Celestron CGEM II 800 EdgeHD 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope

Telescope optics is really great, CGEM II mount is also very rugged and accurately track stars and planets with 40 lb payload. I am really enjoying this scope and mount on clear nights.This is quite heavy equipment, especially the mount is quite heavy as it has to be lifted to the top of the tripod and then screwed in to be secured. Figure out where to hold the mount so that you can lift it safely and sit it properly on the top of the tripod. Do it few times to get a hang of it and it should be easy there after.This system is all ready for tracking automation. The CGEM II mount has Celestron ASCOM driver. You download it from Celestron site, install it in your laptop. Thereafter you can control the mount movement from any Astronomy software from your laptop by connecting a USB cable through the Nexstar+ hand controller. It is also possible to control the mount by WiFi from laptop or mobile device if you attach Celestron SkyPortal WiFi adapter.The most important addition to your telescope will be high quality eyepieces, just like you add lenses to your DSLR camera. It is surprising that Celestron has decided to bundle a mediocre 40mm Plossl and a cheap 1.25" star diagonal with this fine astrograph quality telescope. Anyone who has no experience in telescope will be very dissapointed after looking through that 40mm eyepiece. Why Jupiter and Saturn are looking like tiny specs? To see what this scope is capable of, you need to invest in few quality eyepieces. I cannot stress enough on the word quality. I have purchase a wide FOV 2" 18mm, and 1.25" 8.8mm Explore Scientific and a 5mm Pentax eyepiece to cover all my viewing interests. These are expensive eyepieces, but you will get what you have paid for. It impossible to get nice crisp high magnification view with an inexpensive eyepiece. Do some research and buy the very best eyepiece you can afford. You may find this resource very useful to determine which eyepiece you may need http: // astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_viewHere are few other accessories I have found essential for this scope:A Celestron red dot finder. This is whole lot easier to use than the stock finder scope.A Husky 15 gallon job site cart to carry the mount safely to star party.Celestron Starsense auto align system. You plug it in with CGEM II mount and it automatically aligns the mount for you. This is a real time saver and a very good investment for this scope.If you want to do astrophotography, then you will need to add an additional focuser. The in-built focusing system suffers the dreaded mirror flop, which plagues every SCT. Mirror flop is a nuisance with high power eyepieces as the stars or planets visible in the eyepiece will jump from one location to another as soon as you reverse the focusing knob turning direction. This is not a defect as this happens in every SCT where focus is achieved by moving the mirror. This in-built focuser also lacks precision and it is quite useless to achieve critical focus with CCD camera. I have added a Baader Steeltrack Crayford focuser, which I have found excellent.I hope this may help someone who is new to astronomy and planning to make an investment in this telescope.

In this combo the CGEM II mount is the most pricey piece. The whole setup is fairly easy to put together but mind you it is heavy. Altogether it is a little over 70lbs when fully assembled. The operation of the unit is fairly straight forward but I think they should have elaborated more on proper alignment or made the process easier. The hind controller is from a different era, I do not quite understand why they do not update this to something more modern. On the plus side, the unit can be controlled by both Mobile phones and computers as long as proper connections are made (Wifi or USB). The optical tube is of decent quality however one has to be careful about picking the right eyepieces. My being new to this, had to go through some trial end error before I found a set that I can live with for now. I hope this helps any one looking to purchase this.

Thank you