Question 1

Is it worth it

Accepted Answer

I think so.  I have three telescopes, all Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrains:  a C5+ (5") that I bought in 1999 and which now usually sits on a Celestron Advanced VX mount, a CPC-800 (8") that I bought in 2007, and the CPC-1100 Deluxe HD (11") that I bought in June 2017.  The 5" is my quick setup, widest field scope (though not wide by refractor and Newtonian standards).  The 5" also gets used a little for photography, both terrestrial and astro.  The 8" has now transitioned from being my main observing rig to being my main public/urban/school star party scope.  The 11" will get some use for public/urban/school star parties, but it's main purpose for me is deep sky observing from dark sites.

One of the reasons I made the jump was wanting to resolve more globular clusters and to see more detail in nebulas and galaxies.  I like SCTs (especially Celestron's and their computerized mounts) and didn't really want to go the Dobsonian route even though the same money would have landed me a bigger scope.  I had looked through several other Celetron 11s (non HD) over the years and had concluded that this was going to the be sweet spot for me.  I bought the HD primarily for its improved mechanics and optics and it gives the option of Fastar if I ever decide to jump into f/2 imaging.

Three weeks ago, I had the scope at Big Stump in Kings Canyon National Park (6500 ft elevation), under good, but not great skies.  I saw Triton for the first time, saw four of the five galaxies in Stephan's Quintet (the best my 8" ever did was just the brightest of the five), saw dust lanes in NGC 253 in Sculptor (the view was almost as nice as in a friends 20" Obsession Dob…almost), and saw NGC 604 in M33 for the first time.  The Veil Nebula showed detail, which the 8" never really did.  Best of all, though, and certain justification for spending the money, was the view of the Orion Nebula:  the detail was extraordinary and the extent was probably 50% bigger than in the 8".  I have a 41 Panoptic, which provides a 1.0° field of view and it couldn't cover all of the M42.  In the 8", I typically see more than about 3/4°.  I also saw the E and F stars in the Trapezium (first time for the F star).

Regarding the price, I had every intention of paying full price, but three days before I was going to pull the trigger, Celestron announced their summer sale and I got the scope for $400 less, which let me get the 41 Panoptic.

Question 2

Does this have a built in power supply

Accepted Answer

No it does not have a built-in power supply it comes with a 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter

Question 3

Is there a place to learn how to use this teliscope? And how to set it up for astro photography.

Accepted Answer

Online or astronomy club.  Look for a Wedge so that you can take longer exposures.   Look for a good camera (canon eos or nikon, or astro-only cameras) that fits in your budget.  This telescope also supports Hyperstar, something I wanted to try but am paranoid about weight of it and camera on secondary mirror.  Once you have images, you will also want to do some post-processing of those images and will require software.  I recommend PixInsight over non-astro-specific software like photoshop or the packages that might come with the camera you have chosen.

In general, be prepared to spend as much or more money on the photographic equipment than you do on the telescope. 1100HD is a great scope.  You should decide what you want in a camera (something specific for astrophotography or dual-use camera that you can also photo the family with while on vacation), and get used to the idea of becoming somewhat involved in data processing to produce the kinds of images you want.  Photographing a galaxy is slightly more involved than taking a photo of the family pet.  Learn what is involved before jumping in.

Question 4

What is the difference between this telescope and the celestron clc 1100 starbright xlt?

Accepted Answer

This "Deluxe" scope is a Schmidt-Cassegrain, but with the "Edge HD optics" is an "aplanic" Schmidt Cassegrain, which means that it has an extra set of optic lenses in the primary baffle tube that normal non-high definition Schmidt-Cassegrains do not have. That "flattens" the field out to the edges, meaning stars on the edge of the field of view (FOV) are sharp instead of smeared (particularly with wide field-of-view eyepieces like TeleVue Ethos and Explore Scientific 92,100 and 120 FOV eyepieces)

Brand	Celestron
Model Number	11009
Size	11" - CPC Deluxe 1100 HD
Lens Diameter	2.8E+2 Millimeters
Field of View (°)	0.95 Degrees
Tripod Mount	Equatorial Mount
Batteries Included	No
Product Dimensions	91.4 x 40.06 x 48.03 cm; 56.68 kg

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