SkyWatcher SC11 Erfahrungsbericht

So a bit of review.

The SW C-11 OTA arrived nicely packaged with a big finder, 32 mm Plossl, good diagonal and the visual back. The scope was noticeably bigger and heavier than the C8 I had before. I've installed the OTA on HEQ5 mount and noticed that I need more counterweights. Adding 5kg more (~16kg total) allowed to balance the scope, but I'm planning to use less counterweights on a extender counterweight shaft/bar. On my balcony on vibration suppression pads the mount worked without any problems when imaging Saturn and Venus. No changes compared to the C8 setup. Long time guided exposures haven't been tested yet.

As for the SW C-11 OTA - it has SkyWatcher logo on the side and Celestron logo on the secondary and finder so it's clearly the same design. The factory probably saves time by not rebranding smaller elements for this scopes. The diagonal compared to a standard cheap Antares gives brighter flashlight image and green coatings can be detected. Plossl eyepiece also looks like nicely done, probably by GSO (the same look).

Focus knob on the C11 has more pressure on it than in C8 (heavier mirror to move) and it moves the mirror slower than in the smaller SCT. It probably limits shaking of the mirror but sometimes it's hard to tell if I'm focusing or defocusing. For imaging I also use JMI motocryford attached to the SCT thread - that allows fine focus without moving the mirror. I had only one clear night with this scope and when imaging Saturn and Venus in the morning I didn't noticed any problems with mirror flop. It was steady and there wasn't any unexpected lost of focus. How it will perform on long-term imaging - time will tell ;)

ToDo is to get a dew shield, bahtinov mask and maybe 11" solar filter, checking the extended counterweight bar, guiding (and some new filters :)) The scope will do it's job (I hope). First images obtained at rather poor seeing:

http://www.rkblog.rk.edu.pl/astro/my_astro_images/show/wenus-17122010/

http://www.rkblog.rk.edu.pl/astro/my_astro_images/show/saturn-17122010/