New Scope :)

[Dellis]

Yes it's all my fault that the clouds have rolled in, my new scope arrived yesterday one of the bargains from FLO a C925/CG5 GT. Great service as expected from FLO, a few emails exchanged over the weekend order placed on sunday boxes arrived on Tuesday. I spent last night setting up the basics, trying out the Nexstar, adding my 2" diagonal, removing the standard finder and fitting the Telrad. I fitted the polar scope but didn't have time to calibrate or align it.

Looking at the forecast today I was hoping for a clear evening and left work in beautiful sunshine, looking good so far, I arrived home and setup the mounted with a very rough polar align (polar finder still not calibrated or aligned), mounted the scope and went in for a bite to eat while the scope cooled. I'd ordered an Astrozap dew shield with the scope but they're out of stock so the next little job was to knock up one from an old camping mat. I don't need too much time for the scope to cool as it's stored at pretty much ambient temperature.

After dinner I went out and started the alignment routine which was slightly interesting as I hadn't aligned the Telrad but I did a two star align using the first two recommended stars Capella and Rigel, I didn't add any calibration stars or complete a handset polar fine tune but slewed to Jupiter with a 16mm ep fitted and there was Jupiter just off centre at 146x mag. I was really pleased with the accuracy considering the fairly sloppy set up routine. The view of Jupiter was spot on a really nice first target and one close to me heart as it was the first ever object I observed with a telescope. I aligned the Telrad and was keen to check collimation slewing off to a bright star and if was spot on! This is the third new Celestron SCT I've owned and all three have arrived in perfect collimation which never ceases to amaze me bearing in mind the journey they have all made half way around the world. I popped a 26mm in and slewed to M42 which was again very close to the centre of the fov. This time the murk had set in so I can't really pass comment apart from the clarity of the stars. By now the high clouds were starting to form and I called it a day after a very pleasing first hour with my new scope.

I'd was a bit concerned about the mount and it's ability to carry the C925 but I needn't have worried, there's a bit of wobble while focusing but it damps almost immediately and wasn't an issue. As has been reported widely the motor are a bit noisy when slewing but not as bad as I'd expected. All in all I'd say the mount is close to it's limit for visual but perfectly acceptable however it wouldn't cope with this weight of scope for photography which isn't an issue for me as I'm purely visual.

Dave

[Dellis]

I'm really hankering after clear skies......

Dave

[Ewan]

Hi Dave, very nice purchase :-)

It's meant to clear(ish) Monday night for sure so fingers crossed for you, i have also found the CG-5 GT mount very good, once you have done the star alignment a couple of times & calib stars as well the Polar Align is great, i may be wrong but i think you can do your Polar Align for each time you slew to a new target, this then 'syncs' the mount to that area giving better accuracy, i think that is correct.

The mount is silent in tracking just quite loud at number 8 & 9 slew speeds but my neighbours have never complained even through a couple of all nighters.

Hope you get out for longer soon Dave & enjoy your new scope.

[Dellis]

Hi Dave, very nice purchase :-)

It's meant to clear(ish) Monday night for sure so fingers crossed for you, i have also found the CG-5 GT mount very good, once you have done the star alignment a couple of times & calib stars as well the Polar Align is great, i may be wrong but i think you can do your Polar Align for each time you slew to a new target, this then 'syncs' the mount to that area giving better accuracy, i think that is correct.

The mount is silent in tracking just quite loud at number 8 & 9 slew speeds but my neighbours have never complained even through a couple of all nighters.

Hope you get out for longer soon Dave & enjoy your new scope.

Ewan - thanks, I'm really hankering the next clear evening, fingers crossed for monday...

Dave

[Dellis]

I went outside earlier and saw the clouds start to clear around Polaris and in the space of ten minutes the sky went from almost fully clouded over to perfectly clear, I could't believe my eyes... mount aligned, scope mounted and off we go.... to say I am very happy would be something of an understatement!!! I've spent the evening whizzing round the night sky with no plan and enjoying what's been put before me. I'm frozen but I'm happy.

Dave

[spektrumdx8]

My thoughts exactly !!

Freezing and cold but the last 45 mins has all been worth it Used the BST 18mm with the 200P - massive change from the 127, fov is much wider and double stars seem to be everywhere, think I clocked a shooting star as well !!

Roll on more clear nights.

[Ewan]

Dave glad you got some time viewing with the new kit, your reaction sounds the same as mine whd i got the c8 as my previous scope was a Tasco 114mm reflector, great clarity with 2" eps & impressive tracking when its set up correctly.

Hopefully the sun may show up today to do some solar & some clear skies monday night, post a couple of pics of the new setup dave love to see how it looks on the mount to mine.

As i wanted to do ap i went with the c8 but the mount, as you say, handles 9.25 very well.

Good luck Dave & have fun

[Dellis]

your reaction sounds the same as mine whd i got the c8 as my previous scope was a Tasco 114mm reflector

I had a C8 which I loved and then went to a C11 which to be frank was a disappointment since then I've has a 12" dob and a 4" refractor but I'd been hankering after another SCT and was going to go for a C8 but with the current C925 prices I just had to have one. Needless to say I've not been disappointed, far better than my C11 and better than my old C8 so I'm really very happy.

Dave

[Dellis]

The upgrades have started... ADM saddle on order

Dave

[Ewan]

Can i upgrade the wife (ouch she just saw that damn it!!!), Dave how's your mount fairing with the scope ? is yours fairly noisy at setting 9 on slewing ? i read somewhere when slewing at number 9 if you place your hand on the plastic (yes i know) cover it quietens it a bit, i will probably taking a peek inside mine at some point to see if i can do anything about it but if anyone has read anywhere about any 'fixes' for this give me a ashout please if you would.

All we need now Dave is some dark sky mate oh & a piccy of your gear set up :-)

[Dellis]

Ewan,

I've had no clear skies since last weekend so I've not had a chance to use it again, it is fairly noisy when slewing at full speed but I can live with that. I'm going to my astro society this evening and I'll be showing off my new scope so I'll take a couple of pics and post them later tonight.

Dave

[Ewan]

:grin: Nice one Dave, have a great night mate, no drinking while carrying that thing btw.

[Dellis]

Well I made it back home with the scope in one piece (I have a padded case being made) and I took a couple of snaps, I forgot my camera so they're only iPhone jobs but you get the idea....

Mods so far are upgraded altitude bolts, Telrad, Astrozap dew shield, Revelation Astro 2" diagonal and I have an ADM Vixen saddle en route from the US.

[Ewan]

Looking good Dave :-), do you find you need 2 counter weights even though you don't do AP ?

[Dellis]

Yes it does need both to achieve balance.

Dave

[fire_and_ice]

So jealous. Maybe next year when i have saved up some serious cash!