Celestron 9.25 SCT

I have a Celestron 9.25 SCT and a 120mm skywatcher. After much tweaking and making the mounts better I am very pleased with both. The 9.25 comes with the CG5 EQ mount. The mount is OK or should I say decent. But the tripod had to go. Filling the legs with sand and putting spacers on both sides of the assy tray where it bolts to lower legs helps. Also drill ¼" hole in center tray and put bolt and nut with washer through tray support. The hole in spider is already there. This will make a vast improvement one the stock setup. Not perfect but much better.

Also I found that the mounting rail on the 9.25 and others of this type is bolted at each end leaving the underside unsupported causing some vibrations at high powers. Remove the rail at one end and loosen the other. Cut strips of cork or I used floor type tiles. Stack two and a strip of paper depending on gap and put rail back down and snug. Do not make the fit too tight as the tube will bend or be flexed and that's bad for scope and collimation. This is easy and makes the scope much more stable at the mounting rail.

As for the scope, it's a gem. I use powers up to around 500x when seeing permits and it is very pleasing views. Good EPs and a 2"diagonal is a must for this scope before the scopes optics can be fully realized. On planets it's superb. On Jupiter I can see at least six bands during good seeing and the Great Red spot even on average seeing if its visible. Saturn looks like someone took a felt pin and blacken between the rings and planet - very impressive views.

Orion I can see A----E during good seeing. M3 is very well defined as is M13 and I'm finding new stuff all the time. As I don't have Goto I use star charts and good old fashion slow slewing being careful and looking to find all kinds of things. I use middle of the range oculars but have one high end, one average $100 - $150$ and $200 high end. Hope to get at least 2 or 3 nice Radians or Naglers on the wide side. But very pleased with scope and performance but cool down can be anywhere from 40min to 1 hour. I use my 120mm refractor while I wait and wait.

On good seeing nights once the 9.25 is cool and up to maximum ability, the 120mm is retired for the evening. There is just no comparison between the two. But on soso nights I don't bother with the 9.25 at all as the 120mm blows it out of the water so to speak. I have learned that Maks and SCTs need a good cool down and very good seeing conditions. Many people think something is wrong with there scope when the skies look good but the scope is fuzzy or dim images.. These design scopes need good conditions to work well and when conditions are good they work very well.

Over all I would have to say for the money you can not get a better scope in this aperture range and type for even close to the cost. Always buy from a good dealer who will let you exchange for another unit if you get a lemon. I got one that was good but had a few bugs in the optics that could not be corrected. My second unit was absolutely a gem. Very well corrected and the mechanical alignment of mirror and corrector were very good only, an adjustment of the secondary (collimation) was needed .

Summary - the scope is a great value, easy to handle and takes magnification well as long as you don't exceed the limits of the optics. With my special tweaking and collimation procedures seen in the how-to section you can turn a very good 9.25 into a great 9.25 .This scope has a good reputation and will perform better than some larger and more costly scopes. If you hear a review that this scope is junk or that the performance is week then they have either a lemon or it is way out of collimation.