To plunge or not to plunge!? The new telescope dilemma

[andeelym]

Agreed with Orly, have to discount 20%-30% on the payload.

[cloud_cover]

Hi Fuzzball!
Welcome to the club I think its exciting to have the chance to buy a C11. It really is a lot of scope!
I agree with all the others about mount load capacity though. My thoughts are that if you're going visual, its much more forgiving on the mount since you can wait for the jiggling to stop, particularly if your mount is tracking, which the i45 is.
On the other hand, focusing will be difficult since it will jiggle when touched. Also, goto may be less accurate as the bearings are overloaded.
If you have a vehicle, then definitely drive it up north where the darker skies will be dramatically different.
If you're not afraid to buy used, then consider the CPC1100 instead which is an alt az mounting. It will not allow photography stock but can be modified with hyperstar to allow imaging at f/2.
Food for thought

[superiorstream]

Hi,Fuzzball
The C11 wts 12.5 kg--OTA only--with vixen type dovetail and even heavier if on losmandy type dovetail;moreover it normally has focus shift when you are aiming vertically and this call for the additional crayford type focuser--attach on type--and additional about 1.5 kg.Well pretty heavy;also your age will play a part and as you age the wt you can safely handle decrease.Thus you should do your physics well before you buy.
As for me I have the C11;my consideration is to use the lightest parts possible.Firstly,its on a vixen type dovetail bar.Secondly,the 10:1 focuser is only mounted only after the scope is mounted and also insist on using light viewfinder.
The next part is the tricky part--I mount it on a astroslew III mount but finds that NO light tripod has leg that spread far apart enough to contain the CG of the OTA within the equilateral triangle formed by the supporting tip of the leg and this can cause the system to topple.I modify a big size--claimed capacity 60 kg-surveyor tripod and pull the leg--with self improvise rotation controlling triangular pieces--apart to satisfy the criteria.With that,I am in bussiness.My OTA wts 12.5 kg;and my WHOLE tripod about 6 kg--NO COUNTER WT NEEDED and I can bring it out to observe very easily alone.Quick setup;quick dismantling and easily steered.I even retrofit the astroslew to enable locking motion so as to enable afocal type of astrophotography.With that I photo/view the tulip cluster.
Well you may say,why not go for C14?Well the ota wts 18-20kg and handling that will hospitalise me! as I am approaching my 60s.Thats the best I can get.;and well galaxy;star clouds etc are still fuzzy patches even though more can be seen..My 2 cents.

[Fuzzball]

Hi all

I just written to Ioptron and this is their response:

Payload wise, it should be OK. But you need to pay attention to the center
of gravity of the mount since your C11 is way off the MT Pro center. It has
to be well balanced.

Thank you for choosing iOptron products.

Tech2

Your Tech Support Team
iOptron Corporation
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Hi Ioptron

I have just purchase a I-optron Minitower Pro. I would just like to confirm that the Minitower Pro can handle a celestron C11 (27.5lbs), with Nagler eyepieces (2.2lbs), 2inch star diagonal (1 lbs), and powermate (1.2lbs). The total amount in weight with scope and eyepieces is 32 pounds.

My local vendor (Singapore) says that this is fine. But I would like to just make sure that the weight is not an issue before I confirm on the scope.

Thanks and appreciate your response.

[Fuzzball]

Hi all

I am taking the plunge. I have decided on the C11 with Minitower Pro.

I have made this decision after checking 3 sources:

1) Local vendor, Star Optics which I had purchased the MPro. ( btw, great support from Robin!)
2) I-optron support US.
3) 3rd party Ioptron vendor in UK-Altair Astro. Their comments can be found on Ioptron yahoo groups site. Multiple folks have used the Minitower Pro/C11 in UK with no problems.

I also had the chance the carry the c11 OTA today. compare to my CPC9.25. It is considered very light!! The friend that showed me the c11 is in his 60s and he has absolutely no problem whatsoever lifting the OTA without much effort.

I hope I am not making a mistake. But what is life without taking risk!!

Thanks for all your advise! And clear skies!

These are the comments:
Altair Astro

Re: 33lbs too much for the Pro to handle?

We've found the capacity figures are quite correct, and probably even a tad
conservative. Our "the out of the box" Minitower Pro is perfectly adequate for
our shop C11 with a pair of Denks, SCT nosepiece, and two Pentax 21mm XL's on
the back which are quite heavy eyepieces.

high power views are very steady, and the mount points very accurately. We take
it out to star parties to demo the mount to customers, so if you're in the UK,
come and have a look.

BTW - I'd suggest using a power pack, as it will probably consume more power,
especially if you have a dew controller. Avoid the astro-branded power packs
which are actually rebranded car jump starters (but without the cables) and have
cheap Chinese batteries, which fail in the cold after a few charges. Rather buy
a 12v mini leisure battery or a proper astro power pack if you can.

Best regards,
Nick
Altair Astro UK
http://www.altairastro.com

Ioptron comments:

Payload wise, it should be OK. But you need to pay attention to the center
of gravity of the mount since your C11 is way off the MT Pro center. It has
to be well balanced.

Thank you for choosing iOptron products.

Tech2

Your Tech Support Team
iOptron Corporation

[vivid]

You will see much more DSOs in one clear night in Johor using a smaller SCT than you will ever see in Singapore in one year using a bigger SCT. Base on memory alone, I think there are less than 4 really clear nights in Singapore for the whole of 2011. Even during those clearest few nights, the visual quality of DSOs is still much lower than a "normal" clear night in Johor. The nebulosity still look MUCH better than the view through my 8" SCT *in Singapore*! The wideview framing was a nice bonus too.

Fortunately for me I guess, I still do enjoy observing planets, moon and sun. So observing them here in Singapore still makes me enjoy my hobby and sidewalk sessions. I will continue to get my main DSO fix in Johor until I can find a better, cheaper, more easily accessible and comfortable dark clear sky location.

Next time (maybe year end) when i go overseas, i will surely bring my 7 x 50 onboard a night flight. 2 weeks ago i saw so many fuzzies even on I think 3/4 moon on my side (12 march 7-1am heading northwards to Beijing) and also no moon on my side when i headed back 19 Mar 2am-8am Southwards. At 39k ft which is equal to <1% humidity and about 1/10th of the air at sea level and no haze/airglow and whatever !!@#!@ muck that we are used to, even with a full moon you cannot finish counting all the faint fuzzies, simply coz you can see them even if they are right at the horizon.

You can even see the star light from a star at a few degrees above the horizon being distinctly being reflected from the cloud tops, that is how clear and dark it is.

That view actually startled me for a while, even though I have been to a Grey site in Indonesia.

I guess the only view that could top this, that money still can buy now, would be this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izIClWYK ... ure=relmfu

Of coz technically it is not the edge of space.

Can't do much to the double glazed windows though.... But on SQ they are usually little or no hairline scratches.