My first purchase was a fairly typical system - NEQ6 Pro mount and a Celestron Edge HD 8. Augmented with an Atik CCD, filter wheel, a guide scope from Altair and the usual dew shield, dew controllers etc etc. I've used the system on and off for the last couple of years for visual and imaging sessions and it all works for the most part. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons I'm unable to leave it permanently set up - everything has to be stored in the house in a largely dismantled state. Inevitably, the whole process of setting up, polar alignment, balancing, star aligning and calibration each night and taking down again wastes half of any typical UK observing session. It also makes it difficult to maintain it in a consistent, well running, configuration. Needless to say this is proving a major disincentive, particularly when observing windows are short - only had the thing out about three times this year.
Despite these problems, and inspired by subject matter I covered through the Central Lancashire Introduction to Astronomy course, the system has got me interested in spectroscopy and I've managed to do some interesting low resolution work - something I'm now much more interested in than deep sky imaging and would like to do more of.
So, to the point of my post, I'm considering selling the NEQ6 / EdgeHD 8 setup and replacing it with a Celestron CPC Deluxe 800 HD. My thinking here is that the Alt-Az configuration should be a lot quicker and easier to set up. I accept that this scope (even with a wedge) is very much second best for deep sky imaging but as I mention that would be a secondary interest. Experience with low res spectro work to date demonstrates that exposure times with the Atik camera (a cooled 414EX mono) are way shorter than for deep sky work and should be well within the tracking capabilities of the CPC mount - reasonable tracking for up to 30 seconds is asserted by many.
Clearly this is another significant purchase so I'm curious if anyone has any actual measurements of typical tracking drift on a well set up CPC 800 HD - arcsec/min type figures etc?? And what about pointing accuracy? (I accept these are partly dependent on number and quality of star alignment and on mount leveling, ota balance etc). Similarly, I'd love to hear if my feel for much reduced setup times is correct. Seems to me putting up the tripod north/south and placing the fork mount/ota unit onto it shouldn't take more than a few mins and another 5-10 to add dew shield etc. Star alignment is said to take less than 5 mins - this would reduce my setup time to no more than about 20-30mins. Does this fit with existing owners experience?
I'd also be interested to hear if anyone yet has any experience with the new Celestron PlaneWave Instruments (CPWI) telescope control software suite.
As always on SGL, constructive comments and observations most welcome.
john