Part 4 - Celestron CPC 1100 - Unboxing, Assembly and First Light

[AlistairHowie]

At long last, here’s Part IV of my CPC 1100 review - First Light! What follows isn’t particularly scientific and actually I’ve probably got more questions than answers, but hopefully it’ll give Newbies an idea of what to expect. For my questions, if anyone wants to take a punt at replying, it’ll save me having to post them separately!

Firstly, my scope resides in the garage, which also contains the boiler for my house. So it’s above ambient air temperature, but I figured cool down wouldn’t take too long. I didn’t get a chance to set it all up in my garden in daylight, getting it cooling down and the GPS downloading the ephemeris earlier in the day, so I had to start all that from scratch after putting my kids to bed. I’m afraid they didn’t get many stories tonight!

Assembly was straightforward, although it’s definitely easier in a well lit garage as I have been doing for the last few days! I ended up dribbling over a white light torch held in my mouth during set-up, so note to self, get a red torch for the future. Seems like a light on a headband would be ideal, but look pretty daft. I think I’ve even seen some red light goggles somewhere, but that’s bound to raise questions from the neighbours! Any thoughts?

Power for the scope came from my 10Ah Tracer battery pack which sat on the rotating base, tied to the fork arm with string. It worked really well, no issues, no cord wrap (obviously), so I’ll fashion a Velcro strap for next time.

After switching the scope on, I was greeted with the CPC Ready words on the handset. I opted for Sky Align, which required me to find 3 bright stars in the sky. Having selected this I got a GPS message which helpfully told me the time was 12.50pm and I was in Pacific Time Zone. I was actually quite happy about this as I figured (perhaps wrongly) that at least my scope has gone through some form of quality control in California prior to shipping. After waiting half an hour for the scope to automatically link with satellites and update the time and location automatically, I got bored, went into my house, used Google to get my postcode’s longitude and latitude, then went back out again and updated the time and my location manually.

After doing this, I continued with the Sky Align process. This turned out to be really easy. My Baader RDF, having been removed from the mounting bracket so the scope could fit in my Stanley case, remained perfectly aligned when I re-mounted it. To speed things up I moved the scope manually to my first bright star in the sky – no clue what it was – and centered it in my RDF. I struggled a bit to get it in focus, but at least in going in and out of focus I was able to confirm perfect collimation of my mirrors. As this was also my first time at an EP, it took a fair bit of getting used to. I found myself wobbling a little as I was looking, partly because the tripod wasn’t high enough and I was crouching down, bent at the knees somewhat. With the weight involved, there’s no possibility of “just lifting the scope up a little on the tripod” – it would have required disassembly, adjustment and reassembly, which I wasn’t about to do! The effect of my lack of balance was that stars which should have been pin point tended to have streaks on them as I moved about, but things got better when I held onto the EP and actually rested my eye against it. I seemed more stable. Focusing still didn’t seem great but it did improve with time, so I’m thinking it was either seeing – it was very windy – or cool down was still happening. All things being equal, does wind affect seeing?

Anyway, I carried on and I levelled the OTA against the marks on the tube, tightened both clutches and pressed Align. I then did some minor tweaking and centered it in the EP, and pressed Align again. That was my first star done. I then used the arrow keys on the keypad to slew the scope to two other stars in the sky, following the same process, and then after about 15 seconds thought, the handset displayed some words along the lines of Align Successful. The whole process probably took about 3 or 4 minutes.

The slewing was generally very quiet. I have little to compare it against expect YouTube videos of various mounts which either rattled or sounded like a coffee grinder. The CPC was not at all like those. Azimuth slewing was very quiet. However, and here’s a question, when slewing in altitude, the scope gave out what I would call a regular twanging sound, each twang about a second or a little less apart. It sounded like a stretched spring being “pinged”. It didn’t actually sound right, so any thoughts on what this might be would be welcome.

I then selected the Tour feature, which selects the best objects of the night sky for my time and location. First up was Andromeda, which was wide faint fuzzy, but still very impressive. I immediately thought “Oh wow!”. I went through about 30 objects, ranging from nebula, open clusters, double triple and even quadruple stars, etc. I had my iPhone with me, so when I was taken to M78, for example, I typed that into Google Images to get an idea of what it should look like. That of course ruined my night vision, but as the kitchen and surrounding street lights were on, I don’t think it made much difference. I can’t remember much of what I looked at as I was just cycling through the objects, but M81 does stick in my mind. Still a faint fuzzy but the handset information told me that it had the luminosity of 20 billion suns, which just blew me away! I couldn’t see M31 at all, but that might have been my focusing or complete lack of dark adapted vision. Is M31 easy to see in an 11” OTA?

I was initially concerned that viewing from my garden would be limited. It’s not that long, my house is tall, there’s a blumming great tall tree in the middle of the grass, and there are neighbouring houses all around. But in doing the sky tour, it seemed that the majority of what the scope was showing me was very high in the sky. So in fact I saw loads and only rarely did it take me to an object that was obscured by the tree or house. I can set limits in the handset to avoid this, but that’s for another day.

Another comment, which will probably bring a grin to the seasoned astronomers on SGL, is to state the blindingly obvious that I got cold, and I do mean REALLY cold! I’m Scottish, so this isn’t usually an issue, but tonight after 3 hours viewing, it really got into my bones. I clearly need to get some proper winter clothes. I’m thinking multiple layers – not just a shirt and jacket – plus an SAS balaclava type thing might help. Combined with red vision goggles that should really give the neighbours something to think about! The by-product of the cold was that disassembly, when it came, was that much harder with freezing cold hands.

Speaking of disassembly, I was struck by the number of bits and pieces that I had and which had to be removed – visual back, diagonal, zoom EP, standard EP – all with covers for each end and boxes, battery, cables, handset, etc. I need to get a better system going for processing all of this since my pockets were stuffed with boxes, covers, etc and I was misplacing things and getting annoyed with myself.

On checking the health of my battery, having been merrily slewing around the sky for 3 hours, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was reporting 75-100% capacity still remaining. So that’s great news – perhaps I’ll be able to run a dew heater off it as well in the future.

This actually takes me to my last point, about dew. As this didn’t seem to be an issue tonight, I didn’t put a dew shield on. No problem, I thought, but when I came to recap the corrector lens I could see that it had a fair few flecks of, I don’t know what, on it. The wind was really strong tonight, so I guess its blown dust onto the lens, which I will now need to remove. Presumably if I had used the dew shield, 99% of that dust would not have settled on the lens. I wasn’t about to get into cleaning this at 11 o’clock at night, so that will have to wait for another day. What’s the best way to remove this dirt? Compressed air, I guess? If someone could send me a link to a product I can buy, that would be helpful.

So, there you have it, the start of my astronomy hobby. I know I was just tickling around the edges tonight, but my over-riding impression was two-fold – one that I’m going to have great fun with this hobby, and two that GOTO is absolutely amazing! Really, no effort is required to either understand or locate various stars, which I do appreciate is part of the hobby for many/most people. At one point as I was going through the tour feature, I started skipping double stars, saying to myself “not another double, I’ve already seen them and my 11” OTA can easily split them”! Now, that’s not really what I think, and I plan to read up on this hobby and the various stars, etc to get more into it, not just skimming the surface in a superficial sort of way. But it is amazing to me how technology can simplify things for people.

Oh yes, just one last thing. The tour feature didn’t take me to any planets – or perhaps it was because I gave up before it got to them – so I just selected planets on the handset – it listed two for me, Jupiter and I think Uranus - and I slewed straight to Jupiter. After three hours outside, it was still centered perfectly by the GOTO and the brown equatorial bands were very clear to see. My first thoughts were “Wow” and then “Damn that’s really bright, I need a filter”, and then “I got to show this to my wife” ... who was duly impressed! The moon was the other side of my house, and I don’t recall seeing it come up on the handset under planets (probably isn’t one,right?), so I never got to see it tonight.

OK, that’s your lot. If anyone can help with the questions embedded above, I’d much appreciate it.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found my posts enjoyable and/or informative. Cheers.

[glowjet]

Thank you for another well written report Alistair, things will take some getting used to and you have a long learning curve ahead of you, but you have a lovely scope in the 11" and some very enjoyable times to come using it, don`t get lost in space, I would recommend you obtain a copy of Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders, that should keep you busy for a long time to come

[damnut]

Hi Alistair,

A good read that, nicely done. Firstly with the bits on the corrector it is best to use a photographic blower brush, the cannister air you have to be careful with as it sometimes blows porpellant, next buy some Baader Wonder Fluid, its excellent and comes as a kit for about £15.

I have a 10" SCT and would not consider using without a dewshield, sometimes dewshield and heater!..

As far as M31 goes if you are taking a quick tour then your eyes will not have become adapted to the seeing conditions, the more time you spend on an object the more detail will appear.

Enjoy that lovely 'scope.

Slange.

[stevebb]

I agree, a very well written report and I have enjoyed them very much

I wish you a very happy Hogmany and all the best for 2012.

Steve

[Duns]

Great report Alistair - the final piece of the jigsaw. I'm looking forward to your updates which I'm sure will be posted in due course

I take it the scope will stay in the garage on Hogmanay - a few drams and a scope like yours probably isn'y a great combination:D

[hemihaggis]

great read alastair and welcome , where abouts are you in gods country ??

[nightfisher]

great report, is this c11 on the CG5, and if so how does the mount handle it?

look forward to more reports from you

[AlistairHowie]

I'm Scottish but am an economic migrant living in Harpenden, Hertfordshire and working in London.

The CPC model is Alt/Az mounted on an integrated fork mount system.

And yes, no mixing Astronomy with alcohol, although a hip flask last night would have been welcome!

[m.tweedy]

great report, is this c11 on the CG5, and if so how does the mount handle it?

look forward to more reports from you

No it is the CPC fork mounted version:)

[m.tweedy]

As you have an Iphone have you considered the sky wire that plugs from the phone into the handset and you use the phone instead of the handset. I love it (yet another gizmo:))

[brantuk]

Great report Alastair

The clicking in alt sounds a tad ominous - I never experienced that in either of my two CPC's. It could be a slightly loose clutch, or a weight anomaly. Or there could be some resistance as it moves upward - I once had a clicking sound in az, before I discovered the cord wrap feature.

When you're pointing at the zenith and having to bend down - the best thing I ever bought was an adjustable ironing chair - works wonders for the back as well. Or extend the legs and angle the eyepiece down a bit when looking towards the horizon.

Andromeda is a naked eye object in good seeing on a dark night. With 11" of Sct aperture you'll have no trouble viewing it at all - you just need a visual confirmation that it's what you're seeing. I use the "Great Square" method, and the "pointy bit of Cass" method to double check.

When you take the finder off - you don't need to unscrew it from the ota - just loosen the knurled retaining screw(s) on the foot and slide it out, leaving the foot in place.

[Charon]

Well written reports Alistair.

[Brinders]

The noise you refer to may be an issue I raised some time ago with my CPC 925 GPS. It's still there more often than not, but after the scope has been tracking for a time it disappears. Other times I don't hear it at all. Either way, it hasn't affected the performance of the scope and mount which is otherwise flawless.

http://stargazerslounge.com/discussions-scopes-whole-setups/94682-celestron-cpc-knocking-noise.html

Brinders

[AlistairHowie]

I would recommend you obtain a copy of Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders, that should keep you busy for a long time to come

I have more than enough to keep me busy as it is, but I'll bear that one in mind when I get through Turn Left!

... with the bits on the corrector it is best to use a photographic blower brush, the cannister air you have to be careful with as it sometimes blows porpellant, next buy some Baader Wonder Fluid, its excellent and comes as a kit for about £15.

Will search that out - thanks. I looked again in daylight and it's not actually that bad, am sure a blower or light brush will take it off with needing to resort to compressed air - but lesson learned - put the dew shield on!

As you have an Iphone have you considered the sky wire that plugs from the phone into the handset and you use the phone instead of the handset. I love it (yet another gizmo:))

I'll have a look at that in due course, once I've got the hang of things a little. Thanks.

The clicking in alt sounds a tad ominous - I never experienced that in either of my two CPC's. It could be a slightly loose clutch, or a weight anomaly ...

... When you're pointing at the zenith and having to bend down - the best thing I ever bought was an adjustable ironing chair

... When you take the finder off - you don't need to unscrew it from the ota - just loosen the knurled retaining screw(s) on the foot and slide it out, leaving the foot in place.

Hmmm - not good news re the slewing - I'll post a recording of it shortly to see if anyone recognises what it is.

Thanks for the ironing chair suggestion, I'll be sure to share that with my wife as well.

Sorry if I wasn;t clear, but I know about the quick release feature of the finder scope - I am leaving the "foot" in place. Never knew it was called a foot, so I've just learned something new there!

Thanks for all the good comments - makes the slog of recording and writing it all up worthwhile!

Cheers

[AlistairHowie]

So ... attached is a recording of the noise I am getting when doing ALT slewing. Maybe a tapping like Brinders had (thanks for the link), I'd say it's more of a twanging, like a spring is being pinged if you listen carefully. It's only in slewing, not in tracking. I can't be sure, but I think it's coming from the left fork.

Hoping that PsychoBilly has a view on this, since from Brinder's link I see that he's had his CPC to bits and knows its workings.

BTW, the slewing is actually pretty quiet - sounds like a liquidiser on the recording, but that's just because I had my PC up really close. Don't let the volume put anyone off placing an order!

Thanks

Slew.mp3

[Brinders]

No, sounds different to mine. I only get a tapping noise when the scope is tracking not slewing.

Brinders

[Psychobilly]

On mine the tapping noise was in Alt and was the motor case tapping against the plastic casing...

I havent managed to get anyhting out of the MP3 sorry...

Ok Managed to hear it... Something had swapped the audio devices over on my pc...

Sound like the motor tapping to me... I guess some of you would probably panic is you saw the movement in the motor on a CPC or the size of them... ... The motor connects to the Worm through a flexible coupling and the whole motor mount is designed to "float" ... it goes round in circles as the worm revolves...The whole assembly is spring loaded to maintain the mesh between the Worm and Gear...well this is how it is setup my CPC800 so I am only guessign they use a similar design approach in the other CPC mounts...

I would give them a call and see what they say... but at the same time wouldnt worry too much about it in the mean time...

I only took mine apart to upgrade the AZM bearigns as it is heavily overloaded - It has a Megrez 72 and a 500mm f8 mounted on it, and being on a pier and wedge in the obs the "plastic" bearigns were begining to take a bit of a hammering

Peter...

[AlistairHowie]

Thanks, Peter. I've emailed David Hinds so if they deign to talk to a consumer, we'll see what they say.

Cheers

[Newfie]

great piece Alistair I have a cpc1100 and love the views resented with it. Hope you enjoy the learning experience!

[faulksy]

great piece Alistair I have a cpc1100 and love the views resented with it. Hope you enjoy the learning experience!

this post was nearly 2 years ago

[mainda1970]

Hi Alistair,

This is an old thread I know, your CPC 1100 sounds great !

I used to have an old Bresser reflector scope years back when I was a bit younger but got rid of it as I could never locate much apart from the moon and the fact that you had to keep readjusting the scope every few seconds via the hand controls to keep things in view was annoying...the tripod was a wooden one and it shook like crazy if you so much as touched it !

I'm thinking of buying a Celestron CPC 925 (I think the 1100 may just be a bit too heavy !) and was wondering if you needed any additional cables for connecting the Tracer battery pack to the scope apart from the ones supplied with the Tracer ? Like you I'm a bit concerned about bending the cables from a ground-based battery pack when the scope starts slewing.

Thanks !

Doug M

[kirkster501]

The CPC1100 is indeed great.  i loved mine.  But, for me, it was the wrong scope with its long focal length.  So I sold it.  If you are into planetary observation, or observation of small DSO's, the CPC1100 is the daddy!

[AlistairHowie]

No other cables required!

[Tinker1947]

There not that heavy, but i only placed on the mount the once, my 10" was properly a bit easier to handle prior to building a small Obby, if you can get one and set it up permanently...