Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Had my nexstar 11 gps for a month now and I can say its a fine scope.
Why the previous review had to complain about the carbon fiber tube?.
So what! How does that effect the optics or the drive? I could care less if
its carbon fiber or aluminum, its functional and it works. I also experienced
that hold and jump effect in the tracking but solved it my READING THE MANUAL
about the anti-back lash feature which works. Optics are exellent, view of
saturn was awsome. Did need to collimate it though. splits the double double
no problem. The mount is solid, whats the problem? Cosmetically arrived
perfect, not a scratch. People should critique a telescope on things that are
important, not something insignificant. Critique the optics, drive, mount.
And I think some people don't know how to collimate a telescope which can
make all the difference in optical performance.

Overall Rating: 9
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
It is not the backlash that caused two of these scopes to jerk while traking. The pivots for the OTA were stiff to begin with!! And when you are already traking in sidereal rate with the weight of the OTA already "riding" against the worm gear then backlash cannot be the problem, it can only be a problem when starting out traking, changing directions, or when the weight of the OT changes direction! And, it is important to me that if I am buying a NEW telescope I expect it to not have a marred finish. Would you buy a NEW car with a big scratch down it hood? I did go thru three, thats right, THREE of these scopes and was dissapointed. I did think the mount was OK. It was especially stable when the suppression pads were used under the legs.
I still rate them a 3.

tillertim@qwest.net

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
celestron and meade, sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you dont.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Addressing the jerking movnent when tracking etc. I purchased my GPS 11 by phone at Starizona in Arizona. The owner asked my if I would mind if they opened the scope up to give it a TUNE UP before they shipped it. The reason for this he told me, that some of the GPS's where shipped to the dealers and did not have enough lubebrication on the gears which cause rough gears, jerking montions, and loud noises. This make sense why some folks have had no problems, and others found the scope to be rated 3. I as lucky to find a dealer who knew the problems and fixed them before they shipped it to me. I would have been very upset if I had the problems some of the reviewers had. I would have not gave it the 10 that I did. It seems Celestron had some quality control problems, and did not find out until some reviews came to these boards and others. That is what make the Web so great, things like these come out much sooner than it would have ten years ago. If anyone is interested in getting one of these, I would suggest that you make sure these problems are taken care of fist. It will save a lot of frustration.
Tony in Napa Ca.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Sorry for all the typos in the last comment. I hate when I edit something after I send it.
Tony in Napa Ca

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
From everything I have read in Egroups, I think Celestron makes fine SCT optics but hasn't a clue how to make a good goto mount. I have owned the N5 and N8 and they are toys compared with the LX200s. Furthermore, there are so many problems that have been reported I can't see why anyone would want a Nexstar. The GPS feature is worthless in my mind. An LX200 can be accurately set up in less than 2 minutes. Why wait 5 minutes. I have also heard that there are GPS satellite lock ups and miss the alignment stars by a long shot.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I agree also about the usefulness of the GPS alignment. In all three scopes I tried out, none could put the alignment stars closer than 2 to 4 views of the finder scope (not very handy after waiting for it to do its thing). I had tried a NexStar 8 previously and it put the alignment stars INSIDE or right at the edge of the finder scope (not to mention that it also had superior optics) every time! It appears the amount of error in slewing to an alignment star is about the same that it was off from true north when it started (it has to use magnetic north instead of north off of Polaris). So, aligning the NexStar 8 on Polaris by hand and then slewing automatically to an alignment star was much quicker and more accurate (you can do it this way too in the NexStar 11GPS)!
tillertim@qwest.net

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I guess the person who gave his review on 7-10-01 was the the best. It is great, it sucks. Stick with Celestron, Meade sucks. Go with Meade. Celestron sucks. By a Ford not a Chevy. Ford sucks. Etc etc etc Truer words have never been spoken. I am going to Sears and buy a real scope.And for only $99.00. Keep this thing going.
Tony in Napa caesar1111@earthlink.net

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Performs better than advertised. Arrived in perfect collimation. Goto system always perfectly centers any object I select. I've viewed objects at 14.5 magnitude that I have never seen before! Highly recommended...

Overall Rating: 10
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I am on my second GPS 11. I too have had a tripod with a bad leg and the first GPS 11 had problems with activating the level switch. Good news is that Celestrons service is fast. I called on a Monday and a new scope arrived the next day. The GPS alignment is a let down since it goes to magnetic north so alignment targets are way off. If Celestron won't fix this in their firmware I'll have to incorporate my own fix. The grip points make handling and setup very easy. When aligned and collimated the scope is great. Tested pointing by selecting over 50 objects after a single 2 star alignment and it pointed and centered each one perfectly over a course of 2.5 hours. I wish the controller cord was a little longer but it's not too short. It's a solid scope worth considering.

Overall Rating: 9
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
I Purchased the GPS 11 from astronomics and received it 4 days later. Pretty Good. The scope arrived in good condition. The tripod was stable and sturdy. It had none of the leg problems that others have described. The scopes hand holds make it easy to set up on the tripod and the scope is very stable. The first time out the setup went as expected until it attempted to align on the guide stars. It was significantly off with the alignment several scope widths off. After manually centering and locking in the guide stars, the scope performed flawlessly. It centered objects every time. The tracking was absolutely steady and quite frankly impressive. Its slewing is very silent. As far as the optics are concerned, I have used many different scopes including maksutov's and quality refractors. I found the gps 11 optics superb and cant imagine why anyone would be disappointed. The mount I found solid and had none of the jerking or kicking motion that others have reported. I found the Carbon Fiber tube to be as heavy as any other comperable scope but the cooldown was definitely quicker. The pads they sent with the tripod worked great with vibration dampening time almost instantanious. Overall I found this scope to be of superb quality and a fine scope. I did email celestron about the problem with the alignment. They responded the same day indicating that it is a problem with magnetic alignment and that a fix is currently being explored and may be available next year. This is a small matter to me and easy to work around. I would recomment this scope to anyone.

Overall Rating: 8
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Well, I am on my SECOND GPS 11 and I really haven't had a chance to test it properly so I will rate the first one. The optics were excellent, the motor drives very smooth and quiet. However, the GPS was NEVER successful in aligning the scope--after three nights and a total of about 10 hours of frustrating attempts. (I thought that it had to be my own incompetence--but, after all, this scope is supposed to be easy to use.) My 14 yr. old C-8 Powerstar aligns more quickly. The GOTO objects were consistently outside the field of the stock 40mm eyepiece and sometimes outside the field of the finderscope. I talked to John at Celestron about five times--He was always courteous and made many suggestions about using different stars for alignment--avoiding the zenith, or stars too close together, checking for image jumping etc, and nothing solved the problem--so back to the manufacturer the scope went.

Overall Rating: 3
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Addressing the last entery. It sounds like there's something wrong with the
Gps module or the computer itself. Have you tried other alignment methods such
as autoalign or two star align where you enter the information yourself? Its
unfortunate that you got a lemon, hopefully the second one will be fine.
Mine was perfect the first time, no problems, its a fine scope. Don't get
discouraged.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
One thing no reviewer has mentioned is the one reason I'm waiting for the Meade
LX 200 GPS. Two words, "battery power." Celestron goofed releasing the Nexstar
with AC power. Plus, you have to pay more for the optional 18v adapter. that's a crime! I pay $3,000 bucks for a scope I want to use it out of the box.
No cables or chords. With the Meade I pop in 8 C batteries and I'm ready to roll.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Ref the entry posted 10/07 on failure of the GPS system to align the scope after many attempts. I received my second scope and it works perfectly--objects almost always dead center in the eyepiece. John at Celestron has not had a chance to examine the returned unit--and says that GPS or computer error is rare--but they have had a few with such problems. Just my luck--but I'm quite pleased with the new scope and would recommend the GPS 11 to S/C fans. The optics are very good and the ease of use is welcome. I've had a Powerstar 8 for years--so I've finally earned the right to become a lazy stargazer!

Overall Rating: 9
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
How does it works in equatorial mode?
Is the tracking of the scope accurate?
Can you make long exposure ccd camera images?
Does st-7 selfguide works well?

thanks

Marco Prunotto

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
In regard to the review about battery power being the only reason waiting
for the Meade GPS. First of all celestron uses standard 12v battery
power not 18v like meade does. Getting a standard 12v power supply is
inexpensive compared to the 18v supply which is hard to find and is
very expensive. I purchased a 12v, 19amp power supply for 50 bucks. Plus
you got to consider use of a dew heater which is almost if not is
essential for a schmidt cassegrain. I can power the scope, dew heater,
and the lap top all on the $50 power supply, all night. So even though
the meade uses internal batteries you will still need to invariably power
other accessories eventually. I'm not knocking meade, the meade gps
looks like a fine scope, but having internal battery power seems like
such minor luxury. If you got a lot of little luxury items on a telescope
but a poor optical system, it is worthless.

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
According to Celestron tech. support--the GPS-11 does not take into account the magnetic deviation for finding the north. This means it will probably be off somewhat when initially slewing to the alignment stars. In other words not necessarily in the field of the finderscope until the operator manually centers the stars. Once this is done subsequent pointing should be accurate. Celestron MAY provide a fix for this in the future either through an upgrade via the internet or the hand control. So don't lose patience with GPS alignment unless after centering the alignment stars the scope still doesn't perform properly.
Info only--JA

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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
Celestron NexStar 11 GPS

This scope is the first scope to provide the traveling amateur with a built in GPS system. For those unfamiliar with GPS it downloads
your location on earth via Lat and Long coordinates to the scope. Along with exact time. The scope also has a built in compass and level
in the right fork arm for finding North on it's initial alignment. The pointing accuracy of this compass is subject to variation errors from
magnetic North to true North. I live in Florida there is a scant 2 degree error here. My NextStar pointed 12 degrees off from North. I
have found from comparing three different units that this is typical. " It's no big issue ".

Build Quality is very good and Celestron must be commended for there fit and finish and very good use of design and castings. The base
houses a large gear turned via a worm with two 1.5" roller bearings supporting the fork arm castings rotating on the base plate.

Carbon Fiber is not new to telescopes it allows a low thermal expansion over a wide range of temperature. The material is extremely
strong and lightweight durability is not an issue the material has been used in Aerospace for many years. Celestron used the Carbon Fiber
as a selling point for the weight yet the scope is still hefty at 65 plus lbs. I'm glad they didn't try and tell us that they used it for it's
thermal expansion because the design of this optical tube would not matter. The entire optical tube is supported by two aluminum
brackets on each side of the fork arms. The design supports the Carbon Fiber tube by holding the rear mirror cell and the front corrector
in alignment.

Fastar design is built into this optical design and seems to work very well. My unit when unscrewed loosened the entire design and forced
me to remove the corrector and repair the secondary FastStar alignment ring. " Small problem " Look for more imaging using this at a
latter date. Celestron is suppose to start shipping the F 2.1 lens any day.

Pointing accuracy on initial alignment is not great plan on it being up to 20 degrees off initially this using the GPS startup. However don't
get discouraged because once you sink the scope up get ready. Out of the box this NextStar 11 is the most accurate pointing scope I have
ever used. The pointing accuracy when slewing all over the sky is just under 5 arc min this is better than my observatory world class
equipment can muster. " Celestron Wins The GoTo Pointing Accuracy "

Altazmith mode. There seems to be a vibration induced by the fork arm motor in this mode. When viewing Saturn at 500x The planet
looks a trace off in crispness. I have seen this before on Losmandy mounts. I decided to shut the motors off on both axis and was
rewarded with a fantastic view of the ringed planet. Since this proved it was the motors I further isolated it to not the RA motor but the
Dec motor. If you run the scope in North Equatorial mode the planet looks very crisp proving it's just some harmonic in the design.
I don't remember my Meade LX200 having this problem but I also don't remember using them in the Altaz mode.

Optical Quality The scope arrived very slightly out of collimation I adjusted the secondary and was in awe on how good the optical
quality of this scope is. Perfect Star test both sides of focus and even the optical tube settled in under 30 min. I did notice Celestron does
mark each optical piece for proper placement and it appears they were all hand assembled.


Perfect Star Test

Overall Rating: 9
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Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS
"Not a big Issue"? I thought the point of the GPS was so you could turn it on and have the system go to the first alignment star for you. Maybe to some people it's not a big issue. It's not a big issue for me. But, it was a major selling point for the scope. A selling point that they should have thoroughly tested before sending them out. Since the GPS system and the accuracy of pointing to the first alignment star was an advertised and crucial selling point that doesn't work as advertised, then basically Celestron put out an 11 inch version of the Meade LX200.

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