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Celestron Evolution mount


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I have recently acquired a Celestron Evolution mount. I am just a visual observer. The reason I bought it was to find objects to observe. Star hopping is possible when I visit dark sky sites, but not in South Hertfordshire with so much light pollution. I have to say that my first use of this mount on boxing night was fantastic. I was able to find in the region of twenty deep sky objects, some of which you would never find by star hopping. Some barely visible nebula were bagged. When the mount had driven the telescope to the spot where there was suppose to be a faint barely visible object, I just kept looking until you realise that there is something in the field of view. I think that the mount is aimed at beginners. But I have been observing for years and it is teaching me a thing or two. I would say it should be aimed at anyone who likes observing. A great machine. I did not use the hand computer controller as I could use Celestron's Sky Portal planetarium on my tablet.The tablet was connected to the mount by a wi-fi signal transmitted by the mount itself.

I found myself dancing around the setup issuing commands to the mount from my tablet with great joy. Hope the neighbours were not too disturbed by this exhibition. It certainly brings a new dimension to star gazing.

I was concerned that the tripod legs would be too light weight and that there would be too much vibration. But this was not the case as I never touched the scope once it was focused. It handled the Celestron C8 well.

It is also very transportable, not being too heavy.

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Superb bit of kit. Add Starsense and I reckon the 8" is the ultimate convienient telescope. Light enough to carry or pack/transport easily. Packed with technology and innovation. I get mine (n.b. I keep it assembled) out of my conservatory and aligned in under five minutes. I now confidently just set Starsense auto-align going and use the time to fetch my EP'S and other paraphernalia.

Internal (proper!) battery;  hence cordless; WiFi  (try SkySafari Plus- better than SkyPortal); brass worm gears; robust mount/tripod; absolute joy to use.

Just make sure your tablet doesn't have a battery saving APP that might turn off SkyPortal/SkySafari after n minutes of inactivity. 

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It's a neat device comprising of a small camera that automatically takes three images of the sky. Then from hundreds of stars (rather than two/three) its computer accurately aligns the scope. It is fully controlled from your tablet. You simply aim the OTA in any direction and press 'connect and align'.  Then your GOTOs are just sensational. It's not cheap, but makes the Evolution THE ultimate technological achievement. Now bundled with the Edge HD optics for the top of the range Evolution version. 

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Goto scopes are great. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing many objects on the rare occasions we manage to get outside.

Goto scopes are a real hit if you want to share with family and friends, children especially don't want to stand around whilst you try to find something.

there are too many people talking others out of goto scopes for my liking. Nothing builds the "fever" more than a night of viewing many objects.

i am sure it's rewarding when you find an object after searching for an hour, but wouldn't you have rather spent the time observing?

Just my opinion.

 

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Tonight I went out at 18:15 to catch Venus, Mars and Neptune in one straight line. I carried out my Evolution scope (pre-assembled) and had aligned with Starsense and had shown my cold impatient wife these three delights by 18.30.  To be fair, there was not a lot to see as the hazy seeing conditions delivered little more than three blurred objects, but the unmistakable blue blob of Neptune was a first for her.

I settled down for a more leisurely session. Starting at the Pleiades; I traversed to Hyades; North American Nebula; Cave Nebula; Eastern Veil Nebula; Fireworks Galaxy (seriously hard to see); before the clouds and dew beat me. Packed up and back indoors by 19:20.  That is the joy of Starsense. Even a brief hour outside can be quite rewarding if there is no initial phaffing about trying to find, identify and align bright stars in a murky sky. OK, it is an expensive bit of kit. But it's like having a Butler make ready and do that for you. You just observe. It's like stepping into a ready warm bath. Luxury.

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1 hour ago, Grumpy Martian said:

I will look into buying a Starsense unit. I believe that the Starsense is not dedicated to an individual mount. 

Most modern Celestron GoTo are supported by Starsense and now some Skywatcher mounts too. It's dead clever.

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13 hours ago, Grumpy Martian said:

I have recently acquired a Celestron Evolution mount. I am just a visual observer. The reason I bought it was to find objects to observe. Star hopping is possible when I visit dark sky sites, but not in South Hertfordshire with so much light pollution. I have to say that my first use of this mount on boxing night was fantastic. I was able to find in the region of twenty deep sky objects, some of which you would never find by star hopping. Some barely visible nebula were bagged. When the mount had driven the telescope to the spot where there was suppose to be a faint barely visible object, I just kept looking until you realise that there is something in the field of view. I think that the mount is aimed at beginners. But I have been observing for years and it is teaching me a thing or two. I would say it should be aimed at anyone who likes observing. A great machine. I did not use the hand computer controller as I could use Celestron's Sky Portal planetarium on my tablet.The tablet was connected to the mount by a wi-fi signal transmitted by the mount itself.

I found myself dancing around the setup issuing commands to the mount from my tablet with great joy. Hope the neighbours were not too disturbed by this exhibition. It certainly brings a new dimension to star gazing.

I was concerned that the tripod legs would be too light weight and that there would be too much vibration. But this was not the case as I never touched the scope once it was focused. It handled the Celestron C8 well.

It is also very transportable, not being too heavy.

So pleased it's going well for you Martin, I just wasn't getting enough use out of it in London. Look forward to hearing about your experiences with the Evo mount as you progress.

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Hi nah. So with Starsense connected you don't have to enter location,date or time. Is this right? Because with my use of the tablet,it's GPS does that.

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54 minutes ago, Grumpy Martian said:

Hi nah. So with Starsense connected you don't have to enter location,date or time. Is this right? Because with my use of the tablet,it's GPS does that.

Yes, provided that you have the SkyPortal or SkySafari APP set to Time = "now". Then it pulls it from the tablet's GPS etc. You then click on <connect and align>, and three minutes later Starsense will automatically complete this and you are ready to GoTo with supreme accuracy.

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