Time to upgrade.

[shiny]

Hi guys n girls,

As per the title its time to upgrade from my nextstar 102SLT, am looking at getting a Celestron CPC to questions though?

First 9.25" or 11".

Second CPC mount plus poss wedge or GEM mount.

(Not really thought about photography but might be interested in the future)

would appreciate any feedback or advice, just in case there is anything that i have'nt thought of before spending all my hard earned readies if you know what i mean.

Many Thanks,

Shiny.

[brantuk]

I had the 800 and upgraded to the 925. The CPC's are beautiful scopes with excellent tracking and optics. If I had to sell all my scopes and only keep one it would be the 925. In alt/az mode it's nice and sharp on moon/planets and you can image with a webcam. Polar aligned on a wedge - just add a reducer and it's great for dso imaging.

As an alt/az you can be set up and running in under 20 mins (mostly for satellite acquisition) but that allows a bit of cool down time which can take up to an hour for best views. These are very heavy scopes but do have very convenient carrying handles. Even so be sure you're fit enough.

The new design wedge is heavy too - very solid lump of metal - but provides very fine control in both planes and great stability making polar alignment smooth and easy. If you don't need portability and have a permanent pier or obsy then I'd opt for an 11" - otherwise go for 9.25 or 800. HTH

[swamp thing]

If you don't need portability and have a permanent pier or obsy then I'd opt for an 11" - otherwise go for 9.25 or 800. HTH

+1

The 9.25 is about as big a lump as I'd wanna haul about if I wanted to be mobile with a CAT.

[shiny]

Cheers for that guys, theres not a lot of weight diff between the to scopes is there much diff size wise then?

Can anybody tell me?

Cheers

Shiny