Celestron CGEM II 700 7″ Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope

Description

alignment, and more. Built-in adjustable backlash compensation permits precise corrections during astrophotography and when observing visually at high powers. A high precision pointing subroutine in the computer lets you point accurately at objects that you want to photograph that are too dim to be seen though the scope.

The software includes permanent programmable periodic error correction (PEC) to correct for the minor periodic tracking errors inherent to all worm drives that might otherwise mar your long exposure photographs. The CGEM II mount retains the PEC recordings when it is powered down. The hand control and motor control software is flash-upgradeable to allow you to download the latest product updates over the Internet to keep your CGEM II mount always at the cutting edge of technology.

An autoguider port is located on the electronic pier for long exposure astrophotography. The autoguider port can use a six-pin RJ-12 modular jack ST-4 compatible CCD autoguider to automatically control the drive motors during long exposure astrophotography.

Five different alignment methods are built into the NexStar computer – 2-star align, quick align, 1-star align, last alignment, and solar system align – allowing you to choose a level of computer accuracy in automatically finding objects with which you are comfortable. Alignment is easily accomplished in only a few short minutes. You can be observing in less than 15 minutes after you first take your CGEM II-mounted scope outdoors.

In addition, the NexStar computer hand control is GPS-compatible (using an optional inexpensive SkySync GPS module) for full GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite accuracy. Adding GPS to the computer is something no competitively-priced mount can do. Once the scope is approximately polar aligned, the 16-channel SkySync GPS system uses signals from government satellites to calculate the scope’s location on earth with an accuracy measured in meters. The system also calculates the current time based on the split second accuracy of the GPS time signals.

After the SkySync quickly completes these calculations and enters the information into the computer control for you automatically, the computer can then orient the scope with the sky, slew to a pair of guide stars, ask you to confirm that the stars are in the center of the field (and center them if they’re not precisely aligned), and then start finding and tracking over 40,000 objects for you at your command. With the CGEM II go-to mount and the SkySync, orienting your scope in time and space on earth and aligning it on the sky becomes almost as easy a task as simply turning the mount on.

The adjustable height tripod has 2″ diameter stainless steel legs with a metal center leg brace for rigidity to provide excellent damping characteristics. The center leg brace is drilled to form a convenient accessory tray that holds 1.25″ and 2″ eyepiece to keep them up out of the dew-soaked grass.

New for the CGEM II mount is a dual saddle plate. The saddle plate will now accept both the CGE/Losmandy wide dovetail plate as well as the AVX/Vixen style dovetail plate. The dovetail slot on the top of the mount holds the long dovetail slide bar mounted under the optical tube. This allows you to slide the optical tube fore and aft in the dovetail slot to quickly and precisely balance the optical tube in declination when you add or subtract accessories, eliminating the need for an extra counterweight to balance a camera or other accessories. Setup and takedown times are exceptionally fast, as a single large hand-tighten knob holds the optical tube in place. A second lock knob prevents the tube from sliding off the mount should the hand-tighten knob loosen. The oversized dovetail mounting platform assures secure vibration-free tube attachment.

Accessories Included

The CGEM II 700 Mak comes complete with a 2 Visual Back, a 2 Star Diagonal with 1.25 adapter, a 28 mm wide-field 2 eyepiece, and a large 8×50 straight-through finderscope. The optical tube accommodates the larger 2 accessories, such as 2 Barlow lenses, the 2 eyepiece and filter kit, and larger wide-field eyepieces.

StarBright XLT Technology

StarBright XLT is Celestrons revolutionary optical coating system that outperforms any other coating in the commercial telescope market. There are three major components that make up our StarBright XLT high-transmission optical system design:

Unique enhanced multi-layer mirror coatings made from precise layers of aluminum, SiO2 (quartz), TiO2 (titanium dioxide), and SiO2 (silicon dioxide). Reflectivity is fairly flat across the spectrum, optimizing it for both imaging and visual observing.
Multi-layer anti-reflective coatings made from precise layers of MgF2 (magnesium fluoride) and HfO2 (hafnium dioxide). Hafniuma rare element that costs nearly $2,000 per kilogramgives us a wider band pass than the titanium used in competing coatings.
High-transmission water white glass is used instead of soda lime glass for the corrector lens. Water white glass transmits about 90.5% without anti-reflective coatings; thats 3.5% better transmission than uncoated soda lime glass. When water white glass is used in conjunction with StarBright XLTs anti-reflective coatings, the average transmission reaches 97.4%, an 8% improvement.

Taken together, these three components make StarBright XLT one of the finest optical coatings available.

Celestrons Starry Night Special Edition Software

Starry Night is a planetarium software package which provides easy-to-understand explanations and impressive visuals of all kinds of night sky phenomena. Use Starry Night to learn more about extra solar planets imagery, 3D Stars rendering, observation planning, telescope control, multiple-panel printing, and much more. Starry Night is available on macOS and Microsoft Windows.

Tech Details:

Supplied Accessories:

Accessories included: 2 Visual Back, 2 Star Diagonal with 1.25 adapter, 28mm eyepiece (2), 8×50 finderscope