Celestron Advanced Series 8"

Does any one know if the Celestron Advanced Series 8" SCT is any good
for CCD imaging? I know that the G9-1/4 was bad from personal
experience, but has Celestron gotten there act together with this new CG-5?

-Aaron Smith

"Aaron Smith" wrote in message
...
Does any one know if the Celestron Advanced Series 8" SCT is any good
for CCD imaging? I know that the G9-1/4 was bad from personal
experience, but has Celestron gotten there act together with this new
CG-5?
The way you talk, it sounds as if it was the mount, rather than the scope,
that gave you problems?. None of the current mass market mounts are really
'bad', but some are very much aimed at being just about 'adequate' for
visual use, rather than photography. Personally, I'd have kept the C9.25
tube, and put it on a mount like a G-11...
Generally, on all the various scope 'families', where several models share
the same basic mount, the examples with smaller tubes are 'better' for
photography. The C9.25, is because of it's design, both heavier and longer,
than it's 'size' figure would suggest, and therefore does show up problems
on the mount. None of the basic mounts will take long exposure photographs
of reasonable resolution, without 'help' (guiding at the least, or an AO7,
for the ultimate 'tweak' in this regard).
Yes, the advanced series 8", will be slightly better than the older mount
(though it depends a bit which version you had of this - latter examples,
have the extra bearing, and function significantly better), but without
knowing whether you had a bad example, what loads you were trying to attach,
and what resolution you were trying to image, it is impossible to give an
absolute answer.

Best Wishes

"Aaron Smith" wrote in message
...
Does any one know if the Celestron Advanced Series 8" SCT is any good
for CCD imaging? I know that the G9-1/4 was bad from personal
experience, but has Celestron gotten there act together with this new
CG-5?

-Aaron Smith

I assume you mean long exposures? If so, the CG-5 is a visual mount though
it will also perform well for stacking lots of short exposures.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try the Lunar Observing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/