Posts Made By: dave raw

[COLOR="Navy"][/COLOR]

OK so I started out with a Meade ETX and really liked the limited views and started to read these forums before my next scope purchase. I took your advise to heart and found the best "light bucket" I could afford.

The result is a 5 year old Celestron 11' Ultima with starbrite coatings on a stock tripod from someone 5 miles away. The package came with Beyers gears, 7x50 with lighted recticle(doesn't seem to light8-(), 2" diagnal, hand contoller for focus and declination although declination doesn't seem to work, and 3 stock Celeston 1 1/4" lenses ( 35MM, 18MM and 10MM). All Manual controls work flawlessly and there appears to be no image shift or collmination issues although it does have "Bob's knobs".

Initial views with the scope here on Long Island were great. Jupiter showed clear horizantal banding and 5 moons, and the Moon was spectacular with the 35 MM lens.

So now for the advanced newbie questions..

Cleaning ?
The scopes front lens has a few smudges that don't seem to effect performance but could be cleaned and the 2" diagnal has some foreign matter. What should I use, or should I get it to the local camera/scope shop for a professional cleaning.......... if I use the local shop what should this service cost

Declination motor ?
When the scope was demoed the PEC and declination seemed to be running off the 9 volt. Since it came home the declination drive doesn't seem to be operational although the moto-focus is fine with the hand controller. any ideas?

Lenses ?

I've got the 3 Celestron lenses mentioned above and four Vixen Lanthanum lenses from my ETX (6MM, 12MM, 18 MM, and 24MM) and a 2X Barlow. All lenses are 1 1/4". From your professional opinions what is a must have for this scope. Use will be basically planetary, and lunar with some nebula as conditions and light pollution allow.

Thanks in advance for your time and replies

Regards

Dave

Soliciting opinions on eyepieces for my new C11. Understadning it's a slow scope what are good eyepieces that will max viewing without being overkill on slow optics.

Consider Lunar, Planetary and Deep Sky applications.
Can accomodate both 1 1/2" and 2" eyepieces.

Thanks for your input

Best Regards

Dave

Have recently purchased a C-11 which I am really enjoying. Have some stock Celestron eyepieces that came with the scope .......of which the 24MM seems the most serviceable. Also have some Vixen Lantanum eyepieces from 9 MM - 34MM from my first scope which give good eye relief, but higher powered lenses seem to yield poor results.

So here's my question ............ looking to purchase 1 or 2 premier lenses for this beast. Thinking Naglers but before I blindly go to the market here. I would certainly benefit from the knowledgeable opinions of the forum.

will be doing lunar and planetary viewing with some deep sky.... key objects as this is not a goto scope and celestial knowledge is limited at this time.

Interested in maximizing FOV and appeture

Thanks for your input

Best Regards

Dave

OK I tried to make a good situation better only to make a good situation worse...........

The image on my C-11 wasn't all it could be so I tried colminating it myself with some helpful Heloise information I found on the Celestron site and elsewhere on the web.

Unfortunately it appears I've made a bad situation much worse and now the scope will not resolve stars and planets, and even the moon which was perfect last night is soft and fuzzy. When looking at stars they look like shuttlecocks from badmitten.

Can anybody suggest a strategy a novice can follow, or suggest someone in the NYC Long Island area that can perform this so I don't have to ship the bloody thing back to Celestron for professional servicing :S

OK I tried to make a good situation better only to make a good situation worse...........

The image on my C-11 wasn't all it could be so I tried colminating it myself with some helpful Heloise information I found on the Celestron site and elsewhere on the web.

Unfortunately it appears I've made a bad situation much worse and now the scope will not resolve stars and planets, and even the moon which was perfect last night is soft and fuzzy. When looking at stars they look like shuttlecocks from badmitten.

Can anybody suggest a strategy a novice can follow, or suggest someone in the NYC Long Island area that can perform this so I don't have to ship the bloody thing back to Celestron for professional servicing :S