First Light!

After waiting over a month, my new Celestron CPC 800 telescope arrived yesterday morning. Since we've had solid overcast for the past few weeks, and it is very nearly a law of nature that you will have cloudy skies whenever you get a new telescope, I had little optimism that I would get a chance to do any observing any time soon. But lo and behold, as I was driving home from work a hole opened up in the sky, and the waxing crescent moon hung high above in the blue sky. I raced home, quickly unpacked the scope, and set it up in the living room.

The telescope appeared to be in great condition, and so I quickly moved it out to the driveway to see what I could see. With little time left before the clouds came back, I didn't even bother powering the scope up. I manually pointed it at the moon, inserted a 40MM 2" eyepiece and had a look. WOW! The moon filled the eyepiece, and gorgeous detail was visible along the terminator. I popped in a 29MM eyepiece with a 2X barlow and was floored with the view. Stark shadows stretched out from the mountains and fine details could be seen along the crater walls. It was like flying across the moon. I only had a few minutes to admire the view, as the clouds came back and covered the sky.

I moved everything back in the house, and concluded that the 8" scope was definitely the way to go. I was surprised at how large the thing is, as the telescope alone weighs 42 lb.s. The tripod comes in at another 27 lbs. so all up the beast weighs nearly 70 lbs. The 9.25" or 11" scopes would have been pushing the boundaries of convenience. I think anything heavier than the 8" would have resulted in diminished enthusiasm for lugging it outside and setting it up.

Since there were no stars visible, I wasn't able to check the collimation precisely via a star test, though judging by the crisp details I saw on the moon, I think it's probably in pretty good alignment. I did pop a laser collimator into the diagonal, and was puzzled to see the beam bypass the secondary be a good half-inch! I'm thinking that the collimator itself may be out of collimation.

I'm hoping we get at least one good clear night within the next couple of weeks. Mars is in opposition on Jan. 29th, and while it's not a great apparition, it's the best we'll have for the next four years. It will be a good opportunity to do some imaging.

Now I just have to figure out where to store this thing.