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Recommend extras for CPC1100


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I've decided I'm getting myself a new CPC 1100 on payday. Can anyone recommend some decent eyepieces or other bits of kit that will compliment this scope. Mainly visual observing at the moment and particularly interested in looking at DSO's.

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Consider a reducer to bring the focal ratio down - turns the scope into a dual purpose instrument (planets and dso). Also look at anything Televue, Pentax, Explorer Scientific for eyepieces. Bit expensive but all top notch stuff and you can save a lot buying second hand. I find a range of eypieces from 5mm to 40mm at 5mm or 6mm intervals with a mixture of wide angle at low powers and narrow high powers is useful. Another useful item is "bobs knobs" for collimation - saves fiddling with allen keys - and you will need a good collimation tool too. :)

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Protostar flock board is great stuff. I did my CPC800 and am very pleased with the results.

http://www.lyraoptic.co.uk/Telescopes-Accessories.html

Dielectric diagonal from William Optics was also a great upgrade.

http://www.williamoptics.com/diagonalPrism/dielectricCF_features.php

As brantuk say's reducing the focal ratio down to f6.3 helps with the DSOs a lot and hasn't downgraded my enjoyment of the planets.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/celestron-f63-focal-reducer.html

Before you spend your hard earned cash on the CPC1100 take a look at their smaller relatives, I'm more than happy with my 800 which was bought taking weight into consideration and the 9.25 is a superb optical instrument often rated better than the 1100.

I must admit lugging the 800 in and out does keep me fit!

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Also look at anything Televue, Pentax, Explorer Scientific for eyepieces. Bit expensive but all top notch stuff and you can save a lot buying second hand.

At F10 does a CPC really need top end eyepieces?

I'm hoping to get a CPC800 in the not too distant future and want to stick with my Hyperions.

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Consider a reducer to bring the focal ratio down - turns the scope into a dual purpose instrument (planets and dso). Also look at anything Televue, Pentax, Explorer Scientific for eyepieces. Bit expensive but all top notch stuff and you can save a lot buying second hand. I find a range of eypieces from 5mm to 40mm at 5mm or 6mm intervals with a mixture of wide angle at low powers and narrow high powers is useful. Another useful item is "bobs knobs" for collimation - saves fiddling with allen keys - and you will need a good collimation tool too. :)

Thanks for the advice, will the reducer allow me to image DSO or would I need a wedge forthis as well? Is the 'new' Celestron HD wedge solid enough to hold to CPC 1100?

Protostar flock board is great stuff. I did my CPC800 and am very pleased with the results.

http://www.lyraoptic...ccessories.html

Dielectric diagonal from William Optics was also a great upgrade.

http://www.williamop...CF_features.php

As brantuk say's reducing the focal ratio down to f6.3 helps with the DSOs a lot and hasn't downgraded my enjoyment of the planets.

http://www.firstligh...al-reducer.html

Before you spend your hard earned cash on the CPC1100 take a look at their smaller relatives, I'm more than happy with my 800 which was bought taking weight into consideration and the 9.25 is a superb optical instrument often rated better than the 1100.

I must admit lugging the 800 in and out does keep me fit!

Thanks for these tips. re the 1100 being heavy, I've just set up an Ovbservatory in the back garden and it'll be stored in there for the most part so weight isn't too much of an issue, plus I've heared even at 65lbs it's not too dificult to carry. I have thought about the 9.25 but I keep getting drawn back to the 11ich appeture... I live on the outskirts of Cardiff and l/p is a bit of an issue so every inch is important to me!

Thanks everyone for all replies really helpful......I do have one other question though........Has anyone tried the Hyperion III 8-24 zoom e/p with the CPC 1100 or other SCTs in this range? I'm seriously considering buying one of these rather than a range of e/p's to start with. I've even considered buying 2 of them to go in my W/O binoviewers. I know they're big but I've read that you can remove the eye caps so they fit well on bino's (allowing room for your nose!!)

Anyone any experience of these on this scope? either on their own or in bino's?

JOE

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"At F10 does a CPC really need top end eyepieces?"

Nope...... f-10 is very tollerant of lesser quality eyepieces so it isn't entirely necessary. As Steve says the Hyperions are fine - I have 17mm, 8mm, and 8-24mm zoom. But if you use a reducer you'll surely benefit from higher quality - I got picky at circa f-6 but that might just be me. Get to know the scope and what works best with it - I sometimes get carried away cos I like my eyepieces to fit all my scopes - well mostly lol. :)

(Yup - imaging dso's will require a wedge to enable polar alignment - pretty compulsory really - the new HD wedge is great for the 800 and 925 but I've not seen an 1100 on it yet)

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As the guys say you'll love the CPC - I'd echo everything Steve and Kim say to the word. Brilliant piece of kit, i love mine.

For a dew shield just get a £5 camping mat from Asda to start with - it will do fine (and help your bank balance recover!).

I use mainly TV EP's with my scope but I am have some BST's too and in all honesty I can't tell the difference on this scope.

Its a big beast and heavy. Easy to manage though. To give you a sense of size here is me next to mine. As an idea of scale I am 6 feet 1" and 15 stone. So you can see how big the CPC1100 is....!

post-16295-0-10692600-1351801456_thumb.j

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I find that a dew shield and a dew heater is pretty much compuslsory for an 11" SCT. You don't need a dew band controller though as a dew heater for this size scope will need to run at full whack.

At this focal length I'd recommend an illuminated eyepiece to help with aligning the mount and I can highly recommend the Baader click lock 2" visual back for big SCT threads - not cheap but a lovely upgrade.

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I'd second (third?) the suggestion for a nice wide EP if you're into DSO, C11 is a long focal length beast but luckily there are plenty to choose from :cool: I use an ES82 30mm which works nicely but other excellent options would be a 31mm Nagler or 28mm Nirvana. The 82 degree or higher thing is a question of personal taste, I find them very immersive. Another decent option might be the Hyperion Aspheric (31 or 36mm) although I've not yet had the pleasure of trying one. These longer/wider options will approach 1 degree actual FOV, useful depending on your choice of DSO targets.

The zoom has quite a narrow FOV at the longer FL end - 50 degrees, but I could have it upside down :eek:

Oh and don't let anyone convince you the C11 can't be a fine scope - the light gathering area is 40+ % more than the 9.25. However, if you have the opportunity to permanently mount in your obsy it may open up other options...

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Hi Ya AstroJOE, another heads up for the 1100 - only had limited use of mine so far - but amazing - the aspherics are nice at F10 - just a point to consider - the mags that the Aspherics offer for the 1100 are around 77 and 90 ish (just upgraded to the clicklock to open up the back to a full 2" opening) not sure on your location and the amount of light pollution you suffer with, but, at this mag they give you a really bright sky( with some vignetting) and the only 2 eps from the Hyperion/Aspherics range that give you true 2" eps (with all the others you have to unscrew the negative bottom lens - so you end up with a fixed focal length of around 20mm or so for all the other Hyps in the range. The bonus though is when using filters (OIII and UHC) they give you a brighter more contrasty (not sure that's a word) view - but - to be honest the 11" aperture gives you more contrast, which I have found to be the main factor as opposed to my previous (8" SCT) scope.

I chose the 1100 after a lot of research - I also owned a 12" dob and 8" Meade lx90 which I sold to part fund the 1100 - for me - I opted for the SCT purely because of the optical system - which leans towards better planetary views - yes I know that the optical system with a larger central obstruction is supposed to give you lower contrast - but remember - larger aperture dobs/newts give you a lower Focal length, which, in turn gives you a less "magnified" view for the same aperture.

The "less" contrast (due to the optical system of the SCT) doesn't seem that way when viewing the brighter DSO's - looking at the Ring (M57) and the Dumbell (M27) are views that will stick in my mind for a very long time and when you put a filter on them - amazing - yes - I know the stars show as false colour, but these filters really "WOW" the views - even the Owl (M97) becomes very noticeable and the large aperture allow you to increase mag which makes them really stand out.

I've tried a focal reducer (f 6.3) on the scope, but the views, to say your halving the Focal length, are not what I expected - not sure if its the optical system - but not really impressed with the views to say your halving the focal ratio of the scope.

I use a RACI finder for the initial alignment (better viewing position) - but once aligned - the GOTO performs flawlessly - all objects centred or near centred every time - so not a problem, was out last night, the Moon was in conjunction with Jupiter, heavy cloud when I aligned, so done a solar system align on the Moon and Jupiter (looking for Jupiter with the naked eye was impossible due to cloud cover) took about 20 seconds, I moved between the two objects for a while before it started to rain - very accurate.

The 1100 is a very nice piece of kit - large aperture - short tube - very stable mount - accurate GOTO - I went for the 1100 after using an 8" Meade for a few years and a 12" dob for a year or so - opted for the SCT over a larger dob, for me the best choice and up to yet - have not been disappointed - sorry to rabble on, but hope that helps a little. Paul

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