First light Celestron C8N-GT

[thing]

General:- This is my first scope and I've had it for a couple of weeks now and have used it about 5 times. It comes well boxed up and there were no parts missing which is a bit of a novelty these days. I first set the scope up in my conservatory in the daylight so I could figure how it went together. There were no problems assembling it, I just took my time and followed the instructions. I noticed that the primary had some black flecks on it which I took to be dirt. I gave it a blast with a hairdryer on cool which shifted some of them but there are still a few left on the mirror. The tripod seems very sturdy, 2 inch legs which I've never had extended yet as there has been no need to. It comes with a polar scope in the mount which is next to useless as I can hardly make anything out through it in use. There is no power supply nor any means of fitting batteries to power the mount. This means you either have to power it from your car cigar lighter, buy the appropriate power supply from Maplin's or buy the Celestron Power Tank at £40. As I pointed out to the shop I bought it from (not one of the folks here by the way, I hadn't found this forum at the time and could have saved myself a tidy sum in discount.... ) it wasn't much use without a power supply and after a bit of wrangling he threw one in for free. The Power Tank works fine, has a stupidly bright torch on it and a smaller very useful red torch. I haven't had to recharge it since it arrived. The only part of the scope which seems flimsy to me is the plastic housing for the drive motors which is already loose with cracked holes where the securing screws go.I've a feeling I'm going to have to glue it together or rubber band it somehow. Minus points for Celestron there.

In Use:- The first thing to strike me as I powered up the scope for the first time was that the display in the Nexstar hand control was loose and couldn't be read. I started to get the sinking feeling at this point. So off it went back to David Hinds who I must say did a very quick turn round on it and it's been fine since. Also David gave me some advice on collimation, so full marks to them. I used it 'free hand' until the controller came back and I was extremely impressed with what I saw. I'd heard stories about the coma on reflectors but the images I saw were pretty sharp until using high mags when comet tails were seen at the edge of vision, which TBH didn't really bother me, but I thought I ought to collimate it so bought a Baader Laser collimators. When it arrived, very quickly considering the time of year from good old Mr Hinds the collimation was indeed out on the secondary and slightly out on the primary. I manged to get it spot on at my first try so full marks to Baader there for a very easy to use bit of kit. In fact I check it every time I use the scope now, it takes literally 10 seconds. It hasn't needed adjusting again, and it did get rid of the coma as far as I can judge, although I dare say an experienced pair of eyes could say otherwise. Don't forget this is the only scope I've ever actually looked through. So, when it was all finally up and running... ........I used the Go To for the first time. Extremely impressive is all I can say. I'm pretty methodical so I made sure it was polar aligned as best I could and did a 2 star align adding 4 calibration stars. The finder scope is pretty good, nice and clear and easy to adjust too. Wherever I wanted the Go To to go it went. There was a tiny bit of adjustment to make at high mags but you're talking about a tiny nudge. I saw M36, 37 and 38 for the first time and was fascinated that a blank bit of sky (it's a suburban back garden so there's a fair bit of light pollution) could hide such amazing objects. I took in M45 and 42 which were pretty jaw dropping and a handful of galaxies which were the smudgy bits of cotton wool that i expected to see. I also took in some double stars and it resolved them with no problems. I've only tried it on Mars from a planetary point of view but at high mags I managed to see some features that looked like a pair of eyes darkening the top (south) part of the disc. The Moon looks simply amazing, I used all the mags available and although it 'boiled' a bit at over x300 the images were sharp and clear. Mind you, I thought it looked best at x50, it almost fills the eyepiece at that mag and looks most impressive.

Conclusions:- Quite impressed for the price, it works as advertised and although the motor housings are flimsy the rest of it seems pretty solid. It's hard to get the scope dovetail mounted in the semi dark, although I suppose I'll get the knack of it sooner or later, and the mirror dews up fairly quickly, although to be fair, the last twice I've used it the humidity has been 99%. In my opinion, it gives the best views at low power, ie anything x50 and under. It really lights up at those magnifications and gives some great views. I would recommend this piece of kit to anyone looking for something that you're going to use in the back garden and can store away more or less fully assembled. I take the OTA off but the tripod and mount fit nicely in my garden shed without any further stripping down. I just cover it with a big plastic bag. It does transport easily, I've had it in the car to show off to my mate in his garden.. but it obviously means taking the mount off and collapsing the tripod. At home, it takes about 15 minutes from deciding to use it to having it aligned and about 5 minutes to strip it down and put it away.

Am I happy with it? A resounding yes.

[Black Shuck]

Nice write up 8). Similar to my experience with the C8N-GT.

One word of warning - as it is a lead/acid unit, don't let the Powertank fully discharge, keep it well charged or on a trickle charger like an "optimate".

Cheers

Bill

[thing]

Thanks Bill, I seem to remember reading in the destructions not to let it discharge fully. How are you finding your C8? Still happy with it?

[jgs001]

Thing, Thanks for the write up. It sounds like a nice piece of kit. Mind you, a good review like that isn't helping me narrow down my ever growing list of options

[Black Shuck]

How are you finding your C8? Still happy with it?

Oh yes!! Had it since April (ish) after many years observing with binos.

Easy to set up so long if I take things methodically and the goto is a real bonus! I found the same as you - do the two star align and add 4 extra calibration stars and you're laughing, seems to be virtually spot on each time!

Once you get used to collimating it's fine although I don't think i've needed to re-collimate that much!?

Having said that I hope to start some imaging soon so collimation will need to be spot on - I hope I can manage to acquire some images worthy enough to post amongst the superb ones seen on here.

Cheers

Bill£

[Whippy]

Nice write up Thing .

Having said that I hope to start some imaging soon so collimation will need to be spot on - I hope I can manage to acquire some images worthy enough to post amongst the superb ones seen on here.

I'm sure you will Bill, I've just mucking about doing some afocal stuff with my C8N and I'm well pleased with the results!

Tony..