Celestron C8-SGT vs. Nexstar 8 GPS ?

Since I bought a C9 1/4 SGT about 6 weeks ago, I'll comment. I got
the GoTo feature primarily because it was only a little more expensive
than a dual drive system. I've been happy with the mount, although I
have not tried any photography yet. With the slightly lighter
telescope you are looking at, you should be even more stable.

The system is easy to set up. I have it down to about 15 minutes to
get the the telescope assembled and balanced and about 10-15 minutes
to get it aligned (both polar aligned and 3 star aligned). If I do a
decent job, I've found the tracking to be very good.

If you have a hand held GPS, or access to a decent Topographic map of
the areas you will be observing from (in other words, anything that
will give you a close Lat/Lon), don't bother with the GPS. The people
at Oceanside Photo and Telescope talked me out of the GPS and into a
nice eyepiece instead. In retrospect, that was great advice.

On to your questions:

So, I have a couple of questions.

1. Which of these scope is better for astrophotography?

I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I understand,
both can be used if set up properly. If you want to use the fork
mount, you will need a wedge and some additional set up. Both
telescopes will require careful alignment (both polar aligning and
computer aligning).


a) do the fork mounts in alt/az mode of the 8gps track well
enough?

See above. The key is getting the wedge set up to the proper angle
and the telescope properly aligned. As I understand it, this is a
little more work than using a GEM.


b) will the C8-SGT track well enough for astrophotography?

Heck yes. I've seen some great photos taken from this mount. On
nights that I've been a good boy and gotten the telescope well
aligned, I can be working on high magnification and have the telescope
drifting only slowly. There is an autoguide port on the mount that
should make it even better.


2. Do iether of these scope track planets or just starts?

Both telescopes have sidreal, solar, and lunar tracking rates. The
planets (except for Mercury and Venus probably) move slowly enough
that sidreal tracking is good enough.


3. What eyepieces are recommended an "needed" starters

a) are celestron eyepieces any good? Which ones?

Well, they aren't bad, but there are better. I went ahead and got the
"starter kit". It had 4, 6, 9, 15, and 32mm eyepieces along with a
shorty barlow and a bunch of filters. When you combine this with the
25mm eyepiece that comes with the Telescope, that gives you a pretty
good selection. I was talked into a TeleVue Radian 8mm in addition to
the above and have been VERY happy with that eyepiece. My philosophy
was to get the Celestron Starter Kit (since everybody seems to agree
that it is an excellent value even if the eyepieces aren't top of the
line) and play with some of the eyepieces before deciding on which
eyepieces I wanted to upgrade. Good eyepieces, like good camera
lenses, are expensive and you probably want some time looking through
them before deciding what you really want to spend your money on.

As a note, you will probably rarely use the 4mm, and probably the 6mm
as well. The magnifications on these are so high that you require
very good seeing conditions in order to support that kind of power.



4. Any more info would be greatly appreciated.

If you have more questions, please e-mail me. I've been very happy
with my telescope. I considered the C8 SGT before deciding that my
budget supported slightly more aperature. I would definitely save
some money for:

1. A dew shield.

2. A Red Flashlight. I've found that I like the little red LED
lights that you can get at REI for about $10.

3. A Power Tank. The Celestron one is very nice. My only real
complaint about my telescope is the incredibly cheap car adapter that
came with it. The power tank is very nice and comes with a MUCH nicer
connector. I consider the Power Tank a must, not an option.

4. A nice Star Chart. I was used to looking through the sky through
10x50 binoculars and wasn't quite prepared for trying to navigate with
a telescope (I'd looked through a lot of them but had never actually
tried to find anything myself). A nice Star Chart is a must.

Where up at Tahoe? My mom lives in Orinda (East Bay) and has a place
up at Tahoe as well.

Clear Skies.

Mark