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Stu_2011

By Stu_2011
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Stu_2011

Stu_2011

Posted
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Good morning all,

Like a few people I’ve been reading this forum for a while so I thought I would say hello.

I’ve been looking at the sky’s on and off for many many years with a modest Tasco 4 inch reflector - it was bought for my eighth birthday so it has lasted almost 35 years!! A recent work bonus ended in a great new Celestron CPC925, a few Axiom eyepieces and a Neximage CCD camera. Very pleased with the scope so far and have seen some great images through it - the Goto mount is great. I’m sure I will be asking lots of advice in the coming months but for starters

1. Any local groups or get together’s around the Surrey / Hants borders? For now I just want to observe rather than astrophotography.

2. My next purchase will be a set of bino viewers - I use microscopes all the time in my job and I just seem better suited looking through two pieces rather than one. I’m looking at either the Celestron ones or the William Optics ones, any comments or hints welcome.

3 . I’m sure that as time passes my scope will grow with accessories and cameras (if my wallet will allow), any hints on the best way to balance the CPC series? I’ve seen various pictures with these SCT’s really loaded with guidescopes, 2 inch eyepieces, cameras etc. People like showing off the toys but no one really shows the counterweight systems used to balance all the toys.

Thanks and I’m looking forward to joining in

Stuart

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Beyond_Vision

Beyond_Vision

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Welcome to SGL Stuart below is a link to a counter weight system. I think the bar attaches to the bottom of the scope and the weight can be slid along it and raised up and down. When you have a camera or heavy accessories fitted to the back of the scope the counter weight can be slid up and down to find the balance point.

Counterweights - ADM Mini Dovetail Counterweight Kit

If you intend to image deep sky objects you will be limited to very short exposure as the mount is an alt/azimuth type. With this type of mount the stars to the edge of the frame will rotate and blur on long exposures. To do longer exposures you will need to fit a wedge as shown in the link below. This allows the mount to track the sky in Right Acension

CPC GPS Series

Regards

Kevin

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brantuk

brantuk

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Hi Stuart and welcome to SGL :(

The CPC range are smashing scopes. I've tried the 925 with Baader binoviewers and the views are superb.

I use the WO bv's in my 800 which are a good deal cheaper but nonetheless still give the "spacewalk" feel, and are great vfm as they come with 2 ep's and a 1.6 barlow ready to go.

The Celestron ones I felt are considerably more expensive and I couldn't get the retailer to explain why, nor state how they compare to others. You have to get the ep's and barlow as extras too.

Hope that helps :)

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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Hi from me too - I am planning to get a small band of us together for observing evenings in Surrey. Take a look at the communities section above and you will find 'Surrey Observers Group' which I will get going on again now that I am well :eek:

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