Ad Astra Observatory

I decided to upgrade the C-8 to a C9.25. As a photographer, I need different lenses to do different work. The 8” is awesome down to ~10′, but below that, it’s pretty rough. So, the C9.25 should fill the bill for shooting those 3′ spring galaxies.

And in case it’s too much magnification and all the wheels fall off, I’ll just have to give up and dump it on the ‘mart. For a profit. $700 is a great price for a C9.25, even though Celestron just released “HD” versions of their SCTs.

This is not to diminish the difficulty level I’m taking on — after shooting at 1000mm and f/5 and 1.5”/px for years, I’m hopping up to f/10, 2350mm, 35′ x 23′ FOV and 0.7”/px. If I get even one good image out of this thing, I’ll be surprised.

But, having said all that, other than the 8”, the 9.25” is a legendary scope. These are kept by astrophotographers everywhere, and word on the street is they’re really nice astrographs.

And *that* is the reason that I’m jumping through this hoop.

If it sits in the corner gathering dust (on the outside of the soft-sided case, of course), I’ll be confident in the knowledge that I have a scope that was built to do the job of flattening a 35mm film FOV.

Bring it on.