Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought this telescope primarily for visual use. I almost decided to get a smaller aperture. However, after seeing the telescope size and comments on it's handling, I decided it would be light enough for me to setup alone. The telescope tube and fork are pretty heavy. However, the ergonomics are very good such that lifting the tube isn't too bad (carried close to your body).
I was seriously tempted by the Meade LX200R 10" and 12" scopes. In the end I decided the ergonomics on the Celestron were better and it was quite a bit cheaper (Celestron 11" was cheaper than Meade 10"). The fork mount is perfect for visual use since it can be setup very quickly. I suspect the Meades would be better for serious imaging if mounted on an equatorial mount. I was concerned about getting a telescope shipped to my home, but in the end it wasn't damaged in transport.
I love the goto features of the scope. Using the handheld controller you can quickly find objects in the sky. I find the built in database quite good for visual objects. I quickly started using the Constellation view mode (view objects in a constellation) to reduce the amount of slewing across the sky.
I find the auto-sky-align feature to work pretty well. This alignment mode is great since you don't need to know star names; just pick 3 bright stars. However, it is prone to occasionally fail alignment and 3 stars take more time than 2 stars. To eliminate the alignment failure and decrease the alignment time (2 stars only), I now primarily use auto-2-star align despite the fact you need to know the star names.
The 10x50 finder scope is not terribly good but does the job.
My focus knob is not as smooth in turning as some telescopes in the store. I notice this more as the scope is near the horizon. There is quite a bit of mirror shift when focusing but this is a Schmidt-Cassegrain characteristic. It took me some practice to obtain fine focus. I plan to order a feathertouch focuser to get finer control over the focus.
My telescope was shipped with the GPS turned off. To turn it on you must go deep into the menus. I also discovered that you must set your scope to the proper daylight savings time setting or some stars will be out of range.
The cord wrap feature sometimes annoys me. This feature tries to prevent wrapping the power cord. However, I usually watch for this problem anyhow and the cordwrap feature sometimes forces longer than necessary telescope slews. Cord wrap gets turned on automatically after every alignment.
The tripod seems pretty heavy duty and comes with a nice heavy eyepiece tray. My tripod did not come with a leveling bubble. Placing the telescope fork on the tripod is pretty easy. Once you manage to grab the center guide pin with the fork, you simply need to rotate the base until the scope falls into the retention screw cutouts. Sometimes finding the center guide pin can take about 30 seconds but you get better with time.
Optically the scope seems pretty good so far. You can see the Cassini division of Saturn and banding on Saturn and Jupiter. It took me a while to figure out collimation. I ordered a set of Bob's knobs and played with the collimation for a while to get the hang of it. I have tried to perform a star test and didn't get a perfect diffraction pattern on either side of focus. I believe there is possibly a slight downturned edge in the mirror from looking at the diffraction patterns. However, so far objects in the telescope look great and I am not an optical expert anyway.
I have used the Neximage web cam for Lunar and planet images. The images turn out great. I have also tried some limited piggyback photography. All of my viewing and imaging so far has been from my backyard in a suburban light polluted area. I am able to see quite a few galaxies and nebula from my backyard.
Celestron technical support is a bit slow in responding to inquiries through their web site.
Overall, this is a great scope for visual use.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Celestron CPC 1100 StarBright XLT GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain 2800mm Telescope with Tripod and Tube
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