JG777

Just updated it!

Hello I thought I would update this thread now that I have had the scope a while and used it a fair bit. I was waiting for my grade from that Liquid bloke above but it seems he must have gone back to teacher training college Anyway a few things. The OTA has been excellent. It came out of the box collimated properly and I have not had to make any adjustments. It has allowed me to see many things that were not possible on my previous 200mm newt set up and without the aggravation of collimation. The 9.25 is 4 or 5 kilos heavier than the 8 so a steady hand is required to mount the OTA. The easiest way is to slide it onto the clamp bottom down although if you prefer you can transport the OTA and mount already connected as it sits upright and easily clears the bottom tray. Cool down time depends on how warm it was before going outside, but for me the 10 or 20 minute journey to one of the dark sites uses up some of that time. In practice I found it needed about 20-30 minutes and by the time I was set up it was more or less OK. This is the biggest telescope I have owned and it has really pushed my astronomy to a newer height. I am able to observe objects I never saw before and others in more detail. Planetary detail is fantastic and moon observing feels like you are there. The DSO performance is probably the best I am ever going to eke out under light polluted skies in a set up that is easy to assemble and transport. The mount has performed very well indeed and no complaints here. Alignments with 2 and 3 star are very accurate, as long as good accurate data for location and time is entered the mount puts objects right in the centre. It is essential as well to have a finder scope aligned with the OTA and I found an illuminated cross hair EP extremely useful. The built in battery means one less thing to lug out to the dark site and I haven't managed to flatten it yet. Putting the mount and tripod together in the dark is pretty easy as there are raised indentations on the mount to match up to where the bolts are. Noise levels on the mount, about the same as the HEQ5 PRO I had, but no grinding noise at the start of a slew. Whilst tracking it purrs like a cat. The tripod is heavy especially if you leave the tray connected in all the time as I do, but essentially it is well constructed, sturdy and rock solid. I have not used it extended yet as the default height suits me fine. Stability: This seemed to be a worry for some people, perhaps those that spoke about the 8SE but in use I haven't found any stability issues to concern me. It takes about a second or two to dampen down after focussing and then its fine. I have used it in calm conditions mostly with low surface winds. I can only make a comparison to other kit I have owned or still have so Compared to a 200mm newt on HEQ5 PRO stability is slightly better on the Evo Compared to100ED pro on alloy AZ4 the Evo wins by quite a margin. Compared to Equinox 80 or Mak 127 on AZ4 The Evo wins but with a reduced margin Compared to Equinox 80 on Berlebach and Sabre …. Ok now that is plain silly, the Evo gets slaughtered alongside everything else I have owned! If you’re using the HC I recommend you get an extension lead. Even with the holding bracket at the top of the tube the HC cord is a tad short, but often I just leave it on the recessed tray on the mount. Personally I much preferred the Synscan HC, the buttons were nicer, the display seemed clearer and the cable could be swapped out for a CAT5 lead. In any case I did add that extension cable. Having said that the HC is functional and no issues to report there. You will some dew control, a shield, heater or both. I have been using an astro zap heater with a homemade dew shield. The Wi-Fi. One of the features about the Evolution is the Wi-Fi which has had some mixed reports on some other forums but my experience of it has so far been positive. I don't think this is something that you would bother with on a smart phone as the screen is likely to be too small and cluttered. I tried it with a phone and it was clumsy trying to operate the directional buttons. On an 8 inch tablet however the game changes significantly. Initially my tablet would not connect to the Evo mount and I was not sure if the tablet was at fault or the mount. My tablet connected to everything else Wi-Fi, in pubs, hotels here and abroad, airports etc. so I was thinking it might be the mount. However a recent software update to the tablet corrected whatever was wrong and now it connects to the Evo mount without issue. Using Skyportal it is a 3 star alignment and this seems to take a bit longer than doing it with the HC, probably because you are having to look away from the EP to see where the directional controls are on the screen, it is not like the physical touch of real buttons on the HC so the alignment routine is less intuitive. I found it helped to take some speed off the initial slew fix as it was easy to overrun the target. Reducing the speed also removed the lag from the button pressing. The advantage is though the tablet has built in GPS so uploads your position and time without any input from the user. Stay with it though because once aligned the fun begins. This is so much easier than using the HC and negotiating the menus in there. Simply tap on the object on the screen hit GOTO and the scope slews to it. I tested this the other night over a 2 hour period and sent it to about 30 different targets and it worked without a hitch. Every single one of them was in the centre of the EP. I called up objects from the "tonight's best" and from the search and all were found without a problem. One thing though, if you do a search the Android keyboard pops up and is bright even if the app is in night mode, so remember to dim the tablet as much as possible. The nice thing about the app is that it helps you with your visual orientation of where everything is and where you object is in relation to a constellation for example. I have since upgraded to the full Sky Safari 4 Pro on which Skyportal is based and SS4 is far more featured with a larger database. One thing I tested was walking out of range with the Wi-Fi. It disconnected as expected, left it for a few minutes for a coffee break then pressed the connect button and as the manual documents it remembers the alignment. It was tracking Jupiter so I sent it to Mizar and seconds later Mizar was centered in the EP. I also re tested the lights adjustments. The battery, icon and tray lights can all be adjusted to suit from the app settings, initially I didn’t think this worked but I discovered it takes about 15 -20 seconds for the command to go through so it does work. It was also useful to be able to top up the charge of the tablet from the mount via the powered USB socket. Using the tablet was a delight, its simple and easy. If you get this set up and working you will not want to go back to using the HC. Seeing your object on a screen, slewing to it, viewing it and reading the information about it really enhances the whole evening. I didn’t think I would get too excited about the Wi-Fi aspect as I didn’t buy it for that particular reason but now I have used it I am sold. All in all then my time so far with the Evo has got better and better as I have learnt my way around the system and used it more and more. I still enjoy going out using push to and finding things myself but if you’re going out for an entire evening and you want the most amount of astronomy with the least amount of aggravation with set up and lugging gear then the Evo goes a long long way to delivering this, and I really do not miss heavy EQ mounts, weights, polar aligning, collimation, heavy batteries, and long set up times! As always good luck with your choices.

Congats, you wont be disappointed. I will update my review later as well now that I have used it a fair bit. Also where you live....if it is sunny and you have loads of Ricard and Gran Cru I can drink I may have to pop by with mine :-)

The advice for Evo alignment is practically the same to what you will find documented on various forums for the SE versions. For a 3 star alignment bright stars known to the system should be in a big triangle in the sky, higher than 30 degrees and lower than 70. Get all the data in correct, tripod level etc. and it normally works fine. A lot of people just use 2 star align which apparently is just as good.

Yes Rick, it seems the 8 version of Evo may not have the beefed up tripod that the 9 has but I cannot confirm that for definite. The manual that came with mine referred to a different tripod to the one I had so assume it means the 8, and Celestron did not print a 9 version of it. The 9s tripod is pretty hefty to move especially if you leave the tray fixed in.

I reviewed mine here http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/227554-celestron-evolution-c925-first-look-half-light-report/ Since then have used it a few times and it has been very good and a pleasure to use. I haven't used the wi fi side of it as I wanted to try this out on my tablet which has only just received an update to the android software and now connects. My phone worked fine with it though. Stability is not an issue, the 9 has a very solid tripod, and is very sturdy on the mount, certainly there is a very minor shake after focussing but no different to my small refractor on a push to or many other combos I have used. The internal battery is excellent, this saves lugging a leisure battery to the dark site. GOTO works a breeze as long as you feed it the right info and choose a good selection of stars for alignment. Not much to complain about really , lose the rdf for a raci finder and what's not to like ? I think the wi fi aspect is unfinished work but you do get a handset.

I have the 8, 12 , 18 and 25 and all good performers, really like the 18 though.

Hello all, I have now had my Celestron Evolution 9.25 nearly two weeks and now finally got some photos and information together for anyone considering this set up. It has been out as well but not really a first light report as mentioned later in this review. The rationale behind choosing this set up was to provide a system that was easier to travel with to a dark site where I observe, as the HEQ5 Pro and GSO 200mm whilst a good combo are not the easiest things to transport, set up and tear down. I also conceded that AP is probably never going to materialize for me due to never having enough time plus the fact I do not think I am doing enough visual anyway! Like most people here I spent weeks thinking about what I need, what I don't need, what would be nice, how much cash can I raise, what shall I sell, will my daughter stop shooting chickens on that silly Nintendo game etc etc etc.....??? Anyway lets get started ...... As always it begins with some big boxes, inside them are more big boxes, but this is not an un-boxing thread so that's the last you see of any boxes. I will say though that everything was very well packaged. Delivered from FLO by Fedex. All measurements and weights are approximate or as close as I could get them. For the rest of the images apologies for the shadows in some of them, you just cant get the light these days... First we have the tripod. On the right side leg is the handset cradle that pushes on. The tubing is steel and feels very strong. In this image it is hard to see the central spindle but it is there. As pictured this tripod weighs 9.8 KG and is 780 mm high. Fully extended it goes to 1170mm high. At the bottom is a strap for securing the legs in transport, on my version of the tripod the legs are quite stiff so no real danger of them flaying about when carrying the tripod. Having said that the strap is genuinely a useful addition. The above image shows the legs extended part way, note there are no index markers as mentioned in the manual, in fact the manual shows a different mount altogether which I believe is the lighter version of the tripod and mount for the smaller scopes. This is the beefed up version for the 9.25, and maybe the 8 comes with this mount as well but I am not entirely sure. Close in shot of the central connector bearing the Celestron branding. All fixings are secure and rigid. Nothing loose and nothing rattles. This image shows one of the leg extender release handles. It is wonderfully easy to lock and unlock the legs as the handle is large and easy to find and operate in the dark. It is also made of alloy as well and feels bullet proof. In comparison to the handles on my ex HEQ5 PRO the Celestron wins hands down. Well done Celestron, it seems someone has actually thought this through...... The top of the tripod from a side on perspective shows the 3 captured bolts hanging down. These bolts screw into the mount and are solid. They are easy enough to grip so undoing them with cold hands should be OK. The bolts when screwed into the mount for the first time felt a little stiff, so some synthetic Finish Line bike grease on the bolt threads solved the stiffness. I have found the best way to do these bolts up is in the same manner you would do a car wheel. This image is the top of the tripod. The 3 captured bolts on the outside, and you can also see the 3 screw holes which I am led to believe are there for a forthcoming EQ wedge. There is a bubble level as well. In the centre there is the central fixed spindle which is what you align the mount onto. The mount is placed over the spindle and then the bolts aligned with the holes in the mount. Nothing needs to be clicked into place like it does on the Orange County video I saw of the 8 inch version of this. This is the tray. It is seriously heavy duty and weighs a staggering 2.4 KG. Metal not plastic and with 6 EP holders around the edges. Look closer at the deeper indentations and you can see 2 rubber pads in each. The tray is designed to stay on the mount when the legs are folded in and the rubber pads stop the tray from clanking or marking the steel tubes. It is a small attention to detail but a welcome one. At the side is the tightening nut and washer. The nut has large grip indentations making it a breeze to tighten up the tray. All in all a very well thought out design. To prove the point here is the tripod and tray folded up and ready to transport. Neat tidy and although heavy not a difficult item to carry and store. The above image is the actual mount. It weighs 7.2 kilos and houses a lithium phosphate battery which Celestron claims 10 hours of use. The mount is 47cm tall. The large carry handle makes it easy to grab and lift up onto the tripod. The Celestron icon pulses red when the mount is being charged and stays red when fully charged. The W-Fi icon pulses red until it meets a smartphone or a tablet then stays a permanent red until switched off. It can use direct access to your router as well, and both the icon and the W-Fi indicators can be dimmed from the Nexstar handset. The metallic orange circle is a knurled disc that loosens or tightens the the up/down operation. If you have smaller hands or maybe your a kid then the three central stubs in the disc make tightening and loosening very easy to operate. Looking down onto the top of the mounts base shows another one of those metallic orange discs, unsurprisingly this is for loosening and tightening the left/right operation. The difference here is that this disc actually glows red in the dark to help you see the 3 really expensive EPs you are going to keep in the top accessory tray! It also can be dimmed from the handset if things are getting a little too bright for you. At the base of the mount from left to right: Socket for charger or 12v cable, Auxillary 3 and Auxillary 4 (The Nexstar handset can plug into either Aux socket. Aux sockets 1 and 2 are on the side of the mounts fork.) Above the Aux socket is the USB charging outlet which for example can charge your phone or tablet in the field, and on the right is the power switch. The electric panel is protected by its placement underneath the bottom of the fork. The vixen style clamp is operated by a single heavy duty bolt. When mounting the OTA it helps to put this clamp into the vertical position and literally lower the tube in. A small marker at the top central area helps you align the scope to a level lateral position. It feels solid and at no time do you feel your precious OTA will fall off!! The mount on the tripod with the handset on the retaining clip. The handset is plugged into the Aux socket on the main electric panel and gets there by the use of an extension lead. The handset cable is one of the disappointments. It is the curly type that does not like to be stretched and it is very short. I found that in some situations the cable could get stressed and cause a disconnect. The extension cable from Astronomiser cures this issue, Andy from there made me a custom 2 metre cable. I noticed that the cable at the handset end is wired in to the handset as well unlike the Synscan handsets where the cables can be swapped out for CAT5 patch ethernet cables. I know that the handset has a software cord wrap option which was set to on but this did not stop the cable from being stressed whilst in use. SOUND: In use the mounts noise level is about the same as the HEQ5, possibly a tad louder with both axis slewing but without the noise of coffee beans being grinded at start up. There is no beep to tell you it has finished slewing. OK here it is....the OTA and needs little introduction. There is not a great deal to say about the C9.25 as this scope has a well proven track record and gets very good reviews from people that know more about them than me. The scope has an excellent carry handle and the protective cap scews on and clicks into place with a short turn. It weighs 8.4 KG with protective cap and visual back in place, and the length is 54 cm plus a further 6.5 cm with the visual back in place. Top down view of the bottom of the scope showing the carry handle, focus knob and visual back. Bottom right 5 o clock position reveals something that does not come as standard with this telescope.....read on.....but first a few shots of the business end of this scope. Amazing how these digital cameras can capture tiny specs of dust which my eyes cannot barely see. Close in on the central adaptor / secondary. turn the plate a short way and the collimation screws are revealed A shot of the supplied star diagonal and the supplied Celestron 40mm EP Ok so far things have been very positive with just the minor irritation of the handset cable, but there was a cloud in the silver lining and here it is. Now I know these scopes ship with an RDF ( red dot finder ) and those have never really aroused much admiration from me, I have one for my Mak but usually swap it out for the 9x50 that came with my frac.However the 9x50 SW finder is not compatible with the Celestron mount Now I do not know if other Evolutions are the same even in the 9.25 variety, and quite possibly it might just be mine but take a closer look at the mounting plate. It looks like one piece but if you attach the RDF to it the small dovetail in the centre of the bracket and tighten the screws the dovetail comes away and the RDF drops to the floor. Effectively it is useless. If that is not enough to make you reach for a double Ricard with ice take a look at the RDF itself. It is completely misaligned on the lateral axis and when we tried it on the Mak and the Frac the red dot could not get anywhere near the alignment in the scope. No amount of tinkering with it could correct it either so like the cheap nasty mount it came with it was effectively useless. ( Well there is a battery in there to salvage ) Suffice to say the chap who conjured up the leg clamps will move up the organisation a lot quicker than the guy in the RDF department. Anyway I pinged an email off to FLO later in the day including some pictures and Steve G replied within 2 hours and said he would look into this, but they did not have any more 9s in stock but would check one of the 8s. Later on they sent me another email saying they thought the 8s mount was different, so could not use this. They said they would sort this out.....Then the next day another email from FLO saying they had found a replacement finder and it would be with me in 2 days. As I was so busy at work I only skim read the email but was OK with the fact FLO responded so quick. The Fedex man came and went and naturally I was out when this happened so elected to collect it from the local depot at the end of the week. On the way to Fedex at the end of the week my car broke down with a brake issue and I limped it into a garage where i waited 4 hours to for them to fix it. Hundred of pounds later and feeling rather depressed I finally got to Fedex and collected the box. Drove home in appalling weather, got drenched going from car to front door. Then I opened the box. A note at the top said " Hope you enjoy your new finder scope " and this is what I found Had I had time and read the email properly I would have seen FLO sent me a Celestron 9x50 illuminated RACI finderscope as a replacement. I was stunned to say the least, and this is one of the most fantastic experiences of good customer service I have ever come across. I already knew FLO had a very good reputation around here and this just re-enforces it. Thank you FLO Steve G and Steve B, it was a marvelous and generous gesture and most appreciated. Now we need a picture of it on the scope while the RFD languishes in the things that are broken drawer..... Set up complete with dew shields, just awaiting dew controller and dew tape. Now a quick look at the software. So with the first look nearly done it is worth mentioning what I have experienced so far with the software. Sorry the above is not a great photo, found it hard photographing a phone screen! First of all you download Celestron Sky Portal, mine is on my Android HTC ONE phone running KitKat 4.4 although later today I will have acquired a 8 inch Android tablet for this. Turn the mount on and then switch your phones Wi-Fi on. Start up Sky portal and identify the SkyQlink network. Press connect to SkyQ and the phone then connects to the mount. It works....seriously it really works and if you look at the phone screen you may be able to see some of the night sky and the buttons at the side to operate the movement of the telescope. The idea is once aligned you just point to an object on the screen and the scope goes to it. Some might think this is a gimmick but I see it as a handset with graphics. One thing though, sometimes other networks can get in the way like your own router in the house. A small piece of paper was included with the manual explaining a bit more about the network and connection side of things. It seems that from the phone / tablet or whatever device you use the default setting is a 3 star align, one other option is a manual align with a further option to plug in the RA and Dec co-ordinates. I do not know for example if you can do a 2 star align from the Nexstar handset and then use the phone to cruise around the sky. Tracking options are Sidereal, Solar, Lunar, and OFF. Backlash can also be dialled in from the phone along with slew rates as well. Lots of stuff still to learn and find out. The software ( based on Sky Safari ) has a multitude of settings for the front end you can tinker with, far too much to explain here but can be read in the downloadable PDF from Celestrons web site. I haven't found much wrong so far but time will tell and in any case software updates to the app should take care of things. In practice for example I found the icon and wi-fi dimmers on the phone do not have the desired effect on the mount, but that is no deal breaker so to speak. In summary: PROS: Solid well built and well thought out tripod and mount. Internal battery and USB external charger socket Excellent leg clamps Tray design remains when legs folded in for transport Useful lashing strap for securing the legs Fast set up and tear down times Individual components easy to carry Easy to see and use fixings in the dark Well place OTA carry handle Screw in protective cover on OTA front plate Reasonable 40mm Celestron Plossl EP supplied Can use other scopes on mount CONS Finder scope and mount broken on my supplied version Poor instruction manual, refers to different mount. No 12v power lead (Think long sessions when internal power is exhausted) No Serial cable supplied (firmware updates) Handset cable is very short at 40cm HALF LIGHT REPORT: I called it half light because the reality was I used this scope without a working finder as the clear sky happened before the RACI arrived. It was also a full moon with a drenched out sky and I was completely unaware of the requirements for Skyalign to work. As mentioned I travel a short distance to a dark site to do my observing so the first test was getting the gear down the stairs and into the car. The OTA is comfy strapped into the front seat and uses up far less room than a 200mm Newtonian. The carrying handles made life easier and no heavy counterweights to haul outside. I was also missing the 18 kilos of weight from the leisure battery, one less thing to worry about. So the scope and mount were all in the car with plenty of room left over. At the dark site, unloading to set up was about 12 minutes. The phone connected to the mount but the alignment was impossible without a finder scope as a guide. All attempts at a 3 star align failed, but that is not down to software or faults it was because it was taking forever to centre bright stars and by my own admission not knowing how bright they have to be and where in the sky they have to be located. So a few goes on the handset and the same issue, and then to find out that this handset likes co-ordinates in degrees and not decimals. What fun...... Never mind, with the threat of clouds It was a case of undoing the clutches and manually slewing to some objects, no DSO though as the sky was so washed out. I checked out a few stars including Mizar, Polaris, Vega and all looked pretty clear and good. It just took some time to find them using a 40mm EP! Anyway that done I turned it onto the moon and using BSTs 18 / 12 got outstanding views of the moon. Very crisp, contrasty and punchy views plus a burnt out eye! So not much viewed on that evening out but never the less it was enough to get excited about for the future. One thing people might wonder about is the stability of the whole set up, and in all honesty it is difficult to say for certain until I use it more. The was no movement viewing the moon at 12 or 18 but a small amount when using the 8mm during focusing. It remained a bit jumpy from what I recall at 8mm but this needs more testing. Surface winds were about 3-4 knots. Viewing the few stars was also jumpy at the higher powers but initially my thoughts are that it is not so different to a 200mm on a HEQ5 for stability. Eventually the clouds rolled in and it was time to pack up. Tear down was quick and the kit was in the back of the car before I had time to lose something. So that concludes this first look and half light report, I hope it helps others who may be considering this scope. Overall I am pleased with the purchase and especially impressed with the FLO response. I know I have probably left some things out, but hopefully most of what people might want to know is covered. Any questions on the set up and I will try and answer! Cheers and clear skies John