CPC Deluxe HD 11" GoTo Telescope for Maximum Light Gathering

I upgraded from the 6se… WORTH EVERY PENNY!!! The ease of use of the focus knob & locking it in with the clutch knobs… Game changer for me personally as the ability to fine tune the image of close in system planets and then also do the same on a galaxy like andromeda, YES! My 10year old son loved telling me now when the skies are clear for even a quick session. *It’s HEAVY, so we have it set up, and covered in the garage. I can’t imagine unmounting and packing it in & out of those boxes since no case is supplied.

A little bit big and heavy to be considered as a mobile telescope But the quality is great and the alignment is acceptable

It's an amazing piece of equipment a bit heavy to set up especially if you're putting it on a wedge the tracking on a wedge with an autoguider is pretty accurate overall extremely happy with telescope very well-constructed and gathers a ton of light for astrophotography

Great!! Only one problem, if you try to collimate using their directions you will have a major issue. I suggest you contact celestron as their manual is out of date.

This is my first telescope and considering I am a rank amateur most people might think that the CPC Deluxe 1100 HD is an overkill. I bought it with the realization that buying a SCT that would meet my needs for at least 3-4 years was worth stretching the budget by 30%. I was particularly interested in the edgeHD optics and preferred the 11" diameter. I live in Melbourne, Australia and used Borderlinx for shipping the packages from a local warehouse address in the US. The telescope arrived at my front door in 6 days from the time I ordered. Shipping and duties cost me roughly 25% of the total cost. Local stores in Melbourne sell the same telescope for almost 75% more than Amazon's price. I had never imagined how big and heavy this telescope is. It is monstrous and quite a sight to behold when mounted on the tripod. While I can set it up by myself in the backyard, I suggest getting help particularly when aligning the locking pin on the base of the OTA to the hole in the tripod base. It can be tricky to do it alone. My first ever viewing experience was a complete disappointment. While I could find the moon in the spotting scope I could see nothing through the eyepiece. I didn't know what to say to my family who were watching the whole show with amusement. The next day, I decided to read the manual again and after a google search, I discovered that I had to "align" the spotting scope with the view through the eyepiece on a terrestrial object and this was best done during daylight. I carried the 30 KG OTA and 15 KG up the stairs to our bedroom balcony and carried out the alignment (basically adjust the spotting scope mounting screws until the view through the eyepiece of the main telescope and the small spotting scope were almost centered at the crosshairs. That night we had our first OMG and HS moments when we saw the quarter crescent moon through the 23mm Luminos wide angled eyepiece. Our neighbor joined the fun and couldn't believe what he was seeing. We have now seen the Jupiter and its moons several times. But that's all we have seen in the one month that we have had the telescope - our moon and Jupiter. I am yet to see other planets or galaxies or ny of the DSO's. I am still a rank beginner. Perhaps I need to wake up or stay awake till when the sky is darker. Perhaps I need to learn how to use the GoTo hand controller better. I have also joined the local Astronomy club and look forward to attending their sessions to learn more. It will be great to meet and discuss with other CPC 1100 owners in Melbourne or anywhere in Australia to learn from them. Overall, I am very happy with the CPC Deluxe 1100 HD telescope and am looking forward to adding the equitorial wedge to the collection and do some astrophotography.

This is my third Celestron telescope. I started with a Nexstar 8SE and then moved on to an older (used) C11 on a CG5-ASGT German Equatorial Mount (GEM). My son and I found that we liked the ease of set-up with an altitude - azimuth (Alt/Az) mount scope since we like visual observing, but we like the optics of a big 11" Optical Tube Assembly (OTA). We rarely used the older C11 and used the Nexstar 8SE all the time due to the ease of alignment on the 8SE using three bright objects. The C11 required Polar alignment. This amazing behemoth combines the best of both worlds. It has the optics of an 11" (and improved with the Edge HD upgrade!) plus the convenience of an Alt/Az mount. I added Celestron's StarSense to it. With StarSense, I can carry it out and have it aligned in about 10 minutes. Alignment itself with StarSense takes about two minutes once you have everything plugged-in and you push the button. Witout StarSense a manual alignment takes maybe 5-10 minutes. Again, it is very heavy, so make sure you are "fit" before ordering one of these unless it will be permanently set-up in an observatory...total weight of the entire scope is 97 pounds and most of that weight is in the Optical tube / dual fork arm assembly. Celestron sells a heavy-duty wedge for this one for those who wish to use it for astrophotography. Tracking and go-to's are VERY smooth and precise; much better than the 8SE, and the 8SE was not bad. The included 23MM Luminos eyepiece is fine; it is arguably one of the better ones in the line-up. I recommend anyone who buys this also invest in either TeleVue Ethos eyepieces which are legendary or my chosen favorite brand - Explore Scientific (ES). The ES 82 degree and 100 degree series eyepieces mate very well to this telescope. The factory (JOC China) that makes the ES eyepieces used to make all the eyepieces for Celestron and Meade, and they now make the eyepieces for ES. Most astronomers believe the JOC-built eyepieces are better than ones made more recently in other factories. The telescope comes with built-in GPS, a DC cigarette-lighter style adapter, a nice tripod and a 2" mirror diagonal as well as the aforementioned 23MM Luminos eyepiece and a 9x50 straight-through (inverted image) finderscope. I don't care for inverted-image finderscopes, so I did not install it and went instead with a Celestron 9x50 RACI illuminated finderscope (#93781). This telescope is so good that if you purchase a StarSense to use with it you will never need a finder. I like having a red dot finder as well as a right-angle illuminated reticle correct-image finderscope, however, so I'm going to add the Celestron Starpointer Pro to it also. I will mount those items with a Vixen style SCT mount shoe (made by Orion) along with a dual or triple Vixen style adapter. A Telrad is also a nice option for a 1:1 red finder. Down to the nitty-gritty: It's an awesome telescope. I highly recommend it if you can move the thing around. Did I mention that it is heavy? Bare minimum additional purchases in addition to the telescope purchase itself: Celestron PowerTank #18774 or equivalent...you need lots of juice to run it. I use an older PowerTank 17. A dew shield. Mine is from Farpoint, but Celestron sells #94014 for under forty bucks. Celestron #93503 vibration suppression pads - keep your tripod points nice and dampen vibrations. They really do work well. Recommended accessories as your future add-ons: Explore Scientific 82 degree field of view 30MM eyepiece. Explore Scientific 100 degree field of view 14MM eyepiece. Not cheap, but absolutely amazing and well reviewed eyepiece. Explore Scientific 100 degree field of view 9MM eyepiece. Again, not cheap, but those three (plus the stock Luminos 23MM) should cover the bulk of visual viewing. If money is not a concern, look into TeleVue Ethos eyepieces in lieu of the above. Celestron #94005 StarSense auto align is very, very nice. It is not needed, and I can do a three-star alignment in about 5-10 minutes, but the StarSense is super-accurate and does it in two minutes. Lastly, a FeatherTouch microfocuser is a very nice upgrade for around three-bills. FTM-CPC11. I don't have that yet and need to add it ASAP. Cons: Heavy. Expensive. Big. Celestron hit a home run with this thing.

PRO: I purchased a 4" refractor telescope from a big-box retailer 45 years ago. While extremely limited in ability, I was thrilled to actually see a bit of our night sky most others never have occasion to personally witness. On my 71st birthday (Jan 12), I decided to relive that experience with a truly professional piece of equipment. After a LOT of review and shopping, I settled on this Celestron CPC Deluxe 11" SCT, a purchase that is truly 'light-yeas' ahead of anything I had in the past. Its level of automation is incredible, given the physical gymnastics I had to endure attempting manual manipulation of two knob-ended cables to simply track our moon back in the day. Since that time, severe physical challenges have curtailed many normal activities that others take for granted, requiring that I focus on automation far in excess of other's needs. Toward that (expensive) end, I have a new laptop dedicated to this system and its software, including the Stellarium App for my smartphone. I purchased the following Celestron accessories; the StarSense Automatic Alignment Telescope, Skyris 236C CMOS imager, Lens Shade, Two-inch Eyepiece and Filter Kit, Manfrotto 114 Cine/Video Deluxe Dolly and a number of Celestron Luminos Eyepieces. Allow me to suggest the 12V DC adapter is a must. Battery packs have a tendency to bow out when most needed, and I don't see ME personally on top of a mountain watching the sky from my wheelchair. My property is good and an long extension cord powers my setup adequately. I've yet to receive a number of the accessories so can not report on those at this time. CON: UPDATE TO NEXREMOTE SOFTWARE with CORRECTION! Download and extract the NexRemote file. RIGHT click on it and you'll be given an option to select another version of Windows. I went through the first couple with some no good results, then selected Windows 7 and it RAN! Don't know who wrote the NexRemote program but I'm very surprised at how OLD it must be to only run on something like Windows 7!!!! I dinged one star for the following: I downloaded the "Nexremote (1.7.23) software required to operate the features of this telescope. The new HP laptop I mentioned earlier contains Windows 10 home version OS (64 bit based). Partway through the setup, I receive, "Error, Nexremote (1.7.23) is not allowed to run on Win (6.2) Setup Aborted." The way this verbiage is constructed has me believing the Nexremote setup is responsible for the error and not the Windows 10 OS. Several attempts were fruitless. I've only just written to Celestron and should hear from them in a day or two - I'll update when that happens.

The telescope is just the beginning. In addition, you will need a heavy duty wedge for long exposure deep sky astrophotography. A dew-heater to prevent the glass from fogging up, a power supply or battery unit (not pictured). A barlow, light pollution filters and a number of eyepieces for projection photography (necessary for close-ups of the planets). A laptop/tablet and software to guide the scope, and a SkySense" camera to align the scope. For photography you may want to consider an astro-modified (adapted to capture gas clouds invisible to a standard DSLR) camera. Since the telescope is quite heavy, you may also consider a permanent location (preferably a raised platform and a housing (I purchased a Skyshed Pod) in a dark-sky area. Fair warning, when all is said and done, you may discover you have doubled the cost of your initial investment.