Reviews

Build and Specs

The C14 has an optical diameter of 355.6mm (the overall diameter of the scope is a lot larger) and a focal length of 3910mm. Coatings are Star Bright XLT and the secondary is 32% of the overall diameter. It has an aluminium tube with a large dovetail and heavy rear and corrector assemblies. It also comes with a straight through finder scope, a diagonal and a 40mm eyepiece.

The build of this scope is well lets say commercial. All Celestron scopes don't have that really solid feel to them like the more expensive scopes that I have, even though the price tag is in this case quite high. The walls of the main tube feel a little thin, but I gather it is a combination of commercial decision and an effort to keep the OTA light and functional for most people.

Added to this is that all the screws on the unit are not stainless steel like the Meade units. Given enough time these will rust and place the whole scope in jeapody. Just some observations here that would give the scope that finished touch.

C14
I purchased the C14 out of the need to have a long focus scope with a short tube and plenty of diameter. It replaced the C9.25 which was a great scope and I had very high expectations of this scope. Upon arrival the scope was well packaged and I have to say that my first words looking at it were ones of shock. This scope is a monster. It has an imposing size to it and I have to say is quite heavy.
Build and Specs The C14 has an optical diameter of 355.6mm (the overall diameter of the scope is a lot larger) and a focal length of 3910mm. Coatings are Star Bright XLT and the secondary is 32% of the overall diameter. It has an aluminium tube with a large dovetail and heavy rear and corrector assemblies. It also comes with a straight through finder scope, a diagonal and a 40mm eyepiece. The build of this scope is well lets say commercial. All Celestron scopes don't have that really solid feel to them like the more expensive scopes that I have, even though the price tag is in this case quite high. The walls of the main tube feel a little thin, but I gather it is a combination of commercial decision and an effort to keep the OTA light and functional for most people. Added to this is that all the screws on the unit are not stainless steel like the Meade units. Given enough time these will rust and place the whole scope in jeapody. Just some observations here that would give the scope that finished touch.
Use The C14 is a good scope, but really only for one thing. Visually the deep sky objects show a noticable reduction in image brightness when compared to say a 15 inch Newtonian design. While the stars are really quite crisp for this type of design, while the DSO's themselves just lack that umph. However where this scope works best is with planetary viewing and imaging. The contrast is down a little for viewing as you would expect with such a large secondary but lots of detail can be observed on the largest gas giants of our solar system in good seeing conditions. Though when imaging the planets with this scope a beautiful thing happens. The most staggering planetary images made by amateurs are most often the result of using one of these scopes. The scope just sings in good seeing and with a monochrome camera attached. They do struggle though with cooling down. The enormous mass of these mirrors tends to lead to very long cool down times despite the conical mirrors. It can take up to 6 hours for the mirror to come to ambient and this is not good for planetary imaging. Therefore an active cooling modification is necessary to make this scope more readily usable in climates where the day and night temperature can change markedly. I have conducted such a modification (the first of its kind for an SCT) and can say this has greatly enhanced the scopes capabilities. On nights of good seeing I have control of the optics early in the night and throughout the night when the temperature drops dramatically again (during temperature inversions). Also of concern is the finder scope. Having a straight through finder on a scope in which you have to crane your neck is really not practical. The finder that is given with the scope is not worth having in my opinion. I have since replaced this finder with a right angled finder from Stellarvue, which has a rotating diagonal. This of course leads to another problem. That being the finder is now out of position and requires some counter weights to maintain balance. Easily sorted but the Celestron scopes just don't have enough holes in the mirror back to find a suitable balance point. The Meades seem to have numerous holes with lots spacings to make balance possible. With these modifications completed the scope is now worthy of its title as a planetary hunter and I am very happy with its performance. It is afterall my planetary imaging scope and nothing else really. Final Comments This scope lacks the final touches to make it a great scope. However, with some mods it can really work well as the tool it was really designed to do. I am happy with this scope now, but it needed lots of work to make it sing. Great potential initially, better when fixed.

		EARTH & COSMOS