Celestron C14 Arrived!!!

[icytailmark]

my C14 has arrived i just finished unpacking it. Now im just waiting on my Losmandy G11 to arrive. Hopefully the skies will clear up so i can have a look at saturn.

[kustard]

Gratz!

Hope you get some good viewing :)

[strongmanmike]

Wha? no photos? :sadeyes:...show us photos, show us photos :D

Mike

[asimov]

Yes we want pics! PICS I tell you! :D

[jenchris]

My C130 arrived

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafspadeadam/rafcms/mediafiles/gallery/5EE596AB_1143_EC82_2E22222C471D6424/c130%207%20sos%20raf%20mildenhall.j pg

[gbeal]

Is it as HUGE as I think it is??
Gary

[gbeal]

And like MeatLoaf sang, "3 out of 4 ain't bad".

[icytailmark]

hahaha nice plane. Ill take pics when i get my mount which is hopefully in a couple of weeks.

[icytailmark]

here are a couple of quick pics i took to wet ur tongues. Sorry they bit blury.


http://img828.imageshack.us/i/img0151ns.jpg/
http://img859.imageshack.us/i/img0154w.jpg/

[g__day]

Congratulations. I have a few questions for you - as I think the C14 looks like a great scope for me down the track...

1) What is the extra protusion on the back opposite the focusing knob (a mirror lock or a cooling vent?

2) Any idea why Celestron don't make a carbon fibre C14?

3) Given the focal length you're filed of view will be quite smaller unless you add focal reducers or Fastar - may I ask what specific sorts of targets you're intending imaging with this scope?

Cheers,

Matt

[icytailmark]

The C14 has 2 cooling vents on the back,Mirror Adjuster and focuser knob.

I have no idea why dont celestron use carbon fibre for c14's. Perhaps its cheaper to use aluminum?

Mostly i will be doing planetary Imaging and observing.Perhaps later on i will do deep space imaging, but i will need upgrade my mount and buy a hyperstar system etc etc.

[g__day]

Thanks for those answers!

May I suggest Bob's Knobs and a Feathertouch microfocuser (great for focusing and really helped me to reduce mirror shift / flop by a factor of 3 on a C9.25).

[Sylvain]

It looks just as nice as your place does :)

[Paul Haese]

Those protusions are or were (on mine which is pre HD) transport mirror locks.

Mark are you going to perform the peltier cooling mod on it? When I did mine everyone thought I was mad, now there are quite a few scopes out there with the mod. Without the mod the scope will take hours and hours to cool down. I recently tested mine again without thermo electric cooling and it was 3 am by the time it came within 0.5 of ambient. That was over 6 hours of cool down time on a day which was 28 degrees. With the peltiers it takes about an hour and we are then set for the evening. I will leave that for you to ponder.

The unit itself looks quite nice. Celestron did make carbon fibre units at one stage but carbon fibre adds a considerable amount to the cost and this apparently drove people away. The colour scheme is better than the white with orange. I like that better.

Performance should be up to the usual standard and I would like to hear what the performance of the optics is like now that these units are made in China. After visiting the factory in Suzhou I would expect that the optics are as good if not better than the US made versions; such was the factory.

[icytailmark]

im not sure if ill install fans just yet. I gotta pay off the credit card LOL. I will probably just have a big fan blowing into the Ota for about an hour or so that should help alot. The next on my to do list is work out what dew prevention ill need as i wont have the c14 in a dome.

[steve000]

http://img34.imageshack.us/i/telescope001.jpg/

hahah you put your IIS sticker on a counter weight.. mine is on the side of my Lego star destroyer :P

Whats the total weight of the C14 and all your presumably guide scopes and finder. I was under the impression the EQ6 had a max of 25kg limit

[g__day]

I just cut up foam from a thin black, sleeping bag ground protector (its about 4-5mm thick) oversized it length-wise. I glued it using a hot glue gun. I also cut an extra strip 4" wide to glue and run all down the join to strengthen it.

All up cost around $20 (already had the glue gun) and two years on it still looks good as new.

Have you been able to test the collimination of your OTA yet? I found mine was hard to adjust until I went the Bob's knobs route. Secondly take a bright star in and out of when its in the middle of a moderate eye pieces - say 13 mm and look how far the star jumps from the centre of your eyepiece when you change direction of the focus (In -> out or Out -> In). Mine was rotten - jumped about 1/3 of the way across the eye piece on a change of focus direction. As I said with a Feathertouch microfocuser this jump decreased to maybe 1/9 of the field of view on a 13 mm eye piece. I ended up adding a Meade electron microfocuser to do fine focus adjustment when I am imaging - so I don't have to touch the OTA at all.

Good luck - dying to hear how this OTA works for you and what the views of Saturn, Jupiter etc look like!

[icytailmark]

that isnt my scope there steve. Im only using my C14 for planetary imagining. I will be using a Losmandy G11 mount. The C14 is 20Kg. What focuser do you use on your C14 Paul for planetary work?

[Paul Haese]

Well for planetary I just use an ordinary hair dryer, giving the corrector a blast between capture runs. I let the image settle so that I can see good detail again and then capture. I usually get about 5 minutes between blasts. Using a dew prevention system is counter productive for planetary work. It sets up too many tube currents and at high mag you don't want that upsetting your data collection. Besides I found that I needed two dew straps just to keep the dew a little at bay and then the tube currents were woeful. The system I was using was the dew buster system.

[icytailmark]

Matthew im still waiting on my mount. Should get it in a week or two. I really hope the weather improves in Sydney soon so much rain.

[trek1701]

Hi Paul

Where can the peltier cooling mod be performed and what's the approx cost?

Regards Mark

[Paul Haese]

Mark take a look on my website in the how to section. Let me know by PM if you have any questions.

[trek1701]

Thanks Paul

I was also looking at the "Planetary Processing My Way" section.
Which version of Photo Shop are you using?

Great Site.

Mark

[Paul Haese]

Mark I am using CS3 at present. Might try to upgrade in the coming months though.

[toc]

Hi Paul - I read with interest your cooling system - Did you try systems like the Lymax Cat cooler? Ive just gotten a Meade 12" SCT, and I dont fancy 6 hour cool down times. :sadeyes:

[Paul Haese]

The cat cooler system works to some extent but it will never get you to ambient. It just cannot work that well. It is an intermediary point really.