开云体育

Hi Paul. I graduated from a 1979 C8 (with outstanding optics) to the
C14 in March 2000.

The fit and finish is excellent. I have used it 30-40 times and it
shows on signs of ware. Mechanically it is very good. There is very
little focus shift at f11 with the ST237 CCD. Also, the scope can be
easily set up by one person in the field. I don't have a permanent
location for the scope, and my set up and take down time is only 10-
15 minutes!

The optics seem quite good. The Ronche test with 4-5 lines shows
very streight and smooth. The star tests are very good and show
excellent, to my eye, identical, in and out of focus images.

I also used the SBIG Hartman Mask Analysis software with a 24 hole
mask. Results show all angles at .24 waves or less. I am not
totally aware of all that this software measures. Since the test
uses real stars, and also measures all the variables such as tube
currents, seeing, etc, I guess it really looks at the entire optical
environment for measurement. I guess all this means is that the
scope is probably difraction limited as advertised.

The scope has a very narrow field of view. For DSO's I usually use a
f7 focal reducer and Meade UltraWide eyepieces. This combo gives
breath taking views under a dark sky.

With good seeing, planets are wonderful. I frequently use a 8.8mm
Meade UW at f11 to give around 440 magnification. Gives really
outstanding views. The scope does seem to be very sensitive to
collimation so I usually tweak it a little before viewing Saturn and
Jupiter.

I also image at f2 with the Fastar configuration. This gives very
wide fields, and very short exposure times. Celestron does not seem
to promote this much, but it is a powerful and unique feature that is
not available anywhere else.

I have some images posted to "files" as "Ken's Images" if you want to
look. They are really my first efforts, so there is lots of room for
improvement in technique!

Ken