Celestron NexStar C11 OTA

Tonight was first light with the LX80...

Impressions & thoughts starting with the bad...

It's a overly complicated $800 Alt/Az mount.

Overly complicated because in Alt/Az mode balancing the bloody thing is actually more difficult than on the CGEM. In Alt/Az the rail saddle is facing sideways which means for any OTA you are going to be supporting it all by yourself with no help from gravity. It uses a narrow and short Vixen saddle which again means ...

Tags: c11, lx80, meade

Categories

Meade LX80 , Celestron NexStar C11 OTA , Mounts , Telescopes

Went to a star party tonight and had a really good time. It was also first light for the new C11.

The big problem I has was there were too many stars so alignment was harder! I found, per advice here, that if I looked for the brightest one then I should have been pretty good. The CGEM performed to spec and had the alignment stars in the RACI for the most part.

What was a big surprise was the view with the C11! I was absolutely blown away by the difference in ...

Tags: battery power, c11, cgem, pro tip, star party

Categories

Celestron GCEM and CG-5ASGT , Celestron NexStar C11 OTA , Visual Observing , Lessons learned, technical and pro tips , Mounts , Telescopes

... Well maybe...

I spoke to Farrah at Woodland Hills Telescope & Camera today about my order on the LX80 mount with 10" OTA. A wonderful lady by the way and a shop with great customer service. So much so that I don't grumble too badly about the 1 to 1 1/2 hour drive to go 35 miles from my house to their shop on the bloody <many dirty names removed> 101 freeway!

Sorry I digress.

I told her that rumor had it Meade had received a shipment ...

Tags: lx80

Categories

Meade LX80 , Celestron NexStar C11 OTA , Mounts , Telescopes

Finally got around to putting my two OTA's on the CGEM so let me get the equipment pr0n out of the way first...



This one was of particular interest and not mine. And a rather ...