Celestron 11" - CGEM or CPC ? Any advice appreciated !

[OneEyedSam]

Hi all !

I'm considering trading up my Celestorn 8se for something with a larger aperture. Got the wife on board, in fact it was her idea

Currently its between the CGEM 11" (maybe the DX), or the cPC 1100. I assume its the same OTA, so the only difference is the mount.

The CPC1100 fork mount/ota looks big, Is this manageable by a single person (I'm no charles atlas What do people use as a case for such a large item. Googling a bit, and instinct tells me this is a bit of a beast to lug around.

I am primarilly interested in visuals, but I am interested in doing some photography later on, so obviously an EQ would suit that better (maybe with a smaller refractor and not the 11" OTA). Ive not had a EQ mount before, so am wondering how easy/quick it is to get set up with a decent alignment. Is the All-Star method any good ? The DX looks solid, but is it worth the additional cost (in terms of £ and Kg)...I dont think I need the extra weight of the DX, given that I'd use a smaller OTa for astrophotography

[OneEyedSam]

ideas on cases for the 11" OTA if i got the EQ route also appreciated..thanks

[euphony]

I can't speak for the CGEM 11", but I have used a CPC1100 and it is a magnificent beast of a telescope. I say beast obviously referring to it's weight. I've not generally had to carry it too far (about 10-15 metres out into the garden) and we haven't tried taking it in the car to a dark site yet. It is very heavy, but that's part of the fun for me

My wife calls it Robocop! So, that gives you an idea of it's overall presence in any room! As for a case, I've no idea what you would use. It's heavy, but the handles are in the right place for it to be easily picked up and placed close to your chest, even for a short 5ft 6 inch chappy like me. I say easy though, but I forget I have been working out at the gym for over 16 years, so it might appear heavier to some.

Anyway, I'm starting to digress!

the actual capability of the scope so far for me has been wonderful. I view from an extremely light polluted garden and I've picked up M104, M3 and M5 the other evening as well as a few others and am extremely impressed, in fact viewing M3 was jaw dropping. (I nearly gave myself a black eye when I sat back up as I had been engrossed for such a long time in awe, forgot what was around me and smacked my eye on the finderscope )

I am waiting for some new eyepieces to bring the best out of it (they're on order, due to arrive tomorrow!)

So I can't recommend the CPC1100 highly enough, a wonderful telescope.

Not sure my life story helped or not there!

Which ever you choose, I'm sure they'll bring you muchos joy!

Chris

[RobH]

The important thing to think about is if you want to get into astrophotography.

If you do, then the CPC, being an alt/az mount, isn't suitable for anything other than exposures of, at the most, about 30s.

It will have no problems if you want to image the moon or planets, but won't be any good for DSO's, where you need much longer exposures.

You could mount the CPC on a wedge, but wedges are awkward and come with all sorts of issues, especially for portable rigs.

For AP, get the equatorial mount.

This is not only better for AP, but, if you go down that route, especially if you get the DX, which has a greater capacity, you allow yourself the oppportunity to change OTA's.

For purely visual though, the CPC will be much easier to set up, so you really need to think hard about what you're likely to want to do.

Rob

[euphony]

Yes, I forgot to mention the addition of needing a wedge for the CPC, good call sir

[Zaphod360]

I've got the CPC1100 and absolutely love it. Something else to bear in mind for AP is the long focal length, even on a substantial equatorial mount I'd image it to be a bit of a handful.

The CPC is heavy but it's very well designed so doesn't feel as heavy as you'd imagine.

Whichever way you go, visually it will knock your socks off!!

[OneEyedSam]

Thanks all

Yes, i think ive sided on doing AP with a small EQ mounted refractor sometime in the future....as I said visual was my priority. I also want a travel scope, so a small refractor would suit that purpose too

I think the CPC is just too much for me to handle "in the field"

Thanks for all your advice... i'm now thinking of staying with my 8"and buying some decent eyepieces....but thats a whole other thread.

[Dunkster]

I just put a C11 on an NEQ6, and it's a _lot_ more tricky to setup than the SE. For visual, CPC1100 sounds great but is a big heavy beast though.

[x6gas]

I have an 11HD on a CGEM DX mount on which I sometimes mount a small (90mm) triplet.

The CGEM DX is a beast. The mount head alone is large and very heavy and the DX comes on the frankly humungus tripod that also ships with the CGE mount. Now don't get me wrong, I love it, but I'm 6'3" and 15 stone and I only have to take it about 10 feet from where I store it near the back door to where I use it in my garden. You do NOT want to be hunking this mount to a dark sky site IMHO.

Also, when mounting my triplet, the supplied counterweight is way too heavy so I needed to source a couple of 1kg weights to use instead. To be honest, though, for a light 90mm frac I can't see much of a difference when using my CG-5 which I continue to be very impressed with.

There are some pictures of the CGEM next to the CG-5 for comparison on this thread: http://stargazerslounge.com/showthread.php?t=157356&page=2 (and the boxes are on the first page of the same thread...)

[jonathan]

If the DX is anything like the NEQ6, then it is akin to lifting the Atlas stone in World's Strongest Man! For us puny mortals, anyway...

I carry my NEQ6 out in stages - first the tripod, not too difficult and I extend the legs as I want them before the next stage, then the mount - I carry it very carefully as to not let the head turn or slip the clutch as this would most likely mean it would fall on my foot, and that would do some serious damage, then I put it directly onto the tripod. For alignment for visual I just aim the tripod / mount at magnetic North, that's close enough for me.

My 8SE then goes on the Vixen saddle, very nice. No problems with counterweights for the 8SE, only one is required (but it is very heavy on it's own, I have it in it's own metal flight case along with the handset).

So, unless you are World's Strongest Man it's definitely a multi-stage transporting job, probably OK to transport to a dark site as long as you can set up within a few feet of your car. I find the NEQ6 far easier to set up than the 8SE mount, the star align procedure didn't always work properly for me even when it said it was successful, and I had problems with the power socket which caused power loss, very frustrating to have to start all over again!

[Dunkster]

I looked at the specs before I bought the NEQ6 and the DX is significantly heavier... something like 23.5kg for tripod and mount of the NEQ6, but 39kg for the DX...iirc the non-DX CGEM worked out about 27kg, but it's a mix of figures plucked from websites.

I'm no hercules, so NEQ6 definitely deserves multiple trips.

[x6gas]

Oh listen, the CGEM DX is a three trip job: tripod, mount head, counterweight (22lb?) and counterweight bar.

OK, so I'm no muscle man but I don't think it could be safely transported in less than three chunks!