiny icky little reflector. If it were brand new, sitting there waiting for you to stare through it, you would get some marginal views of the moon, maybe three or four Galilean moons, maybe a crescent Venus... but it would be a frustrating and unrewarding process.
And then there's the problem of it being missing who knows what.
The used market on new-in-box never-used Bushnell is 25-30% original cost, and that there is maybe a $250 scope. So it's not worth anything from a sales standpoint. And even if you were the most avid wannabe astronomer out there, I would strongly discourage you from attempting to buttress your hobby via a crappy 4" bushnell reflector. Maaaan are those things frustrating to work with. I tried real hard to talk my sister-in-law out of burdening her daughter with one. She really wanted a scope. Within a year she'd given up on astronomy.
You can now buy a bloody 90mm Meade MCT with hunt'n'peck for less than $300. If you actually wanna look through the thing, the brands you're looking for are Meade, Celestron and to a lesser extent, Orion.
If you stumble across a Televue, thank them politely, take it, tuck it away out of sight and then immediately let francopoli know. He'll take the mangy garbage off your hands before it gets its cheap scummyness all over you too much.