Advice on Celestron Nexstar Evolution 9.25

[Quicksilver]

Hi

Having been out of astronomy for a few years I would appreciate some advice on the Nexstar Evolution 9.25. 

First of all, a little background.  I have not been an observer since the early 90’s. Back then I had (and still have) an Astro Systems 6 inch Newtonian which my parents bought me in 1985 as a 19th birthday present. This is a fine instrument but for various reasons, I have outgrown it and find it quite difficult to use now. Since then I have been an armchair astronomer but I always promised myself a Schmidt - Cassegrain when the time was right.  Now I have reached a riper age and, having a bit more disposable income and having moved back to an area with reasonably dark skies (a lot better than London, anyway), I think the time is right. 

I’ve settled on the 9.25 because it’s the largest aperture for the money I want to pay and it’s still reasonably portable (although I am unlikely to take it further than my garden). It’s considerably more advanced than anything I have used before - I’m ok with that but I’m going to be on a steep learning curve. I’m looking forward to that.  However, I would like some help on the extras as I’m a bit rusty on lenses and inexperienced with this type of scope. 

I have heard that the supplied Celestron 13 and 40 mm Plossel’s are not great. Also, I have to wear glasses when viewing due to astigmatism so I will need good eye relief on my lenses. I plan on doing the usual mix of planetary and deep sky observing so I thought the following might be good to get -

a) Baader Morpheus 76 1.25/2” 17.5mm.

b) William Optics Swan 2” 33mm.

c) sky Watcher 90 degree star diagonal 2” (the supplied Celestron one is 1.25 I believe).

Am I on the right lines here or is there anything else or any alternatives you can recommend?

Thanks!

 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Quicksilver
Error

[Cosmic Geoff]

18 hours ago, Quicksilver said:

I have heard that the supplied Celestron 13 and 40 mm Plossel’s are not great.

Where? Some people will tell you that any eyepiece costing less than £300 is not great.  I use the kit 25mm Plossl and a 15mm Celestron Omni Plossl with my C8. Bear in mind that the C9.25 has a long focal ratio so is not demanding of eyepieces.   But I do not suffer from astigmatism.

For planets I use 8mm (or a zoom) and have tried a 5mm.  If you have the budget, it is worth getting a binoviewer (amazing on the Moon, helpful on planets.)

I have a 32mm 1.25" Plossl which I rarely use. It has plenty of eye relief.

You will also need a dew shield (which you could make yourself.)

If you want to go the 2" diagonal route, that's up to you - it's your money - but add up the cost of a 2" visual back, 2" diagonal and 2" eyepiece and ask yourself what sort of widefield scope you could have bought with that money. 

You should not find the Nexstar GoTo system hard to learn - I  got observing objects the first evening I had my new 127mm Mak out of the box.

Edited January 17, 2021 by Cosmic Geoff

[dweller25]

Hello @Quicksilver and welcome to SGL.

You have a nice scope - I used to have the 8.5” AstroSystems Newt 👍

I used to have a C9.25 and found it quite heavy, it really needed an EQ6 type mount for good stability.

Thermal management of the primary had to be done - 2 hours PLUS to cool the scope (from the house) was not uncommon and once cooled I then had to thermally manage the corrector or it would dew up - not impossible, but frustrating.

VERY accurate collimation is a must or the views will look soft and mushy.

I got fed up with it and changed it for a much cheaper Skywatcher 10” Dob that beat the C9.25  in all areas - cooldown, sharpness, collimation stability and dewing (lack of)

Years later I bought a C8 and that was a really great scope - same issues as the C9.25 but to a much more manageable level and I only lost a little aperture, it sat on a lightweight Vixen GP - that was a good setup - should not have sold it.

Have you considered a 6” refractor ?
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/sky-watcher-150ed-ds-pro-eq6-r-pro.html

But I digress - You don’t say what you want to observe with the C9.25, it would help to know with your eyepiece selection 🙂.

The Baader Morpheus eyepieces get very good reviews 👍

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by dweller25

[Quicksilver]

Thank you Cosmic Geoff and dweller 25. Some great advice here. 

That refractor is beautiful, dweller25 . Does it have any advantages over the  9.25?

 

[dweller25]

13 minutes ago, Quicksilver said:

Thank you Cosmic Geoff and dweller 25. Some great advice here. 

That refractor is beautiful, dweller25 . Does it have any advantages over the  9.25?

 

Yes,

Faster cooldown

No need to collimate

Excellent contrast

Sharp images

Not affected by seeing conditions as much as the C9.25

Here is a long discussion 6” ED v C9.25.....

 https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/173413-c-925-vs-6-inch-ed-apo-for-planetary/

Edited January 17, 2021 by dweller25

[Starwatcher2001]

I Bought the C9.25 Evo last summer and love it.

I can get it out of the house into the garden and set up in 15-20 mins, but do put the tube out to cool an hour or so before. I'm 60 and somewhat out of shape, but it's quite managable. I wouldn't want to go any larger though. It does take more setting up than my old 20 year old 8.75" DIY dob, but is much more relaxing observing objects with tracking and goto. (Getting lazy in my old age )

The 40mm that comes with it is fine and despite also having a 2" Pentax 40mm, is still in regular use (due to quite a change in focus between the two). It's usually the first eyepiece in the scope when visiting an object. I have dropped the 13mm, but mainly because it didn't fit in with my other ranges. Visually it was perfectly fine.

I have astigmatism and find that I need glasses for anything bigger than 18mm, but less than that I can get away with (as my astigmatism is not noticeable with a smaller exit pupil). I added "bob's knobs" to make collimation easier, but in the 7 months or so I've had it, I've only needed to tweak the collimation 2-3 times.

Dew shield of some kind is vital. Mine's a DIY job made from foam rubber that works fine. The built-in power is superb and lasts for several sessions before recharging is needed. I replaced the poor supplied red dot finder with a decent RACI, which is a big improvement.

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Starwatcher2001
trypo

[Quicksilver]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I have placed the order, including the eyepieces (for the eye relief mainly). I thought about the refractor as well but I think the viewing position might be uncomfortable for me. 
 

Hoping for some clear nights ✌️

[SaberJeff]

How much is this telescope?

[Quicksilver]

On 19/01/2021 at 14:28, SaberJeff said:

How much is this telescope?

£2465 !!

[SaberJeff]

£1803.08

[Quicksilver]

On 21/01/2021 at 16:34, SaberJeff said:

£1803.08

Don’t know where you get that figure for the 9.25 from. Not even the 8 inch is that cheap?

[SaberJeff]

£1088

[dweller25]

43 minutes ago, SaberJeff said:

£1088

It might help if you explained......

[SaberJeff]

I made a mistake. this is the price of Celestron Nexstar Evolution 8.The real price is £1772  from 9.25

in China

[reifermadness]

On 16/01/2021 at 09:43, Quicksilver said:

Hi

Having been out of astronomy for a few years I would appreciate some advice on the Nexstar Evolution 9.25. 

First of all, a little background.  I have not been an observer since the early 90’s. Back then I had (and still have) an Astro Systems 6 inch Newtonian which my parents bought me in 1985 as a 19th birthday present. This is a fine instrument but for various reasons, I have outgrown it and find it quite difficult to use now. Since then I have been an armchair astronomer but I always promised myself a Schmidt - Cassegrain when the time was right.  Now I have reached a riper age and, having a bit more disposable income and having moved back to an area with reasonably dark skies (a lot better than London, anyway), I think the time is right. 

I’ve settled on the 9.25 because it’s the largest aperture for the money I want to pay and it’s still reasonably portable (although I am unlikely to take it further than my garden). It’s considerably more advanced than anything I have used before - I’m ok with that but I’m going to be on a steep learning curve. I’m looking forward to that.  However, I would like some help on the extras as I’m a bit rusty on lenses and inexperienced with this type of scope. 

I have heard that the supplied Celestron 13 and 40 mm Plossel’s are not great. Also, I have to wear glasses when viewing due to astigmatism so I will need good eye relief on my lenses. I plan on doing the usual mix of planetary and deep sky observing so I thought the following might be good to get -

a) Baader Morpheus 76 1.25/2” 17.5mm.

b) William Optics Swan 2” 33mm.

c) sky Watcher 90 degree star diagonal 2” (the supplied Celestron one is 1.25 I believe).

Am I on the right lines here or is there anything else or any alternatives you can recommend?

Thanks!

 

 

 

Hi,

I'm a new member and I have the following equipment:

• Celestron NexStar Evolution 9.25" SCT 
• Celestron Motorized Focuser
• ZWO EAF-5Volt
• Celestron StarSense
• HyperStar V4
• Celestron GPS
• Celestron Wedge
• Canon EOS 7D
• Optolong L-PRO EOS-C H Alpha 7nm Filter
• Backyard EOS 
• ASTAP

I bought most of this the end of 2019 and added the HyperStar and ZWO EAF-5Volt this summer.

I love this scope and have been working to automate most of the process as I am 66 and need all of the help I can get😄.

Wonderful views and am just getting into EAA and DSO.

It's a little heavy when setting up but I highly recommend it!

Just a newbie's two cents.

Reif