CGE 1400 Purchase

Whoo Hoo!
Selling a bit of real estate and so $ will be closer to my sweaty palms than usual.

Have a Celestar 8 Deluxe and figure nothing exceeds like excess! Or Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

The opinion sought concerns the Celestron CGE 1400. Imaging is part of the picture. Not going for National Geographic images mind you,but more for personal enjoyment. Since I do not (yet) posess a personal observatory, this is a setup/teardown thing. The C-8 with counter weights and equipment mounts and everything else MUST approach 40 lbs, so the issue of portability linited to my immediate 7 acres seems manageable. Traveling with it is something different I suppose.

1 - Apeture fever considerations aside what is the bottom line opinion of this instrument?

2 - Are there any hidden "portability " concerns? If I tell my wife that it doubles as a clothing mannnequin maybe she won't divorce me ...ANOTHER telescope? Whats wrong with otherone? It's smaller and a nice color..."

3- Would you sell the 8"? I'm thinking I'd be lucky to get $1000 for it, but then what do I need it for?

The point is, I may have an opportunity to effect a once nin a lifetime upgrade, so why not go for "Maximum Smoke"?

thanks

Go for it, the 14" makes for some nice images. Astrophotography inculded. It is a little heavy, but what 14" isn't?
I have a 15" DOB and and a NS8GPS and the 15" DOB gives a much better image of deep space objects and nebulas.
I doubt that you will regret it as long as you understand the wieght factor.

I got to look through two of these C14 OTAs at
Winter Star Party. I was very impressed; they
gave a nearby 10" $40K APO a good run for its
money. Planetary detail was really nice on Jupiter
and Saturn. Go for it, I say.

Read my review on the C14 at Cloudy Nights. I can't speak for the mount but I can for the scope. It will make an 8" seem, as Arnold says, "Puny and weak."

http://www.cloudynights.com/reviews4/c14.htm

Paul Atkinson
AstroProProducts.com

Replace the tripod with a Meade and this will take care of the shakes. I had a adaptor plate machined from Aluminum.

Mike

Attached Image:

Don,

Nobody has answered your second question about --should you sell the C-8.

I say no--for several reasons

The first is, assuming it is your only other scope, you will need it for those nights you want to do some kind of outreach (You do, I assume, occasionally share the heavens with the general public), or you just want to take the scope out for a quick look, or something. Although they are generally the same type of scope, the 14 is much larger than the 8, and getting it into place for observing, cool down, and all that will be a bigger deal. You need a little scope for just those nights.

Second, you may want another scope to learn astrophotography on, or for looking through when the big one is taking pictures.

THird, you don't need the money all that much, and you would not get from the market what the 8 is worth to you.

Lastly, someday you will get older, and the 8 will be all you want.

Alex