Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Your the joke, your well thought out intelligent answer
reflects your ingnorance and knowledge of telescopes....
get a life loser!!!

Overall Rating: 10
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Please refer to review dated 7-1-2001!

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Ok it was 7/9

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
at the risk of also being branded a loser, I'd have to agree with the writer who called the scope a "joke."
I've read numerous reviews of this scope and the laundry list of problems
keeps growing. Flimsy tripod legs which collapse, poor pointing accuracy, and
other mechanical woes. I'm waiting for the Meade purely because they've been
the leader in go-to scopes. Plus, check out their website for a side to side comparison of the two. The LX 200's reputation is solid. Optically, I'd likely call it a tie, but Meade will take the prize in mounts, mechanics,
and go-to capability.
Greg

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I wouldn't call you a loser because you gave an intelligent
answer that requires thought, unlike the previous entry.
However, I would like to point out that Meade also has its
"laundry list" of problems as well. Case in point, at my
astronomy club two members that have LX200's 10" have night
mare stories to tell. One member when he received his meade
it wouldn't slew at all. But he stuck with it and went through
the proper channels to have the problem remedied. Just recently
he had a problem with the control paddle, it wouldn't accept
the number 6 on the keypad for some reason. I was a witness to
this. He also told me this is already his second control paddle,
he had problems with one before this one. But meade had no problem
sending him a new one. The other member had a problem with the
tracking drive. Apparently the worm gears stripped and tracking
was useless. Meade sent him a new scope. My point is, is that
meade has its share of problems just like celestron does. Be fair
in your judgment. I had no problem whatsoever when I received
my Nexstar 11. It works perfectly. I have runned it against my
meade members at observing sessions and this is what I came up with.
Pointing accuracy: Pretty close, the meade is a tad better, about
4-5 arc seconds difference, but the object is always in the field of
view. Slewing: Meade is faster, is anyone in a hurry?? Meade slews
louder, Celestron is quieter, who cares?? Optically (most important):
tie. Mounts: both solid. I don't know why some people complain about
the celestron mount, mine is solid and doesn't collapse. It seems there
must of been a batch of bad mounts that got out. Celestron obviously had
some quality control problems with this scope. I own a Nexstar 11 and
I am pleased with it....But I don't bash Meade, despite some of there
for mentioned problems I think their a fine scope. Or I could go to the
Meade rating site and call it a joke.....but only a moron would do that.

Then people will talk about the "bad reviews" but never say anything about
the good reviews like David Novinski's review on Cloudy Nights. And your
reference for a bad reviews?? Reading reviews is one thing and can be
helpfull, but hands on experience is indispensible.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Regarding the comment concerning the LX200's 18V supply.

The new LX200 GPS models have FINALLY been changed to 12V. I still have no idea why they saw the need to use 12V. The only decent way to use it in the field is to use 3-6V gel cell batteries in series.

In any case the Nexstar 11 is available and the Meade GPS series won't be available until 2002. In my opinion the mirror lock and linear focuser are worth the wait...

Clear Skies!

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Like I said before, this scope is a joke. All Nexstars are Jokes, so are the Meade ETX's for that matter. Wait for the Meade GPS scopes of get an LX90 now.
Autostar is the way to got. NextStar's have so much slop in the drives they become almost useless. As far as Goto, might as well starhop with a NexStar.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Meade LX-200's are a joke, get the Nexstar GPS...........
I can talk like moron too. It doesn't require any thought.
Why don't you try to make an
intelligent comment or is that to hard for your pea sized
brain?!!!

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
When it comes to telescopes (or for that matter anything else) people have normal biases and it's natural to get defensive about our favorite products. I am biased in favor of Celestron--yet I've never owned a Meade scope--I do think that Meade's 18mm super-wide eyepiece is pretty darned good.

At any rate, I am pleased with my gps 11--it had a few alignment problems initially--ref some previous articles--but overall, it works great, the optics are great (paired with the Meade 18mm eyepiece). Last night my husband and I easily pulled out 21 faint galaxies in Pegasus--in the eyepiece field every time.

Perhaps Meade's GPS scope will perform with less glitches than Celestron's, but I will probably still be biased to my Celestron--just call it foolish product loyalty!
Joanie in New Mexico

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I'm afraid you guys who are wrangling and bitching at each other over telescope brand loyalty sound about as intelligent and articulate as a group of hillbilly pickup truck owners debating Ford and Chevy. Truly unbelievable.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I own one, that's right I'm commenting from experience using one. I love it! Optics are excellent! I have to say it has better image than the 16" LX200 in the college observatory.

The focusing mechanism is much improved over the C8 I traded in to get this scope.

The go to seems pretty darn accurate too. Considering variation in recorded observations for an object, I doubt any go to will be pin point accurate for all objects across the sky. Every object I have looked for has been in the field of view with a Meade 18mm Ultrawide. How much more accurate do you need. It is great to finally be able to find those dim objects I could not see (find) with my C8.

For those who think it is "junk," maybe something is wrong with yours (have you tried the 11 GPS or played with the NexStar 8 and assumed the 11 had the same mount issues). This scope is steady as a rock. Of course if you bump into it there is going to be some wiggle but it rapidly settles down (even if you don't use the supplied vibration suppression pads). Those pads help a great deal with the minor dec motor vibration someone mentioned.

As for the battery issue, I have to agres with the 12V arguement. Batteries are easy to find and cheap. As pointed out, if you are a serious observer for long sessions you will need additional power for dew removing devices, computers, coffee warmers, etc.

Bottom line, I love the scope! If you don't like Celestron, if you prefer Meade, etc. fine. Buy one. I'm sure they will be outstanding too! It seems this forum should be for constructive comments, not for someone saying thier toy is better than ours.

For the true amature astronomers . . .

Hope for clear, dark, steady skies!

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I own one, that's right I'm commenting from experience using one. I love it! Optics are excellent! I have to say it has better image than the 16" LX200 in the college observatory.

The focusing mechanism is much improved over the C8 I traded in to get this scope.

The go to seems pretty darn accurate too. Considering variation in recorded observations for an object, I doubt any go to will be pin point accurate for all objects across the sky. Every object I have looked for has been in the field of view with a Meade 18mm Ultrawide. How much more accurate do you need. It is great to finally be able to find those dim objects I could not see (find) with my C8.

For those who think it is "junk," maybe something is wrong with yours (have you tried the 11 GPS or played with the NexStar 8 and assumed the 11 had the same mount issues). This scope is steady as a rock. Of course if you bump into it there is going to be some wiggle but it rapidly settles down (even if you don't use the supplied vibration suppression pads). Those pads help a great deal with the minor dec motor vibration someone mentioned.

As for the battery issue, I have to agres with the 12V arguement. Batteries are easy to find and cheap. As pointed out, if you are a serious observer for long sessions you will need additional power for dew removing devices, computers, coffee warmers, etc.

Bottom line, I love the scope! If you don't like Celestron, if you prefer Meade, etc. fine. Buy one. I'm sure they will be outstanding too! It seems this forum should be for constructive comments, not for someone saying thier toy is better than ours.

For the true amature astronomers . . .

Hope for clear, dark, steady skies!

Overall Rating: 9
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Extremely sensitive to local magnetic variation/deviation and will not point North or find its target stars for alignment. Once manually aligned (typically an offset of ~20 degrees), it never misses its target. Heavy, but worth it. Great with a 31mm Nagler!

SAzmus@msn.com

Overall Rating: 7
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Had mine for 3 months now. GO-TO works great. Spent a night last month with a buddy and his LX200 10" comparing views and GO-TO performance. N11 has brighter images, and is as sharp or sharper than the LX200. The N11 could match him, power for power, on all objects. It has a bit more mirror shift than my old C8 (which had almost none) but I can live with it. The mount IS a bit undersized, but with the included vibe supression pads it is VERY stable, even at high power. On a recent good night, Saturn looked great at 311x.

Overall Rating: 8
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Has anyone had any astrophotography experience with the Celestron 11" GPS system. I was talking to my local dealer at Scope City and he was telling me that he has had nothing but great experiences with the new scope and would highly recommend it.

I asked him about the photography capabilities of this new scope and if Celestron has done anything to make the nexstar system better at keeping alignment of objects in the sky. He said that Clestron was actually working hard to make this setup very astrophotography friendly to compete with Meades great LX200(has great tracking). He informed me that he has never tried it but assumes with the experiences he has had that it should be really good at it.

So again, my question to any astronomer out there that has had a chance to try it out.. this is something that I am very interested in and will help judge my decition on the product.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
It could easily be a "10", but it has a few software problems. I got my GPS 11 two months ago and love it/hate it. There is a problem with the hand controller that cannot be fixed according to Celestron. The hand controller will "lock-up" periodically for no reason. To "un-lock" it you must pull the plug and start over again. There is also the problem if you set the Filter Limits high and accidentally or intentionally push button #5 (planet) when there are no planets inside of the high Filter Limits, this causes the hand controller to also "lock-up". I love the thing when it works and Celestron says that they will send me a new hand controller when the bugs are fixed. The optics are beautiful, and on cloudy days my daughter and I just look at the beautiful Carbon-Fiber tube. There is no compensation for MAG VAR so the two alignment stars are always about 10 DEG Left. I put it on an equatorial mounting peer that I made for it and it does not slew to the alignment stars in the equatorial alignment mode which was disappointing. The FASTAR f/2.1 feature seems cool. The cord runs through the base, so it doesn't tangle-up, that is cool. I even like the eyepiece they sent, I agree that eyepiece covers would have been a nice 5 cent feature, but a large deflated red balloon fits nicely over the optic (joke). I guess you skimp where you can. I will love my scope more when the new hand controller is in my mailbox.

Overall Rating: 8
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I own one and have had no problems to date. Tracks well and optics are the best I have had in an SCT. I have used on wedge and set up for photography. Very stable and tracks well. I am in very light polluted large city so can't really wring this puppy out but feel pictures from a dark sky area should rivel anything produced by any other SCT.

Overall Rating: 8
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Just wanted to chime in again with 2 comments. First of all I just got the latest copy of Sky and Telescope which to my suprise had a review on the Nextstar GPS 11 scope. You all can trust S&T to give the best reviews.. So go and check it out, they gave the scope a really great review. They also went over everything you guys keep going back and forth about!! Its all in there.
Second, has anyone used the scope for any astrophotography yet?? I am more into CCD imaging but I would like to know how it works under the pressures of slewing and tracking.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Don't own one allmost did, at last minute I bought the LX-90. I own a C9.25 OTA which is good. The reason I did not buy it was the review in SKY and TEL. It sounds like the mount is way undersized, another celestron trademark and the lack of magnetic compensation is just a bad design when you are paying 3k for a tube and a bad mount. If you want to put it on a wedge you have to go out and get another mount, the mount for the LX 90 is solid, why can't celestron at least give you a solid mount like that one. The autostar, from my experience is also better I feel, I had a nexstar 8 but sold it.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I have to admit, the Nexstar Mount is undersized, but even so if your just stargazing then the mount that comes with the scope is more then fine. I would have liked Celestron to make a more sturdy mount. I will wait for the LX200 GPS to come out to see the differences.

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