Written by Celestron Cpc 925 Starbright Xlt Gps @ Amazon.com
Celestial Object Database Identify feature tells you what you’re looking at, but it can also be a very fun way to tour around the sky. Just point the telescope up somewhere and ask it to identify Messier objects (for instance) and it will show you the 5 nearest Messier objects to your position and let you go to them. You can keep doing this for different parts of the sky or for different object types–it is a lot of fun. There’s also “Solar Sys Align” that lets you align on the sun or moon for daytime observing–it is easy to use this to see planets or bright stars in the day. Innovative Features With the introduction of the CPC Series, Celestron has “gone back to the drawing board” and re-designed, re-engineered, and re-invented a telescope family that provides superior quality, unsurpassed ease of use, and incomparable value. All CPC models ship standard with our NexRemote telescope control software. Most helpful customer reviews 15 of 18 people found the following review helpful. I contacted Celestron and they instructed me to take the telescope apart, remove a part, and reassemble it for shipping. I had to repackage it and send it to their repair department. Their department received it on the 23rd of January and they STILL have it. It’s now Feb 25th. I bought a BRAND NEW telescope and I have yet to use it. They told me that their repair department has up to 30 days to process a repair. Or what? Nothing. I call and they simply tell me that I have to keep waiting. There is a line. Wait for an email with your shipping information. No consolation prize, no rush on the repair, NOTHING. Simply, too bad, you have to wait longer. Not only that, but their customer support line services the entire world. They even tell you that when you call. So the wait time can be extremely long. If I knew this is the customer service process, I would not have bought this product. The telescope is no doubt a great one. I just wish I could have found out by now. Unacceptable customer service that I have no choice but to accept. If customer service is anywhere near the top of your list, do not buy from Celestron. 10 of 12 people found the following review helpful. 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. After owning a Nexstar 8 for a year, I decided to upgrade. I selected the CPC 925 because I thought the CPC 1100 was too heavy. The CPC series has several advantages over the Nexstar. The twin fork mount and heavy-duty tripod are much steadier than on the Nexstar SE series. This greatly reduces focus shake and improves go-to accuracy. The 8SE go-to is quite good, once you balance the tube and learn to work with it. The CPC 925 is better by half, right out of the box. They share the same hand controller so the internal catalogues are identical and they use the same alignment procedure. The CPC has built in GPS, so unlike the SE series, time/date/location entry is not needed. But don’t get the CPC for the GPS, it really only saves a few seconds when aligning the scope to observe. Buy if for the rock steady mount/tripod and the very accurate go-to and buy it for the excellent optics. I set up my 8SE, mounted on an older heavy-duty tripod, and the CPC to compare them on the same targets. I carefully aligned both using the simple Auto Two Star (I select Polaris and center it. The scope selects Castor and slews to it. I center Castor and push the enter button. That is all). Some faint galaxies not seen in the 8SE were barely seen in the CPC 925, but galaxies clearly seen in the 8SE had much better definition in the 925. Doubles were more nearly pinpoints with the 925. Just for fun I spent a few minutes along the terminator of the first quarter moon. The seeing was only fair, but was able to use a 4mm EP (530x). With an 8mm EP, the views were very good with both scopes, but again, slightly larger and more detailed with the 925. The 925 comes with a straight through 50mm finder that might not be in focus. It is focused by rotating the objective housing, something not covered in the manual. A reflex, red dot, or right angle correct image finder is a worthwhile upgrade. I have a SV F50 and a red dot. The included 40mm EP is fine, but you will want to get one or two others. I recommend something about 20mm to start. Owl Astronomy and others sell very good so-called super wide angle (around 65 degree FOV) EPs for >$50. A zoom in another option until you discover what works well for your eyes, in your night sky. Less expensive EPs often work very well in long focal length scopes like the CPC 925. You will need an AC adapter rated at 12v/2.5A, or a 12V power pack (sealed lead acid battery) or you can run them off the car battery. At least some CPCs shipped with bad DC power cables (too thin) and the scope works erratically when these are used. Celestron will replace it for you. Is the CPC 925 worth the price, especially when optically it is not twice as good as the 8SE? I think so as long as you can manage the weight. If not the 8SE is less than half the weight, has an adequate go-to and tracking, and is darn good optically. |
Poor Service
Waiting for CPC Edge HD
A Truely Good SCT
