Posts Made By: Samuel Jacobson

Hello all,

I purchased a C9.25S with the express interest in mind of astrophotography due to the telescope's excellent optics, as well as ability to render planetary and deep space images. However I elected to get the non-GOTO version simply so that I would force myself to learn how to find things. Regretfully I have had difficulty keeping objects, such as Mars, in my field of view long enough to even look at, let alone take pictures of (I have a ToUcam CCD webcam).

I have been trying to get a clear picture of what I would need to be able to refit the heavy duty CG5 mount/tripod to move ahead with using the rig for astrophotography. I was initially told that I would simply need an axis drive, thus looked at Celestron'd dual axis drive system. Then I came under the impression that a GOTO would be needed, and was therefore looking at Meade's Autostar #493 fitted for the CG5.

However after talking with a technician at Celestron it was made very clear that, according to him, the GOTO would not track any object but just help me locate the celestial body by slewing to it. According to the technician the only way to do astrophotography on the CG5 would be to buy a dual axis drive, radial (off) axis guider, guide eyepiece, camera t-ring, and guidestar. Is this correct? This struck me as not only completely new (i.e. that I have not seen in my readings nor via answered questions), but more in-line with trying to do astrophotography with a 35 mm camera, etc..

So now I am confused. With the heavy duty CG5 that Celestron currently sells with their C9.25 and a ToUcam do I need only a dual axis drive or a complete GOTO system or the array of items the technician suggested?

Thanks in advanced for any help!!!

Respectfully,

Sam

Hello all,

I would like to take pictures of the moon and planets with my Celestron C9.25 Schmitt-Cassegrain and, accordingly, I purchased a ToUcam Pro CCD webcam. From my readings it seems pretty clear that people routinely choose Adobve Photoshop in order to help process pictures. However when I took a look at the prices for Photoshop it was rather expensive. As such I was wondering if an older, thus less expensive, version of Photoshop could be used (the current verison appears to be 7.0)?

Thanks in advance!

Sam

Hi!

Last night I had a chance to attend a star watching party and took my C9.25. I was excited as I recently installed dual axis drives to my stck CG5 mount head, as well as just finished fitting a Pelican 1660 case for my OTA (I succeeded in getting everything but my mount head, tripod, and eyepiece collection inside the 1660. As such I got a lot in the case, and was very happy).

At the star watching there were 3 dobs (looked like two 8" and one 17"(?)) and my telescope. Due to the time of setting up for the star watching I could not see Polaris, as such I had to approximate where it was. As it turned out I was close but not perfect in my estimation.

When using the system with the new dual axis drives I noticed the RA on the dual axis drives slewed very quickly and I could keep up with the fast movement of the moon, etc.. Yet the DEC could not keep up. In the end I would always loose the celestial body I was looking at very quickly. In fact even with a 25X eyepiece the moon would only stay in the FOV for around 30 seconds and then I would have to reposition the telescope.

This was exasperating to say the least, especially since the 8" dobsonian would keep an image of Mars in its FOV for a long time, whereas my telescope could not (I could barely center it as it would leave too fast).

Any thoughts? Is the fact I could not get a really good polar alignment the problem I was experiencing? Is the dual axis drive system not working (I tend to think this may be the case since I could not get the slewing to work for the DEC nearly as fast as the RA)? Do I need a better mount than the CG5 (I had also included legs stabilizers), such as a Losmandy GM8?

Thanks you all in advance!

Sam

Hello all!

I purchased a Celestron C9.25 that was non-GOTO as I wanted to learn how to navigate the sky. However after several years of owning the telescope it has become very obvious that I am just not dedicated enough (perhaps due to time) to learn how to properly find night time objects to look at.

I was therefore wondering if someone could suggest a decent (read workable but not super expensive) GOTO system that I can upgrade the stock CG5 mount/tripod that came with the C9.25?

Thank you everyone! I appreciate the advice!

Respectfully,

Sam