C11..... Best scope that I have ever owned

[deepspacehunter]

My C11 has been a JOY to observe with , the Orion Atlas MOUNT with Polar finder scope, never lets me down, The Go To consistently puts objects right in the Eyepiece at 140 X... And the Views are outstanding.. I switched to the C11 last February . After viewing through 10" and 12" Dobs for years. I wanted to get the benefits of the longer Focal Length with Bigger Image Scale.. The Ring Nebula last Sat night from our Dark Sky observing site was incredible, We could see structure brightness differences just like the photographs and Globular Clusters are really Sparkling. And Galaxies are Great as well. I have wanted a C11 for many years. If anyone is contemplating getting a C11, I highly recommend it. You won't be sorry !

Mark

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Mark - nice 1 mate - I too had moved from a 12" Dob and an 8" SCT to the 11" and must echo what you have posted.  I find the ability to just increase the Mag on each object whilst maintaining the actual image brightness is the positive for me - yes the increase in image scale is a real benefit, also, the increased resolution on Jupiter and Saturn gives a much more "feel" to my observing, the intro to Binoviewers has been a revelation for Planetary/Luna observing - I know that many have said that the Binoviewers give you a dimmer view, but I have found that just by decreasing the Mag a little compensates for this as well as the extra Eyepiece to look through.

The views I had from the 12" Dob I found were nothing special - not sure if it was just me, but the Planets were far better in the 8" SCT - I have a lot of light pollution so the Deep sky was also a little of a let down for me.  

I felt the edge of the longer focal length being geared to the Planets/Luna side of things for me and I know that, for deep sky, the 11" isn't going to match the views from a rich field Frac, but I like the brighter Messier's through the 11" - as you mentioned the Ring, M27, M76, the Owl, the Saturn, the Eskimo are nice bright objects that stand very well when the Mag is increased they really do take on "photo" like views, especially when you add a filter - dare I say the brighter Globs, once the Mag is ramped up become individual points of "niceness" all be it with averted vision and the double cluster in Perseus (yes I know - 1 cluster at a time!!) looks very nice.

I have got used the small field of view which frames the majority of the deep sky - especially the brighter Planetary Nebulae which, I find, hold really well visually and very bright to, I haven't the skies for the fainter Galaxies, but I can detect many of the smudges - even the brighter "wisp" of the Veil Nebula pops into view with an O III filter from my skies.

Paul.

[PeterW]

On an Atlas mount.. some people suggest the mount is near capacity with such a scope? What are your experiences?

Thanks

PEter

[Syed Saif Alam]

Wohaa ! You all have such great scopes . Please share some things you see with me plz . I would love to see some pics . Im having a 76mm scope. So some inspiration please .

Clear skies.!

[deepspacehunter]

I have had good success with the Atlas, I am very pleased with it in every capacity.

Mark

[Perseus_m45]

I run the same set up . And the Atlas mount is a Top Notch I have to say .

mike h