Finally: The Celestron Onyx is Here!!

[NCRAW]

It was an exciting moment to come back home and see the parcel box sitting in the living room waiting for me (luckily mom was paying us a visit and she was home to sign for it, thanks mom!!).

Quickly change and rip through the box - before I continue, I will post some pics as soon as I can – and there it was. It came in aluminium case with a cardboard packing on top, all nicely packed by Grant from Highpoint Scientific in the US.

The inside of the of the case is well foamed and padded and there are cuts for a diagonal and EPs, however non is useful for me as the spaces are too small for my 2” diagonal and the Baader EPs. Maybe I will have to make my own cuts.

The scope is nicely finished in gloss black with metallic orange ring on the dew shield. The shield is retractable and is smooth. The scope is compact and light, definitely a grab and go. The focuser is a single speed Crayford style but smooth and accurate and hold well. I’m not going to use the scope for AP but heard it hold position well even with a big SLR after tightening a hex screw on the underbelly of the focuser. The focuser is also rotatable again smooth to rotate and lock in place.

The inside is black powder coated and done well though I noticed that there was a small section inside the focuser was not well coated as the rest but that should not have an effect. It also seems that there is excess powder inside as I had some on my finger when ran it inside.

The lenses look good and well coated. They are FPL-53 confirmed by Celestron and coated with Celestron XLT (if I recall) coating. The only negative feedback that this scope gets, and now I know what everyone who owns it is talking about, are the three silly bunny ear like lens spacers which stick out and cause diffraction during 60 sec plus exposures. It is not possible to remove them as they are glued. Couple of guys on Cloudy nights added a foam ring which effectively reduced the effective diameter to 76mm but eliminated the problem.

The lens cap is metal made and felt to protect the dew shield. The scope also has one odd feature that no other scope has, a small see through peep hole that is some sort of a finder which is removable by unscrewing it. It is pretty much useless and im trying to figure out how to replace it with the red dot finder I bought. I might need to purchase the base that the red dot finder bracket sits in and then modify to suit.

The other thing to note is that the scope comes with a built in L-shaped Dove tail that fits the CG-5 mounts and also has a standard camera tri-pod female thread. So you don’t even need rings or a dovetail.

I carried out a quick test during the day and night by fitting the 1/12 GSO 2” diagonal and the 21mm and 5mm Baader lenses plus a quick fitting test of the Celestron Ultima Barlow. Everything fits nicely and tightly. The scope has non marring copper rings to hold the dia in place and can fit either 2” or 1.25” dia/EPS using the adapter supplied.

A quick look through the Dia and Baader EPs and everything looks very sharp during day and night. This is my first scope so I can’t comment on moon colour and all that but everything looked super white to me, and this is viewing through my room window glass which was, embarrassingly, a bit dirty which also explains some of the haze I noticed sometimes during the day.

Looking at the moon for the first time through a scope, I was really blinded by the brightness!! I don’t know if I should use sunglasses hehe.

I had the scope in my lap so was pretty much impossible to test the 5mm EP as the moon kept jumping out.

So overall, I’m happy with my purchase and for USD350 I can’t really complain. I will keep this scope for a long long time and might actually never part with it, its like your first born and as I move up, this will become my grab and go (along with a an Alt-Az mount im thinking about buying for those quick viewing days).

I already know what my next scope will be but for now, I hope that Melbourne gets some good rains this week and I can venture out into my backyard and have a look at the heavens next week. Hope to catch up with people on a night viewing session sometime soon. Not sure who owns an Onyx here so im happy to catch up with members in Melbourne if they are interested in seeing the scope for themselves. I really think it is a bargain at this price.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

You're kidding, right? Where are the bl***y photos?????

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

what exactly did you get for $350US?

[Robert9 (Robert)]

Oh what a feeling! A (first) new scope.
Enjoy! Only 2 months since I had the same emotions.

[NCRAW]

Originally Posted by JethroB76

what exactly did you get for $350US?

OTA (comes with the dovetail and case). The original price was 600 something but been dropped to 399 and i managed to get it for 350.

Omaroo, i know i know!! sorry but im at work. will take some pics tonight and post.

[NCRAW]

Yes its a great feeling and cant wait to give it a good run tonight, if i can.

[NCRAW]

I had my first go yesterday with my scope (though through my bedroom window) and I would say I have mixed feelings. The scope and the EPs performed really well but had a couple of issues mainly the fact that stars and the moon came into focus with the focuser fully wheeled in or close to that. I'm not sure why is that?

I thought you would have a bit more play on each side. I initially swapped the 2" to 1.25" adaptor that comes with my diagonal (Guan Sheng GSO) with the one that came with the scope cause the dia one did not lock the Hyperion securely. This was due to the diameter of the bottom bit (black part) which did not fit into the reducer ridge meaning the non marring ring did not lock on the wedge. The scope one did well but changing back to the diagonal one gave me more play with the focuser but still not alot. What I did this morning is lift the EP a bit and tigthen the nut which meant the ring held to the EP barrel on the end.

But they are great EPs and the moon was really there. Only thing it was very bright and could not see the details beacuse of the that.

I did not use the GOTO yet and was just releasing the clutches but i think i should easily get the alignment now that i have better feeling for the set-up.

One nice feature i liked about the Onyx is the rotatable focuser which was great for all those odd angles of viewing the moon from the bedroom!!

The focuser also held well even with the weight of the EP and diagonal.

I guess i just expected a lil bit more out of the max mag from the 5mm and im not sure if i can even use the barlow with it due to the focusing issue.

Any ideas and suggestions are really welcomed.

[NCRAW]

Problem sorted by using the hyperion in the 2" mode but keeping the 1.25" barrel atatched. The barrel does not touch the diagonal mirror.

[toryglen-boy (Duncan)]

still waiting on pics