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The APO has landed!! First impressions

Andrew*

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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It's been a bit of a drawn out process getting this thing but for £466 and two weeks waiting, I have finally taken delivery of my C100 EDR on CG5 and I'm HAPPY! :wink:

Delivery was a pain. Stuart (who I bought it from) wanted the couriers to pick it up last Friday, but they didn't get back to him until tuesday giving the bank holiday as a reason. ParcelForce picked it up on wednesday for delivery thursday. Didn't come thursday or today. He looked at the tracking and it said it had gone out for delivery from Aberdeen depot at 12.33... funny, that was 4pm when he said that! I phoned up aberdeen depot and asked where it was. The guy said it's still at the depot because 2 drivers were ill. Fair enough I s'pose. I asked if I could pick it up because I really didn't want to wait all weekend. "Yes, we close at 7pm" I looked at the clock - 6.45! :shock: I got down there (only a 10 minute drive) and got it. It wasn't a fault of the courier, who saved us £30 on Parcelforce's price, even though it was the same service :? (how does that work?)

Anyway, just had to share that, cos I started to get worried that we'd been scammed!

Unpacked that huge box. Generally adequately packed... Everything in superb condition. I'll give you a few first impressions:

- CG5 head is pretty well identical to my old EQ5. A bit strange, as I thought that the CG5 had a higher load capacity... Tripod significantly beefier though, but no polar scope.

- no leg spreader/accessory tray on the mount (it's easy to forget to pack one piece out of 20, I suppose)

- OTA larger and heavier than expected, but a breeze to handle compared to the newt.

- Optics look fine, but of course they haven't been tested!

- R&P focuser - nice knobs, but pretty sticky. I'll need to sort that out with a re-grease/upgrade.

- 9x50 finder, as on my newt. I was expecting the 30mm, so a bonus.

- diagonal... hmm... :? we'll see...

- dewshield - good. Wasn't sure it had one.

- VERY low down - I'll have to extend the legs to save my back!

- I had to laugh at this one: 25mm Celestron "E-Lux" plossl. Absolutely identical to my Orion Sirius plossl!

- Nice quick release feature (don't get me wrong - it's safe!) on the scope rings

Overall really happy. Can't wait to get looking at something with it.

CG5 a bit of a disappointment TBH. Unless that "EQ5" was in fact a CG5, they must be overall the same thing and I've got the same thing back (okay, there's some extra plastic housing around where the RA motor goes and I've got slo-mo knobs rather than cables, and it's in much better condition). Maybe i've just got bad memories of that (this) mount and actually I'll get on fine with this one...

So top marks to Stuart McCulloch (pogle57 on SGL - posted once!) and also to the courier who saved me a bundle. Got the parcel (1.3m long, 27kg, and insured for £500) delivered for only £16!

Would gladly use both again.

Pictures to follow.

Andrew

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John

John

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Are these the same scopes as the ED100 but with an R&P? If so, you'll love it Andrew.

And collimatable front cell..??

Optically I believe it's the same scope as the ED100 - in which case it's a great scope. If it has got a collimatable front lens cell that that's a bonus because that's the one feature lacking from the Skywatcher / Orion (US) ED scopes - unless the ED120 has one of course - not seen one of those yet.

John

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GazOC

GazOC

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I know you've already spent enough on the scope but it might be worth putting a 'wanted' ad on AstroBuySell for a S/H Crayford from an ED80/ ED100 owner that has upgraded to a Feathertouch/ Moonlight focuser. It'd fit straight on your scope and would be a cracking upgrade for around £40.

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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thanks all. No collimatible front cell - removable - yes! :shock: It appears that that's the only element in the scope.

I've lifted the legs - as far as they can go... still too low!

It's a nice beast, but it's called the clouds in good and proper!

Yeah Gaz, I'll see how the R&P does for me now and think about focuser upgrade a little later. Of course a wanted never does harm. I think the first upgrade will be the diagonal, then maybe an HEQ5 pro... 8)

Andrew

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FLO

FLO

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If you do decide to upgrade the diagonal keep in mind that a cheap 2" is better than a cheap 1.25"

Somebody might have a Skywatcher 2" going cheap after upgrading to a dielectric. I'd post an ad in the wanted section.

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