I've been a loyal C8 user for over 26 years. My love of the hobby started with my purchase of one of the first pre-Hally Super C8 Plus Black CATs with Starbright coatings. I spent many a night galaxy hopping very faint fuzzies that could only be verified by my buddy with his 17.5" Dob (yes, the optics were really that good).
Our place was flooded in 1990. I have pictures of water up on the observatory. The scope stayed "dry", but the prolonged humidity had done its work and about 5yrs down the road the silvered surfaces began to spider. Undaunted, I purchased a 1990's vintage Celestar 8 Deluxe (Fastar/Starbright). The optics on this scope were also very good (but not quite what I'd originally enjoyed). This scope has given me many pleasurable nights under clear skies over the last 5 years. Oh, and of course I was a setting circle snob - "how can you pretend to know the night sky if you can't drive your own scope?".
Lately, I've been stalked by a Celestron CPC 1100 with XLT Starbright Coatings, of course. In a weak moment my bride let me adopt it.
Saturday night, I took it to our club's members night. We had a good night. The humidity was a little high, but the skies were steady. Set up was quick. The star alignment procedure is a little clunky but worked very well (much better than my Meade DS2000 mount I use with my PST). We looked at all our favorites - The Helix, Swan, Trifed, Blue Snowball, Catseye, M13, and many more. Every time anyone came to the eyepiece, they gasped at the view. It didn't matter if it was vetran observer or a new club member, the result was the same. The views were detailed and almost three-dimensional. I was seeing texture in nebulae that I've looked at many times before and never appreciated. Oh yes, and that thing I said about manual setting circles? We were able to observe about three times the number of objects in a given amount of time.
Well, as the prayer goes... "Oh Lord, make my words tender and sweet, cause I may have to eat 'em".
Munch, munch, munch. Very tasty!
Cheers & clear skies!
Blake
Our place was flooded in 1990. I have pictures of water up on the observatory. The scope stayed "dry", but the prolonged humidity had done its work and about 5yrs down the road the silvered surfaces began to spider. Undaunted, I purchased a 1990's vintage Celestar 8 Deluxe (Fastar/Starbright). The optics on this scope were also very good (but not quite what I'd originally enjoyed). This scope has given me many pleasurable nights under clear skies over the last 5 years. Oh, and of course I was a setting circle snob - "how can you pretend to know the night sky if you can't drive your own scope?".
Lately, I've been stalked by a Celestron CPC 1100 with XLT Starbright Coatings, of course. In a weak moment my bride let me adopt it.
Saturday night, I took it to our club's members night. We had a good night. The humidity was a little high, but the skies were steady. Set up was quick. The star alignment procedure is a little clunky but worked very well (much better than my Meade DS2000 mount I use with my PST). We looked at all our favorites - The Helix, Swan, Trifed, Blue Snowball, Catseye, M13, and many more. Every time anyone came to the eyepiece, they gasped at the view. It didn't matter if it was vetran observer or a new club member, the result was the same. The views were detailed and almost three-dimensional. I was seeing texture in nebulae that I've looked at many times before and never appreciated. Oh yes, and that thing I said about manual setting circles? We were able to observe about three times the number of objects in a given amount of time.
Well, as the prayer goes... "Oh Lord, make my words tender and sweet, cause I may have to eat 'em".
Munch, munch, munch. Very tasty!
Cheers & clear skies!
Blake
