Celestron CPC1100 GPS (XLT)

[DRT]

I am very, very pleased with my new toy...

What a fabulous looking piece of kit and surprisingly easy to handle.

Unfortunately, it will now be cloudy for a very long time

[red dwalf]

Very nice, think your right about the weather for a while at least

[brantuk]

Smashing scope Derek - and yes the CPC's are very well thought out for handling and carrying. Congrats!!

[DRT]

This morning I had my first view through the CPC - Saturn and Titan - which was excellent given that it was already dawn.

Tonight I used the alignment and tracking for the first time on any scope. There is no going back!

Even though it was cloudy and windy with only occasional patches of clear sky it was fantastic to see Jupiter clearly at such high magnification. My 9mm X-Cel (so 311x mag) was spectacular with very crisp detail and my first view of a moon shadow on the planetary disk as Ganymede made its transit. Wow!

The only downer on the evening, apart from the cloud, was when I tripped over the power cable and had to re-set the alignment. Schoolboy error!

[faulksy]

very nice mate, congrats on first light so early

[davedownsouth]

Great looking scope; but looks pretty heavy. Can you move it about intact, or does it need disassembling first?

[Tinker1947]

Lovely scope you have there...

[DRT]

Great looking scope; but looks pretty heavy. Can you move it about intact, or does it need disassembling first?

I have been disassembling it to move it. It is very heavy and cumbersome when assembled but quite easy to move in two parts and is very easy to put together.

[mac19]

Beauty!! I am currently looking to purchase either the 800 or 925, seeing your scope has me very excited!!

[AstroJOE]

Congratulations on your new scope. I've had my CPC1100 for about a year now and I love it. It's fantastic on planets but also very good on the relatively smaller DSO's as well. The alignment process is simple and has never let me down. Id recommend upgrading to a 2" diagonal and then some decent low power wide angle 2" eyepieces to increase the FOV as much as possible as the 2800mm focal length can we quite restrictive otherwise. Also you'll need to invest in some sort of dew control system as it can be quite susceptible, especially at this time of year. I can recommend the Astrozap heated flexi dewshield and the Hitec Astro 4 way dew controller plus some dew heater strips for your eyepieces and finder scope. All work well for me.

Enjoy!!

[DRT]

Good luck mac19 - I hope you enjoy your CPC as much as I do

Thanks for the tips, James, which are very much appreciated.