Telescope review
Is the Celestron CPC 800
GPS (XLT) the right telescope for you? Here's our lowdown
Ideal for the serious astrophotographer, this superb instrument is a must-have for those looking to upgrade from a beginner scope
With the CPC 800, you certainly get what you pay for. An incredibly well-made instrument, this beautifully presented telescope is ideal for those looking to upgrade from a beginner’s telescope or for those looking for an all-rounder that allows astronomers to get their teeth into some serious astrophotography, and on first impressions the telescope appears to be very robust.
The CPC 800 may look daunting to set up to some, but thankfully Celestron has provided in-depth instructions for fuss-free construction, leaving the user fully guided through the process. The scope will take more than a few minutes to set up, but this is to be expected – especially if you have never put together a computerised instrument. On the whole we do think that the general set up is easy, thanks to the excellent design.
Due to the excellent weather throughout March and April, we didn’t have to wait too long to test the CPC 800’s mettle on a variety of night-sky targets. As expected – and since it is comprised mostly of steel – the CPC 800 is quite heavy, weighing in at 48 kilograms (106 pounds). While the fork mount makes lifting the scope that touch easier over others, we recommend getting someone to help you carry it to your chosen observing site or transporting it in a car. While it’s quite easy to see the heftiness as a negative, many – if not all – astronomers will be thankful of this: even with a prevalent icy breeze, the telescope stood impressively still. With the constellations of
Ursa Major, Leo, Virgo and Ursa Minor above us in the sky, we couldn’t wait to view their many deep-sky treasures using the eight-inch aperture of the CPC 800.
Before we could start our tour the night sky, however, we had to use the SkyAlign technology in order to align the telescope for what Celestron states is a “fast and easy alignment process”. We couldn’t have been more impressed with this feature. Simply pick three bright objects in the sky – these can be the Moon, planets or stars – and the telescope’s computer system does the work for you. While the experience was a painless one, we do think that a red dot finder during the alignment process would have been more useful – terrestrial finderscopes, of which this scope possesses an 8x50, can often be problematic. We discovered that the telescope’s GPS was turned off, but it took no more than a few minutes for the system to figure out our position. Users of the telescope also need to remember to set daylight savings time.
Once set up the telescope operates
“Makes anything from planetary to deep-sky objects a joy to observe”
relatively flawlessly, and on the whole is incredibly easy to use. Using the NexStar hand control we instructed the CPC 800 to slew to spiral galaxy Messier 81, also known as Bode’s Galaxy, in the constellation of Ursa Major. The telescope’s motors are impressively quiet, and we didn’t notice too much shaking of the tripod as the fork mount turned the tube towards our target.
The telescope is supplied with a 40mm eyepiece which is of beautiful quality and supplies a magnification of 51x. In order to view a vaster selection of targets you will need to accessorise the CPC 800 with eyepieces that supply low, medium and high power. Plugging the supplied eyepiece into the holder, we got an impressively clear view of this 12-million-light-year-distant spiral, with the CPC 800 picking it out as a small oval. Bringing the view into focus, the focus knob isn’t as smooth as we would have liked but it did the job nonetheless. We waited for the Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as Messier 101, to become visible later on into the early hours of the morning. We were not disappointed with the view of this stunning face-on spiral.
The StarBright XLT coating provides bright, clear views of a variety of targets, making anything from planetary to deep-sky objects a joy to observe. With its database of roughly 40,000 objects, observers will find that they can spend more time observing rather than finding objects, something that’s useful when clouds threaten to roll in and spoil an observing session.
It wouldn’t be a complete observing session without locating other members of our Solar
System, and Jupiter was a stunning sight through the CPC 800 in the small hours. Using the supplied 40mm eyepiece the gas giant appeared as a small but crystal-clear disc with the Galilean moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – showing up as small pinpoints of light. Allowing our eyes to adjust to the view of the planetary king, we could make out its atmospheric bands. The star diagonal is wellorientated, which allows comfortable viewing for long periods of time.
While the Celestron CPC 800 might make a dent in the savings of many interested buyers, we have to say that given the telescope’s build, general operation and the state-of-the-art technology it offers, it’s worth every pound, especially if you’re looking for an instrument to replace a basic scope. The CPC 800 gets a massive thumbs up from us!