Finally took ownership of a c9.25

[ubertank]

I got into astronomy November 2012 and as most people do, bought a skywatcher 200p dob after good advise found here on the SGL.  My brother fell in love with astronomy because of the views that scope gave us of Jupiter and M42.  It wasn't long until we wanted to begin imaging and so saved for an NEQ6 pro, but sold the dob to part fund an ED80 to image with.

The sale of the 200p left us with the Evostar ED80 which is a tremendous scope for imaging, and whilst the detail to be found on Jupiter and Saturn was very impressive indeed, the aperture and focal length we experienced through the dob definitely left a hole.

With Jupiter back in the sky and Orion getting to where we want it, we decided to jointly purchase something new and had decided on a C11 or C9.25.  I love showing friends and family views through my telescope and felt either of those scopes would provide a bit of a 'wow moment' when viewing a planet through it, but also allow us to image and observe the fainter stuff up there when we obtain a reducer.

With the dodgy seeing we get here, we decided on a c9.25 and managed to secure a 6 month old one for £750 through the SGL by a nice guy who delivered it to us and helped us to set it up and test it.  I waited for Jupiter to appear over the houses on the estate I lived in and had a peek through a 25mm (stock skywatcher one free with an ST80) and with it not being at a good temperature, light pollution and cloud didn't get much of a nice view at all.

Tonight has been beautiful though so we headed out to our usual dark site and got setup.  The wind was really strong and with the dew shield on the c9.25 it was shaking all over the place the majority of the time.  We had to be really patient in waiting for the wind to settle for us to get a decent view of whatever we were looking at.

We gave the scope around an hour to get to the right temperature before we judged it at all, but I can't tell you how impressed we were in those moments the seeing and the wind came together and left us alone to appreciate the view.  I'm lacking in EP's in the right spots for this scope and could only move between 25mm, 17mm and 10mm.  25mm showed lots of contrast and detail on the jovian atmosphere and framed the moons nicely.  It was a really detailed, wonderful view, but we found that the 17mm really found the best mark when conditions were right.  Lots of detail could be found on Jupiter and we were pretty blown away.

I really can't emphasise this next point enough; M42 through this telescope is absolutely incredible.  The level of detail to be found in the 17mm lens was astonishing.  The trapezium was pin sharp and the nebula sprawled across the FoV in the EP, framed perfectly.  We went back to it between any other targets we went hunting for, every time amazed.

We're both pretty thrilled with our new toy and feel content we wont be needing to make another observing purchase for a very long time indeed.  The only downside to owning this scope is the inevitable wallet pillaging that will end up concurring now as I obtain more equipment.

25mm is nowhere near wide enough for this telescope so I will need to read some reviews to find out some nice wider mm lenses to suit it.  I also feel there is more detail to be found in good conditions in a lens somewhere between 17mm and 10mm.

Other purchases are likely to include a reducer and a high quality barlow.  I am very excited to get into planetary imaging again with the c9.25 and have had a modded CPC900 sitting on my desk ready for some time.

Love this telescope.  Had to come online and pass on (yet another) recommendation for this fine piece of kit.

[Xplode]

Congratulations with the new scope  

I suggest you do some research on reducers for SCT's before buying one, the standard 0.63x is Rubbish. A 0.8x reducer for a refractor normally gives much better results.

There is a thread on SGL with some pictures: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/128928-sct-reducercorrector-test/

[Merlin66]

"Regrets....I've had a few....."

I had a good/ great C9.25....absolute majic!!

(The ONLY reason it was sold...my everloving wife bought me a C11.....what do you do!!!)

A very good SCT which performs above it's weight.

[Mark in Macc]

I use an ES 82deg 30 mm 2" eyepiece with mine to get pretty much the max field of view. SCTs have narrow fields of view, that's just life I'm afraid. The C9.25 is a cracking OTA though. If you want wider fields of view for visual, you will probably be best to get another Newt.

[Mr Spock]

Mine's the same. Sharp and contrasty on planets and very capable on DSOs.

It's never going to be wide field (refractors are better at that anyway), but you can stretch to a 42mm LVW which just reaches 1.29° without vignetting. My favourite with this scope is the 22mm T4 Nagler.

For me the other vital eyepiece is a quality 10mm. I have a NLV and a Radian - they do make a difference on planets.

[ollypenrice]

These are usually the sweetest of SCTs. Very nice. Beware the reducer for visual use though. Assuming a 2 inch visual back you can get just as wide with a 2 inch wide angle eyepiece like an Ethos or Nagler. The baffle tube is the limiting factor and I think the view is better this way than it is when adding the reducer and sticking with 1.25 eyepieces. Also there isn't the hassle of massive refocusing.

The reducer-flattener is needed for DS imaging.

Olly

[earth titan]

Another convert 

As others have said, the focal reducer is pretty useless for visual. Spend some money on a few wide angle Eps (I run Aeros with good success) and you overcome much of the drawbacks associated with long focal length scopes. You might not be able to get all of M45 in the viewfinder but then, thats where an 80mm refractor comes in.

You'll need a dew heater at some point as the front plate is a moisture magnet but in my opinion, the C9.25 is an unbeatable package for the price and punches well above its weight.