Celestron c11

[Guest sapperslappy]

I served with some british marines in afghanistan, those men sure didnt run away from a fight, you have good soldiers willing to put foot to ass for your country. I've done a bit more research and found the North Houston Astronomy Club, so I figure ill be attending their star parties, but like I said, if any of you are ever through this area and want to check out the c11 edge id be more then willing to let you take a look. Im pretty positive thats the scope im going to go with.

[Rock Doctor]

Brad,

I have a CGEM DX 1100 Edge HD and although suffering from 'new scope' curse, since buying it about 2 months ago I've only managed a couple of nights out due to cloud and working away, the views are impressive but I can't compare it to anything as this is the first decent scope that I have owned. The only other scope was a Celestron Firstscope (4 inch Newt) which I think rates as Christmas trash. The finder scope on the 1100 is 9 x 50 and is as good as my 10 x 50 Nikon binos

All the comments are correct it's a gorgeous scope, well made and is rock steady but if you are intending setting up as a one man op then this is the maximum size that I would risk lifting. This takes me about 1/2 an hour to set up with 4 trips up the garden. Firstly the tripod, then the mount, then the OTA and finally the counter-weight. The single weight is just enough to balance the scope with a crayford focusser, diagonal and eyepiece but the scope wont quite balance in Dec axis. A dew shield has prevented dew so far but even on the nights that I was out I have not been out for more than 3 hours so will be purchasing some heater bands.

I got the CGEM DX mount because at some stage I would like to do some astrophotography and it seemed to me that once you have mastered setting up the mount that there wasn't a lot between the fork and a GEM mount although for visual work some prefer the convenience of the fork but it gets a little more difficult when trying to mount the wedge for photography. Personally I prefer the look of the scope on the GEM mount and my experience so far is that it doesn't take too long to set up anyway.

The goto and alignment process is straightforward and easy to use and in the couple of times I've had to use it I have found Messier objects and had some stunning views of the moon, Jupiter and Venus. The view of Jupiter in very windy conditions with an 8mm Baader Hyperion clearly showed the bands with a faint hint of colour and the field of view was too narrow to see the 4 major moons. Using a 17mm eyepiece was much better and the supplied Celestron Axiom 23mm 2 inch eyepiece was very good also.

I must admit that I am very pleased with the scope but may have had what is described as aperture fever in the Backyard Astronomer's Guide ( This is a fabulous book for newbees). Again I have to agree with what has already been mentioned, the scope is great but it's far from portable and will be a major operation to transport for a night out. I think that the binos will have to come out for star partys unless I make a weekend of it. At home, it will be a little easier soon when I have built a summer house to house it in which my wife has now resigned herself to the fact that it will become my observatory.

[Guest Dex55]

A truly international forum, I like the sound of that.

Doesn't Crete count then?

[Brantuk]

Yup - Crete counts - especially with a scope that's seen Sawley as well

[Guest Dex55]

It has also seen Xoymepi.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Dex55