Thank you for making and sharing this video. I read the instructions, but seeing you installing the wedge is a great visual aid. I think I can do it now.
Again, Thanks Sascha - thank heavens I found you, oh you lighten my heart! The ill informed opions about Alt-Az on a Wedge versus the EQ mount / drives have been very distracting and plain wrong. Your images and comments are proof. I had also come across a lovely lady in the States with the same set up and she too had great success with precise tracking to do great AP. Finally, yes, I have set up the SCT OTA to piggy back my ED80 on top for spectroscopy imaging - weight is absolutely no problem. Your FRA400 will be fine. (I too have the FRA400 on an AM5 mount - a "travel" set up). Balancing with a counter weight on the bottom is it, and easy. Once I get everything working properly I want to try doing OSC / Hyperstar imaging (through the SCT) at the same time as the ED 80 (Mono camera / EFW), both on the same DSO. I'll do the guiding through the ED80 setup. Haven't thought this all the way through yet re camera control, but I'm sure this is possible.
Well, just as a work of caution, I aborted my piggyback plans and ordered a dedicated mount for the FRA400. Guiding error worsened extremely.... If I would have spent more time on balancing - who knows, but it just did not feel ok. Video about it out in the next days....
@@viewintospace ok, I’m tempted to say balance is the trick. You need to use counterweights so it balances horizontally very well - I can send you the Starizona tutorial on it. But I use a few kgs and it’s a matter of sliding up and down the slide on the underside of the OTA to really get it floating with the rig fully set up - I’d like to think you were light on weight.
Thanks for this. Very brave video. I wasn't sure which allen bolts belong to the plastic washers, and still don't. LOL. It's a heavy wedge. Be sure to remove the handset and holder before moving the scope on the wedge. The ZWO uncooled planetary cameras with the side ports allow the camera with back focus to be installed without the USB or power cords hitting the mount. A least on my CPC 925 HD. There is another mod I am exploring for a ZWO ASI533 using F/10 and 146mm back focus, but sadly not with a reducer. Only for long exposure astrographing smaller DSO galaxies.
Greetings from California! Thank you for your great video. This is all VERY familiar to me. You have to be VERY careful handling such a large and heavy scope manually, especially as you get older --- can be dangerous if not handled carefully. I have an old manually-operated Celestron Ultima 11 SCT scope (VERY similar to the CPC 1100). After using it on its tripod for a number of years for star public parties, getting very tired of the weight, etc., I realized that it was time to mount it permanently on a pier in my backyard. I visited a junk dealer to find a suitable pipe to install it in the ground. Fortunately the pipe already had a flanged end with bolt holes. Then I built a bolt-on top plate to place on it and mounted my wedge to it. Then I built a very-small and compact roll-off observatory shed for the telescope (the size of an enclosed telephone booth). I was president of our local astronomy club for about six years and also an official volunteer public outreach representative for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for about 6 years, exposing the public and school children to astronomy and space exploration. Glad to see you are having fun with your new scope. How is it going for you? 😎
Thanks for sharing Walter! Yes, the CPC is quite a special kind of scope, and as it was my first one, I have a very special relation to it. Still, the bulkiness, the sub-par guiding and the constant issues I had with backfocus brought me now to point, where I feel our ways will part. I just received a wonderful, lightweight, highly accurate mount (soon featured on this channel) and I could put a 8' SCT on it. So it feels that this is the better alternative....
Hi Sacha Yes I would love you doing a Video about Don't Defork your CPC!!! I just wish there there was an easier way of getting the CPC on/off the Pro HD Wedge.
Sorry, never did such a video. Just set it up direction north and then use the CWPI software of Celestron to polar align it. After that, kill the CWPI software, switch the CPC-800 off and on and align "North Polar Align". Then connect with ASCOM to your Control Software (e.g. NINA) and you are ready to go. Never use the CWPI ASCOM interface to connect to NINA/PHD, as it is very unstable and will crash right during your shooting which is super annoying.
It is probably the best upgrade you can make to your CPC. Changing from Alt-Az to Eq opens a whole new dimension of possibilities to you. And once you have the wedge installed (which is not complication but yes, kind of annoying as you can see), it works very well and polar alignment with CWPI is really easy. A further advantage of the wedge vs. an Eq mount is that no meridian flip is required ever.
Hello Sacha, thank you for this video. I have the exact same scope but in the French part of Switzerland. AltAz has been fun for a while but I wish to do AP now, did you have any success with this setup ? I'm undecided between deforking and buying this wedge. Cheers !
DO NOT DEFORK! .... I should/will make a video about that ;-) Anyway in short: 1. The wedge works perfectly and my pictures speak for itself (Instagram: view_into_space ) If I could change things I would switch to the HD version, but this is it. I can make 300s exposures (guided) which are razor-sharp. 2. You never have to do a meridian flip with the fork design 3. The fork resp. the motor is ultrastrong. So balancing? Yea, a bit but in principles not that important... Putting a second scope piggyback? Sure, no problem. So imho the fork has practically only advantages, I will never understand people who defork their CPC.
@@viewintospace Thanks for the reply ! I will look into the HD Wedge. I won't load much equipment on it, probably just an OAG+guide camera, and the visual train for imaging. Looking forward to your video. Clear skies !
Thank you for making and sharing this video. I read the instructions, but seeing you installing the wedge is a great visual aid. I think I can do it now.
Very good video! Thank you very much!
Again, Thanks Sascha - thank heavens I found you, oh you lighten my heart! The ill informed opions about Alt-Az on a Wedge versus the EQ mount / drives have been very distracting and plain wrong. Your images and comments are proof. I had also come across a lovely lady in the States with the same set up and she too had great success with precise tracking to do great AP. Finally, yes, I have set up the SCT OTA to piggy back my ED80 on top for spectroscopy imaging - weight is absolutely no problem. Your FRA400 will be fine. (I too have the FRA400 on an AM5 mount - a "travel" set up). Balancing with a counter weight on the bottom is it, and easy. Once I get everything working properly I want to try doing OSC / Hyperstar imaging (through the SCT) at the same time as the ED 80 (Mono camera / EFW), both on the same DSO. I'll do the guiding through the ED80 setup. Haven't thought this all the way through yet re camera control, but I'm sure this is possible.
Well, just as a work of caution, I aborted my piggyback plans and ordered a dedicated mount for the FRA400. Guiding error worsened extremely.... If I would have spent more time on balancing - who knows, but it just did not feel ok. Video about it out in the next days....
@@viewintospace ok, I’m tempted to say balance is the trick. You need to use counterweights so it balances horizontally very well - I can send you the Starizona tutorial on it. But I use a few kgs and it’s a matter of sliding up and down the slide on the underside of the OTA to really get it floating with the rig fully set up - I’d like to think you were light on weight.
Thanks for this. Very brave video. I wasn't sure which allen bolts belong to the plastic washers, and still don't. LOL. It's a heavy wedge. Be sure to remove the handset and holder before moving the scope on the wedge. The ZWO uncooled planetary cameras with the side ports allow the camera with back focus to be installed without the USB or power cords hitting the mount. A least on my CPC 925 HD.
There is another mod I am exploring for a ZWO ASI533 using F/10 and 146mm back focus, but sadly not with a reducer. Only for long exposure astrographing smaller DSO galaxies.
Greetings from California! Thank you for your great video. This is all VERY familiar to me. You have to be VERY careful handling such a large and heavy scope manually, especially as you get older --- can be dangerous if not handled carefully. I have an old manually-operated Celestron Ultima 11 SCT scope (VERY similar to the CPC 1100). After using it on its tripod for a number of years for star public parties, getting very tired of the weight, etc., I realized that it was time to mount it permanently on a pier in my backyard. I visited a junk dealer to find a suitable pipe to install it in the ground. Fortunately the pipe already had a flanged end with bolt holes. Then I built a bolt-on top plate to place on it and mounted my wedge to it. Then I built a very-small and compact roll-off observatory shed for the telescope (the size of an enclosed telephone booth). I was president of our local astronomy club for about six years and also an official volunteer public outreach representative for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for about 6 years, exposing the public and school children to astronomy and space exploration. Glad to see you are having fun with your new scope. How is it going for you? 😎
Thanks for sharing Walter! Yes, the CPC is quite a special kind of scope, and as it was my first one, I have a very special relation to it. Still, the bulkiness, the sub-par guiding and the constant issues I had with backfocus brought me now to point, where I feel our ways will part. I just received a wonderful, lightweight, highly accurate mount (soon featured on this channel) and I could put a 8' SCT on it. So it feels that this is the better alternative....
Hi Sacha Yes I would love you doing a Video about Don't Defork your CPC!!! I just wish there there was an easier way of getting the CPC on/off the Pro HD Wedge.
I will most likely to this video this week. I will surely also address the massive weight and how I deal with it.
Hi there thanks for the video. I was wondering if you did a video on how to set it up and use it ?
Sorry, never did such a video. Just set it up direction north and then use the CWPI software of Celestron to polar align it. After that, kill the CWPI software, switch the CPC-800 off and on and align "North Polar Align". Then connect with ASCOM to your Control Software (e.g. NINA) and you are ready to go. Never use the CWPI ASCOM interface to connect to NINA/PHD, as it is very unstable and will crash right during your shooting which is super annoying.
Does it help a lot? Some people are telling me not to spend the money. I have the CPC 1100
It is probably the best upgrade you can make to your CPC. Changing from Alt-Az to Eq opens a whole new dimension of possibilities to you. And once you have the wedge installed (which is not complication but yes, kind of annoying as you can see), it works very well and polar alignment with CWPI is really easy. A further advantage of the wedge vs. an Eq mount is that no meridian flip is required ever.
Hello Sacha, thank you for this video. I have the exact same scope but in the French part of Switzerland. AltAz has been fun for a while but I wish to do AP now, did you have any success with this setup ? I'm undecided between deforking and buying this wedge. Cheers !
DO NOT DEFORK! .... I should/will make a video about that ;-) Anyway in short: 1. The wedge works perfectly and my pictures speak for itself (Instagram: view_into_space ) If I could change things I would switch to the HD version, but this is it. I can make 300s exposures (guided) which are razor-sharp. 2. You never have to do a meridian flip with the fork design 3. The fork resp. the motor is ultrastrong. So balancing? Yea, a bit but in principles not that important... Putting a second scope piggyback? Sure, no problem. So imho the fork has practically only advantages, I will never understand people who defork their CPC.
@@viewintospace Thanks for the reply ! I will look into the HD Wedge. I won't load much equipment on it, probably just an OAG+guide camera, and the visual train for imaging. Looking forward to your video. Clear skies !
@@viewintospace
Celestron only has the HD pro wedge listed on their website.
Was there an HD version available and why do you prefer it?
Thanks
Is this telescope that you advise for beginners?
Really depends on a lot of thing - have a look here: ruclips.net/video/TqspoHtwdVE/видео.html