Craving a Celestron CPC 1100!

Hi all,

I knew it would happen when I re-subscribed to Astronomy Magazine. I was a charter subscriber to the mag in about 1973 and let my subscription lapse after 20 years.

Now I am wanting to get back into the hobby, and narrowed my search to the CPC 1100. I really am only interested in visual use, no astrophotography for me.

I hope this part of the discussion doesn't violate forum rules (I looked!), but I notice on every website I see, the price of the scope is exactly the same. There are no scope stores where I live, so I plan to buy it online. My question is, can anyone suggest a dealer that is willing to negotiate on the web price? Sent an email to one dealer and got a ho-hum response.

Anyway, thanks and would appreciate any thoughts any of you may have. Never been on this forum before, but I see I have a message inbox so feel free to use that venue.

William

William Daley said:

Hi all,

I knew it would happen when I re-subscribed to Astronomy Magazine. I was a charter subscriber to the mag in about 1973 and let my subscription lapse after 20 years.

Now I am wanting to get back into the hobby, and narrowed my search to the CPC 1100. I really am only interested in visual use, no astrophotography for me.

I hope this part of the discussion doesn't violate forum rules (I looked!), but I notice on every website I see, the price of the scope is exactly the same. There are no scope stores where I live, so I plan to buy it online. My question is, can anyone suggest a dealer that is willing to negotiate on the web price? Sent an email to one dealer and got a ho-hum response.

Anyway, thanks and would appreciate any thoughts any of you may have. Never been on this forum before, but I see I have a message inbox so feel free to use that venue.

William

Hi William:

I have no idea if any vendors negotiate on Celestron prices. I doubt it though.

Have you considered used? I searched "CPC 1100" on Astromart (this fine website you just joined) and see that 3 or 4 of these have gone on sale over the last few days. I and many thousands of others have safely bought like-new equipment at deep discounts on Astromart.

Here is one for sale at about $925.00 less than retail:

http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=701865

I don't know the seller, and I don't know you! But it seems you could drive back and forth from Missouri to Colorado in a day and do the deal in cash with no risk to either of you and no risk of shipping damage.

Jim

Hi William,

You might also consider a used Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS - the predecessor to the CPC 1100. It has the same optics in a carbon fiber OTA instead of metal and the power cord does not wrap around the tripod since its attached to the fixed portion of the base instead of the rotating portion like the CPC. I've seen a few of these sell at bargain prices lately.

Regards, Tom

Hi William. From time to time, about once a year or so, it seems Celestron and Meade have sales where they either discount their scopes or offer nice incentives to purchase a scope. I saw on the back of the latest issue of Astronomy that Meade is offering such incentives. I wouldn't be surprised to see Celestron follow in kind. It may be profitable to wait a bit.

Hi all,

I appreciate everyone's help and thoughts. I have a new CPC 1100 coming next week from Highpoint Scientific. They were most helpful.

I'm sure I will have a few questions very soon!

Thanks,

Bill