cpc 9.25 to defork or not to defork?

[WesternForce (Pat)]

Hi everyone,
my first post on ice in space.. I have owned a celestron cpc 9.25 for 2 years,gradually adding wedge, various imaging equipment. The time has come when I am thinking about deforking and putting the OTA on a better mount such as the NEQ6Pro. I'd be interested to hear anyone's experience if they have done this. Would one expect better AP results on the NEQ6pro, as I would imagine? Thanks everyone for your opinions

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Mark Heli did this successfully recently for his 10" Meade SCT using an AZ-EQ6, and I've done it for astrophotography purposes with my 8" Celestron 8SE. See: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=120347

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Welcome to Ice in Space WesternForce

From what I've seen, deforking a CPC is not for the squeamish and it's a one way trip.

What sort of AP are you interested in?

For planetary, your CPC should be good enough as it only needs to track.

For DSO...you'd be better off with a small/short focal length refractor, especially if you're resigned to buying an EQ6 anyway. You could even get away with a HEQ5. Then that keeps your CPC intact as the visual scope.

[WesternForce (Pat)]

thanks for your answers guys. I'll try to image anything I can really. Planetary, wide field( which I have used 50mm ,200mm,fish eye lenses) deep space objects, galaxies,
I guess my ideal if I could get it would be a small refractor (such as takahashi 60mm- there are some in classifieds) , sometimes mounted with an sct (such as 9.25 )on a good mount for AP that doesnt break the bank ( I have spent a fortune already).
The c 9.25 seems to be around 2300AUD. It seems that CPC scopes are hard to sell judging by the classifieds, so maybe the best plan is to get hold of an NEQ6PRO a takashi 60mm, get up to speed with that , meanwhile keeping the cpc as is, with a view to later defork.
The cpc has been great to get me going with imaging, learn
drift alignment, and I have had some ok pictures for a beginner, but I like the idea of a good quality although small refractor.

[Poita (Peter)]

I've done it, but I would highly recommend selling it instead and picking up an OTA ready for mounting on an EQ6 or similar.

This one in the classifieds is a steal:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=123487

You get the hyperstar, which is amazing for many DSO images, and the 10" SCT for $1500, and can slap it on any mount. This gives you fast widefield imaging straight from the SCT.
Images here: http://www.hyperstarimaging.com/gallery/

I wouldn't bother with a 60mm scope for widefield use personally, I'd rather an 80mm or a bit larger, or just go with a Polarie and a DSLR with a wide lens to add to your existing setup. The you can do planetary on the CPC and widefield on the Polarie/DSLR at the same time. Just a thought.

[WesternForce (Pat)]

Yes I can see the benefits of that. Problem is it seems selling cpc scopes is not easy, and will probably need a low price. The OTA is about 2200 new, so unless I could sell for more than that, maybe defork is the way to go. I think I might start with piggybacking a 60mm scope on top of the ota on the cpc mount and see how I go with that for a while.