Freedom2099

First one shot with Fujifilm X-T3 and 35mm (50mm full frame equivalent) at F2, a stack of 20x8s frames.

The second one is taken with the same camera and lens but when it was darker (in this case a stack of 30x8s frames)

The third was taken 56mm F2.8 and it's a stack of 90x4s frames.

Sounds great! How did the supplied eyepieces perform?

Quite well actually... the quality of the 13mm eyepiece is slightly better than the one (same focal length) coming inside the celestron 1,25" kit which I already own. A better eye relief I'd say.

Really pleased for you!

I made a basic error of knocking my finder out of alignment (didn't realise of course!) and struggled to get 3 star alignment for ages. Frustration built and eventually switched off to start again... Realised my error and got alignment straight away then

By this time it was late and I'd missed Venus (behind my house) and spent some time in the beehive then went to Jupiter - best ever - spend ages and got first use on my baader zoom!! The banding was amazing, too late for the GRS but saw moon and shadow.

Awesome sight and reminds me why I do it!!

The GRS was terrific! I started looking at jupiter when spot was still not in sight and managed to look at it "rising"!

OMG... yesterday night was gorgeous! I managed to see the red spot on Jupiter!

M3 with stars resolved!

The leo triplets!

M104 in all its sombreroness!

Just amazing!

And everything without losing time trying to get to them! Just did the alignment e enjoyed e great evening! 

Today will be the night of its first light (not even a cloud in the sky at the moment)! Got an unlucky streak of cloudy nights till my precious arrived!

The mount is incredibly sturdy! 

It arrived! My precious just arrived!

And of course is cloudy!

Ah i think i understand what you are trying to say, i think the confusion comes from when you say ".......when you look in the EP, that blue circle and everything in it, will only look the same size as red circle"; You are referring to apparent field of view but referencing a diagram which is showing actual field of view? Or am i missing something?

So just to be clear a 0.63 reducer will increase the actual field of view?

Rob

The reducer is able to increase the field of view at the expense of magnification because it has to fit a bigger image in the same area (the eyepiece). The 2" eyepiece on the contrary has a bigger area which show the image hence is able to increase the FOV without scarfing magnification. I guess it is like looking outside a window...  if you are looking through a 2m^2 window to be able to fit the same "view" you are able to see within the frame in a 1m^2 window you have di squeeze it!

Nice update mate! Now I will never be able to bear the wait of mine!!! First day and already killing me!

Freedom - very nice to hear this mate - well done - now the WAIT BEGINS !! - I ordered my CPC and had to wait a few months for it - It drove me mad - if your anything like me it will become a nightmare the longer you have to wait for it - but I think the wait will be well worth it - the 925 is a very good performer on the Planets/moon - It will be a pleasure to use- nice to see John pointing us to the review he had posted for the Evo 925 - very nice and well presented - thanks very much John.

I've been out the last few nights with my little 127 Mak on the CG5, you mention earlier about the alignment procedure - well I have to say that I Have tried various different alignment routines, from an EQ and Alt/Az and have found them to be very accurate, the CPC is a pleasure to use - even the basic 2 star auto align feature works very well on the CPC with all objects accurately aligned in the FOV - then to the CG% with the EQ mount align - its a little more detailed with a 2 star align, you can then add calibration stars - I think up to 4, but even on the 2nd initial alignment star on the CG5 things become very accurate with all the latter calibration stars being smack bang in the Centre FOV of a 40mm EP - I just use the 40mm Plossl for all my alignment routines and find it to be very accurate - I have never felt the need to purchase a reticule EP to make things really precise - I'm mainly visual and find both the routines very accurate and with minimal set up time, Away I GO !!!

Just a point, I always level the tripod before beginning with the CPC and the CG5 - with the CG5 I always sight Polaris through the hole where the polar scope fits - I find this more than accurate for my visual needs - I even tried a solar System Align last night just by sending the scope onto Jupiter - it was a little off, but well within the FOV of the finder, once centred and the "align" button pressed, tracking was very precise.

I hope the waits not too much for you Freedom - your going to love the 925 - Congrats.

Paul.

Don't tell me... I already started dreaming about it XD! I'm terrible in waiting! I already have a list of accessories I want to by (like the reduces)!

I just have to calm down (too excited)... which is hard!

Really looking forward to gazing at all the galaxies between Leo and Virgo with this new scope!

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 :-)

It is also quite worm during the winter... between 6 and 10 degrees during the night.

I'm eager to read your updated review!

Ok... I did it! I ordered the Celestron Evolution 9.25 at my local shop!

Unfortunately it will only arrive in April since all the models they already had (here in France the evolution line was launched this very month) were either gone or reserved... only evo 8 and 6 are left.

I do have another question: how far from each other should be the stars for the star-align procedure? Like Sirio + Capella + Castor would be a fine?

The Celestron 0.63 Focal Reducer will increase the field of view significantly. A lot of SCT users have this for visual (I have one).

They can be had for only £99 from FLO.

I echo Ronin's concern about the ability of the single arm to solidly support the scope. They didn't offer a 9.25 on the old SE single arm, and even if it is beefed up on the Evo, the 9.25 is 9kg compared to 5.5kg for the C8; a LOT heavier. I'd research carefully before buying.

Rob

Whereas the discussions about the single armed mount worried me a bit!

Thanks to you both!

I live on the sea side, although I live near Cannes all the southern half of the sky is on a perfectly dark sea. Usually I suffer from nasty light pollution only when looking at objects W-NW-N-NE-E,  while SE-S-SW is quite good.

I too have a good pair of 15x70 binoculars! Unfortunately I do not have enough space at home to keep both the nexstar and the astromaster... one will go in my cave and will be used just occasionally.

Aren't there any eyepieces capable of giving a FOV of at least 1 degree?

Hello,

Last summer I bought a Celestron Astromaster 130 to pursue my "astronomy" dreams. I chose the astromaster 130 because it was cheap but not too "limited" in order to see if I had the will and the patience to practice diligently at a small risk (worst case scenario I wasted 200 euros). I proved my self capable of both and also more passionate than expected... hence I now NEED a bigger scope!

I was thinking about the celestron nexstar evo 9.25... it is bigger (in terms of aperture) and I love the idea of controlling it using my iPhon or my iPad (I'm a computer engineer and I'm quite "turned on" by this kind of things).

I have mostly one concerns... the focal length is 2350mm which wold lead more or less to a field of view of about 0.9 degrees using a 40mm eyepiece, which is kinda small compared to the almost 2.5 offered by my celestron with the 32mm eyepiece. Will I have issues finding objects? And what about gazing to bigger things?