Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
c'mon, somebody buy this thing cause i'm dying to read all about it!

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
in response to the above post. ME TOO!!!

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
You guys are going to have to wait till they actualy ship the scopes to users before you get any remarks.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
great scope!!!
;)

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
What is the central obstruction on this scope?

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
The central obstruction of this scope is the fact that no one has actually seen one. On the C11 it's 36% (?).

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
i'll tell u as soon it will arrives to me from the store.-
maybe it will be good maybe not.
but i'm hopefully that it will be a great Instrument.
frank181@libero.it

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
No need to wait folks. The reviews will go something like this:

It's great! It stinks!

The tube is great, but the mount sucks. The mount sucks, but the tube is great.

I could see God pull down his window shade. I couldn't see the light across the street.

Meade is so much better, don't bother with a Celestron. Celestron is so much better, don't bother with a Meade.

I put rocks in the mount, regreased the gears, took off the burrs, and added wooden legs. I have rocks in my head, I grease my hair, I have a burr under my saddle, and I often levitate in a magnetic field in my spare time.

GPS stand for, great pointing system. GPS stands for, God - point somewhere!

Good, but not as good as my $1,000,000,000 Takahashi with Space Shuttle controlled mount.

I hope this helps ;-).

Take care,
john

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
John,Thank you! I haven't had such a good laugh in weeks!

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
that was the most awesome review i have ever read, sums it up quite well.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Thanks gentlemen, glad I could bring a little levity into yours lives. I don't know if you've seen Dave N's review on cloudynights, but, criteria one down, six to go.

Take care,
john

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Thanks for the information john about the review on cloudynights i was dying to read about about this telescope and i think it's about time that someone will wright a review here.About the central obstruction its 12%

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Optics are great. The accuracy is surperb! EVERY object I selected was near perfect center in the eyepiece. The WHOLE alignment process to 4 minutes to complete. As for the motor tracking issues, some minor problems while using heavy Nagler 2" eyepieces for me. Celestron IS aware of the problem and is addressing this issue. Overall though, I'm calling this scope the "McDonalds Fast Food" of telescopes!! Kinda scary, someone does not have to know ANYTHING about the night sky to look at objects. These scopes will sell well!

Overall Rating: 8
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Re the question about the central obstruction, the users manual (available
on Celestron's web site) says 2.75", which I believe is wrong. That size
would come close to vignetting the entire field of view. The "Cross reference"
table on Celestron's web site says 3.75" (11.6% by area) which is about normal
for an f/10 SCT. Also, measuring the optical diagram in the manual indicates
that 3.75" is correct.

Oh, and thank you John, choice!

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I just picked it up today. Will let you know 8/27/2001........

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Picked mine up on 8/22. Here's the good bad and ugly.

Optics: awesome, at least the views so far. Really. I'm not exagerating. Really. Still haven't had a good enough night to star test it but once collimated it gave great views of test objects in all categories. Both pairs in Eps Lyra were cleanly split; Lunar detail was great. Individual stars in M13 were visible right to the core. M11 was Wild.

Tripod: to be determined. My tripod has to go back because one leg swings out too far. Same tripod as Ultima 2000. With this scope on it, vibrations tend to be low frequency and large amplitude, but when they settled down the views were very solid. I haven't tried the vibration suppression pads yet; they'll probably improve things somewhat.

Finish/Workmanship: Beautiful to look at; looks very good and overall, finish was good except: tiny scratch on tube, lens cap doesn't fit properly and needs to be replaced. Cord is awkward to get in and out of its slot on the mount. A few marks on metal part of tube between focuser and attachment for visual back.

Tracking/Pointing: Very accurate. After 5-min GPS alignment procedure, puts otest bjects near centre of eyepiece field of view every time when using a 12 mm TeleVue Radian eyepiece (233x). I didn't have any tracking accuracy problems at siderial or lunar tracking rates. I'm using a 2" diagonal and heavy eyepieces, but the weight doesn't seem to be a problem -- I have a dew shield (Kendrick flexible) at the other end.

Ease of Use: Manual is good, but a couple of typos (e.g. central obstruction is NOT 2.75" as stated; more like 4"). Maybe this was a "cut/paste" thing from the Ultima 2000 manual! Setup was quick and easy. A bit hard to find the central post on the tripod when you're carrying a 65-lb cylinder. Hand control isn't very well lit, making it hard to read the key functions. Easy to read the display though. I'll get used to the key functions over time, but on a scope in this price range, I'd expect the text on the keys to practically jump out at me. My $200 cell phone key pad is better lit.

Other: Finderscope isn't as good as the 7x50 that came with my Ultima 2000, but on the GPS 11 you may not use the finder much! It would have been nice if Celestron had given me covers for the 40 mm Nexstar Plossl eyepiece. And by the way -- the diagonal and eyepiece aren't worthy of the telescope. I thought the images looked nicer with a 2" Everbrite diagonal and a TeleVue plossl (or any other TeleVue eyepiece) than with the 1.25" prism diagonal a Nexstar Plossl.

Overall Opinion: Nice scope. I really enjoyed the views I had last night (first night was ok at low power, but conditions were too poor to collimate, and it needed collimation, which I did easily last night). By the way--the plate which covers the collimation screws is a nice touch.

Ron Brecher
rbrecher@home.com

Overall Rating: 8
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
i was really impressed with this scope and i am not a big fan of SCT's. whisper quiet slewing and tracking that is dead on accurate. excellent optical quality, i was told by the owner that its not to difficult to set up by yourself, very easy to operate. i really think the 8" version of this scope is going to be very popular. the carbon fiber tube seems to be a nice bonus. its going to be interesting to see what meade will come up with next. right now i think celestron has the lead.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Went through three NexStar 11 GPS scopes! The first one was probably damaged in shipment. Anyway they are duds optically and mechanically. The drive motors vibrate too much (on one scope the declination motor rattled the optical tube)! On two of them, when tracking, the drive motors hung and then jerked the image ahead every 3 to 4 seconds! All of them had marred finishes. One had a GPS unit that hung while searching for satellites (I had to manually get it out it). The optics, while I am not an expert, I judge all three of them as mediocre. After two hours of use on a fairly descent night of seeing I still could not get the optics to focus a star cleanly.

Overall Rating: 3
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Where to start? Let me say that I was disappointed. The scope optics are alright for SCT. However, what is the big deal about the carbon fiber tube? It weighs, inch for inch, more than a Meade 12" which is a bigger scope. In addition, anyone that knows thermal dynamics knows that the carbon fiber isn't going to make much, if any, difference in thermal cool down unless you are flying the scope at Mach 3 or it is re-entering the astmosphere. The mount, simply, SUCKS. How can you put a big scope like this on a flimsy mount. Celestrons one big drawback is consistantly putting their scopes on crappy tripods. Maybe the scope would work better on a permanent pier. Save your money. Now that Meade is dropping the price of their 12, I don't know why you'd want to buy this.

Overall Rating: 5
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Had my Nexstar 11 GPS for 2 weeks. I love this scope. Optics are very good. The mount is very stable. Tracking is a dream. The motor is VERY quite. Set up time is around 5 minutes. After that objects are centered in the EP EVERY time. I did some cluster viewing, by some I mean all that can be seen in Sagittarius. Which is many. Other than photos I have never seen clusters like that beore. The Lagoon and Trifid nebulas were not smudges but clouds of gas and dust. And this was done in last nights bright moon 9-5-01. I can not wait for the new moon. I can not say enough about this unit. I have a very bad back. I use to spend many painful hours standing and bending searching for objects on my other scopes. Now I just sit and relax and view all the objects I want. It is quick, acurate,and has great optics. I believe this is my scope for life. My wife does not believe that. Probably because she has heard it before. But maybe this time it is true. My only complaint is that Celestron could have done better with the supplied EP and diagonal. Guess i have to look at some Televue radians.

Overall Rating: 10
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