seeker372011
06-02-2005, 01:09 PM
prior to Christmas I ordered a Celestron C8 NGT from Astronomy Online.
I chose this scope after thinking about it for a long time-over 6 months -before finally deciding because
I wanted at least 8 inches aperture
I wanted GoTo, mainly because I didnt want to spend too much time looking for stuff
I wanted a fast scope because I was primarily looking for a scope for photography (this is f/5)
Phil Harrington did a review of this scope in "Astronomy" and rated the optics as the best he has seen
the price was good-least markup over US prices for any scope I could find
a visit to the yahoo user groups suggested that there were fewer complaints with this mount than say the Meade LXD 55 or 75
the mount can be autoguided and people have done some seriously good astrophotography with this scope and the Canon 300D
anyway the scope arrived a couple of weeks ago resulting in cloud, rainstorms and hail up and down the entire east coast of Australia.
when I did finally did get to try the scope out I found that the three star alignment woudn't work.
The dealer, Glen at Astronomy Online was really helpful. I was able to take the mount down to his store-he has a huge showroom in Sydney with more assembled scopes than you can see in a star party- and he was able to straight away replace the mount with no fuss.
Yesterday was first light - a clear Saturday night can you believe it
:cool:
I set up and star aligned without pain, and after the obligatory visit to M42, was able to observe some objects that I have never been able to see from my backyard-the Crab Nebula, the Eskimo nebula, the "Little Fish", as well as Saturn, Jupiter, M78, and a host of the usual suspects such as Tuc 47, Eta Carina, Acrux and Alpha Centauri.
After a hour or two of visual observing I imaged Saturn and Jupiter with the Atik 1C..will get around to processing one of these days
I think I am going to like my new scope. The one thing I have to get used to is how BIG it is compared to my 5 inch Andrews/Skywalker..but the extra aperture has already shown what it can do by pulling in objects like the Crab
:cheers:
I chose this scope after thinking about it for a long time-over 6 months -before finally deciding because
I wanted at least 8 inches aperture
I wanted GoTo, mainly because I didnt want to spend too much time looking for stuff
I wanted a fast scope because I was primarily looking for a scope for photography (this is f/5)
Phil Harrington did a review of this scope in "Astronomy" and rated the optics as the best he has seen
the price was good-least markup over US prices for any scope I could find
a visit to the yahoo user groups suggested that there were fewer complaints with this mount than say the Meade LXD 55 or 75
the mount can be autoguided and people have done some seriously good astrophotography with this scope and the Canon 300D
anyway the scope arrived a couple of weeks ago resulting in cloud, rainstorms and hail up and down the entire east coast of Australia.
when I did finally did get to try the scope out I found that the three star alignment woudn't work.
The dealer, Glen at Astronomy Online was really helpful. I was able to take the mount down to his store-he has a huge showroom in Sydney with more assembled scopes than you can see in a star party- and he was able to straight away replace the mount with no fuss.
Yesterday was first light - a clear Saturday night can you believe it
:cool:
I set up and star aligned without pain, and after the obligatory visit to M42, was able to observe some objects that I have never been able to see from my backyard-the Crab Nebula, the Eskimo nebula, the "Little Fish", as well as Saturn, Jupiter, M78, and a host of the usual suspects such as Tuc 47, Eta Carina, Acrux and Alpha Centauri.
After a hour or two of visual observing I imaged Saturn and Jupiter with the Atik 1C..will get around to processing one of these days
I think I am going to like my new scope. The one thing I have to get used to is how BIG it is compared to my 5 inch Andrews/Skywalker..but the extra aperture has already shown what it can do by pulling in objects like the Crab
:cheers: