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Working up to the C9.25 has been a long, at times frustrating, apprenticeship for me, and I have had good people to learn from, and help me when I made mistakes.
I started off with a 4” refractor and a Pixcel255 (320x240) ccd camera. The 918mm focal length of the refractor was very forgiving. But, in the early days, it was still very frustrating acquiring the target (before I had GoTo) and then laborious and time consuming doing the multitude of other things such as polar alignment, focusing etc.
If I had started my apprenticeship with the ST7 and the C9.25 I would probably have given up. My slow and steady build up via the 918mm focal length refractor gave me the patience, techniques and skills to move up to the longer focal length of the C9.25, and learn the art of auto guiding. Even so, I still have my moments!
I don’t want to put anyone off, but it can be a steep learning curve and quite tough going as you master the basics of polar alignment, GoTo set up and alignment, finding the target, finding a guide star, getting good focus (changes with every 5 deg C drop in temp), setting up and integrating scope, mount, camera, computer, etc. Not forgetting the flat fielding, dark frame subtraction, image stacking and processing.
However, going in with both eyes wide open and the determination to succeed can overcome all these learning obstacles, so dive in and you’ll be well rewarded!
Cheers
Dennis
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