Great scope with solid equatorial mount - Celestron C9 1/4 S-GT Advanced Computerized Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope - 11046-XLT

I've had this scope for a year now, and I feel like I am ready to review it.
Let me start with the GT mount: This is much more stable and capable than my LXD-75 mount. Seems to hold more weight more reliably, and points better. That being said, the Nexstar controller isn't as customizable as the Autostar controller. I miss being able to program custom tours as I am able to do with the Autostar. Also, the memory locations for custom objects are numerous, but there is no room for descriptions. You have to remember which slots you entered your objects into. On the other hand, there are some very good tuning features for the mount, and it should be quite capable of long-exposure photography when set up correctly. Visually, it holds objects in view at higher powers for as long as you can stand there and will still be there if you leave and come back.
For beginners, the equatorial mount is something that may give them trouble. If you don't have very dark skies, Polaris is going to be hard to find without a compass and a feel for the angle it will make to the horizon. I'd recommend getting a polar scope for the mount to anyone who has any trouble with alignment. Then you definitely want to take a compass outside to point it north and set your latitude correctly with the adjustment screws before even trying to find Polaris in the finder. If this sounds daunting, then you should probably spend the money for the CPC series scope. Astrophotography is still quite possible with the webcam-style CCD cameras on the CPC mounts.

The 9.25" SCT optical tube is quite nice, and really shines under stable skies (see cleardarksky.com for sky forecasts and conditions). When seeing is only "good" or less, things will definitely look fuzzy with powers over ~150x. This is just something that larger scopes are more likely to be affected by.
When I got my scope, the OTA was a little out of collimation, so I read up on the subject and collimated it one night. It has held the collimation perfectly for almost a year now.
All in all, I feel that this was a great purchase, and I've taken the scope out on as many clear nights as I've been able.
Pros: Gather's lots of light and will show you impressive sights.
Cons: Susceptible to poor views when skies are turbulent

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.