A New addition to the Family

This week saw a new addition to my family, ......my telescope family that is. After long deliberations and an approval from the family CFO, I placed an order for a Celestron CPC800.

I say, long deliberations because the decision to purchase a new observational instrument is never an easy one for me. For those that know me, they know that I do not like parting with my green backs very easily, and a scope like this requires more than a few green backs. By far this is the most that I have ever laid out for my "hobby."

So how did I arrive at the CPC800 you ask? Well, it has been a long journey, let me tell you about it. As you may know, my main observing instrument for the past year has been a 10" f4.9 reflector on a Dobson mount. This was a step up from my 8" dob reflector that I had used for many years.  The increase in aperture was fantastic and really allowed me to go deeper than I had ever done with the 8". However, along with the extra aperture comes additional weight. I hate to admit it, but the weight issue starts to become more important as one ages and especially when you have to transport and set up the scope at remote sites. My back just ain't as good as it once was, even then it wasn't that great.

The solid tube reflector tube had a weight of about 40 lbs. Anything more than this is really pushing it, especially when handing a precision instrument. It ain't no bag of cement, you know! So weight and portability were high on the list.

The second consideration was the GOTO capability. Now for a long time I have been a strong advocate  of star hopping. You know, using a star chart to "hop" your way from one object to another. Well, ever since fitting my 10" dob with manual degree circles and utilizing a real time planetarium program, I have felt the ever-increasing pull towards the GOTO revolution. I say revolution, but in reality, these computerized GOTO scopes have been available since the 80's, I am just a wee bit behind the times I guess.

GOTO does two things, first it allows the location of faint objects to be like falling off a log once the scope has been properly aligned. Secondly, it keeps the object in the field of view, allowing the possibility of astro-photography at some point down the road.

So, the criteria was a GOTO scope who's components individually weighed not much more than 40 lbs. There were a few candidates, but I settled on the Celestron CPC800. The 8" aperture was driven by the weight consideration as the next size up, the 9.25" weighed in at 64 lbs! The 8 inch was 42 lbs which I thought I could live with.

Reviews of the CPC family on Cloudy Nights forums were generally positive. This is a scope that has been around for a while and Celestron has hopefully had adequate time to work out any bugs in the mechanics and software that drives the scope. I am not one of those that goes out buys the latest and greatest of anything. I prefer to go to school on other's experiences.

The deal closer on the Celestron was finally the sale that the company was running. It was not a huge sale, but it was enough to make me pull the trigger sooner rather than later.

So, there you have it, my reasoning for the new family addition. The subject of my next blog will be the first light impressions of the new family member, until then...clear skies.

rw