Celestron HD Pro Equatorial Wedge for CPC Fork-Mounted Telescopes

Received the wedge in great shape two days after order placed. It requires minimal assembly with no problems and is ready for use in about 20 minutes. The wedgle is very well built and engineered to do exactly what it is supposed to do and that is, convert an Alt-Azimuth mounted telescope into a an equatorial mounted scope. The whole idea is to eliminate field rotation when doing long exposure imaging. The wedge is placed on the tripod head and attached by 3 cap screws and holds it securely. There are two possible orientations on the tripod head during install, one better than the other. The top of the Celestron tripod has a triangular face. You will want to place the wedge with one of the points of the triangle oriented toward the rear of the wedge. In that way, during the install on the tripod, the wedge will NOT fall off prior to inserting the 3 cap screws. The other orientation (with a flat side of the triangle oriented to the back of the wedge) will allow the wedge to fall off the head prior to seating it with the screws. Putting the C-11 scope on the wedge has different ergonomics than the placement of the scope in alt/azimuth mode, for sure. Initially somewhat difficult, you will quickly develop the right technique to do it and it becomes a non issue. The adjustments for alignment on the Pole star absolutely solid. Very good! Performance in equatorial mode is perfect! Love it. My first effort so far was a series of video images of Jupiter. The planet was low in the sky so resolutions were not optimal. In spite of that a series of decent 20 second video clips and a bit of massaging in Registax, yielded some detail. See attached. The wedgle works great. Fine product, heavy duty and solid, nicely engineered.

Put simply this is quality at its finest. Very heavy duty and will have no difficulty handling a heavy CPC series telescope. I have mine supporting an eleven inch scope with no strain. Rock solid mount with plenty of room to adjust your scope to excellent alignment. It weighs in at about twenty five pounds. I find the added weight the only drawback. Of course if like me you have a son who is a big man and can easily lift the whole tripod/wedge/scope in one shot (125 pounds) All I need to do is watch as he moves it. If you want to get into astrophotography this wedge is absolutely necessary to have the scope track dead on. Get it!!

I purchased this wedge because I believe in the quality of Celestron Telescopes and Accesories. This wedge is a great photographic asset if your a seasoned night sky photographer or beginner "like me" astrophotographer..this wedge is heavy and as the last reviewer said, you had better have a heavy weight tripod to handle it and your scope..I watched videos prior to the delivery and was able to put it together and mount with very little effort and also having a 8" Nexstar on a CPC tripod the weght wasnt an issue trying to mount the optics sideways to the tilted plate..This is a well made product and easy to set the Dec. and RA. seetings, I appreciated the hand-control hooks on each side of the wedge, and the bubble level in the baseplate..It arrived earlier than expected, and as usual, my cudoz to Amazon for a pleasent buying experienc..

Missing all the knobs to attach the wedge to the tripod and to attach the wedge to the telescope...

I tested this wedge on a temporary wooden pier, not ideal, but I think I can separate the impact of the pier. It arrived in good shape in sturdy box. It comes with instructions and all the "Allen" wrenches and bolts needed to set it up. I mounted a CPC1100 and the pier is higher than my tripod. I worried about the awkward lift and chance of dropping it. I put together a step up "platform" and installed the mount easily (65lbs to lift and I am not a big guy). I marked the position of Polaris before hand, and adjusting for azimuth and elevation was easy enough using the Celestron setup routine in the hand control. The wedge is sturdy but adds a bit of shake because it puts the OTA at the end of a long cantilever. Remember though that most of the shake was due to the flex in the hollow wooden pier. I have ordered a steel pier and look forward to using the wedge for longer exposure video astronomy.

This wedge puts the "heavy" into heavy-duty. The construction is different than the Meade design, but better, in that there are a little more fine adjustments that can be made, and while the scope is set-up. Having the ability to change azimuth while being totally set-up with the scope is a huge plus. This wedge does require a heavy-duty tripod to use. I rigged my Meade tripod to use this wedge by changing the center screw. It can be done for about a $0.50 nut and 10 minutes of time. If you need a wedge, you'll pay for this one, but it'll be a great investment.

Good quality, w/ fine adjustment screws in order to place your scope "right-on".

buy this accessory for use with a hd cpc 11. but I use it also with the nexstar 8. this is very well made with heavy duty and very easy and fun to use. is very heavy and sturdy.if you are interested in astrophotography it is the best that is in the remarketing. is made for last. is for professional use. is very Presis. placed on the tripod is very easy to useserves as support for remote control of the camera and telescope control. by weight gives stability to the tripod.