Very, very nice telescope. - Celestron CPC Deluxe 1100 HD Computerized Telescope

I bought this last year from Optics Planet. It is an amazing telescope. First off, it is HEAVY. I'm a 195 pound man who exercises and is fit, and it is still a beast to set up the tripod then carry the upper part to the tripod, place it in position and lock it down. The total weight of the entire scope is 97 pounds and most of that weight is in the Optical tube / dual fork arm assembly. Once that hard part is over, the fun begins.

It has built-in GPS, so it knows its location and the time. I use a Celestron PowerTank battery to run it. When I first got it, I would do a 2-Star alignment and be all-set for the nights observing. Being that I always want to get up-=and-running as quickly as possible with minimal effort, I went ahead and invested in the Celestron Starsense Camera, and now it can align itself in about 2-3 minutes. It is amazing.

This is my third Celestron telescope. I started with a Nexstar 8SE and then moved on to an older (used) C11 on a CG5-ASGT German Equatorial Mount (GEM). My son and I found that we liked the ease of set-up with an altitude - azimuth (Alt/Az) mount scope since we like visual observing, but we alike the optics of a big 11" Optical Tube Assembly (OTA).

This amazing behemoth combines the best of both worlds. It has the optics of an 11" (and improved with the Edge HD upgrade!) plus the convenience of an Alt/Az mount.

Celestron sells a heavy-duty wedge for this one for those who wish to use it for astrophotography.

Tracking and go-to's are VERY smooth and precise; much better than the NexStar 8SE - and the 8SE was not bad.

The included 23MM Luminos eyepiece is fine; it is arguably one of the better ones in the line-up. I recommend anyone who buys this also invest in either TeleVue Ethos eyepieces - which are legendary - or my favorite brand - Explore Scientific (ES). The ES 82 degree and 100 degree series eyepieces mate very well to this telescope. The factory (JOC China) that makes the ES eyepieces used to make all the eyepieces for Celestron and Meade, and they now make the eyepieces for ES. Most astronomers believe the JOC-built eyepieces are better than ones made more recently in other factories.

The telescope comes with built-in GPS, a DC cigarette-lighter style adapter, a nice tripod and a 2" mirror diagonal as well as the aforementioned 23MM Luminos eyepiece and a 9x50 straight-through (inverted image) finderscope. I don't care for inverted-image finderscopes, so I did not install it and went instead with a Celestron 9x50 RACI illuminated finderscope (#93781). This telescope is so good that if you purchase a StarSense to use with it you will never need a finder. I like having a red dot finder as well as a right-angle illuminated reticle correct-image finderscope, however, so I'm going to add the Celestron Starpointer Pro to it also. I will mount those items with a Vixen style SCT mount shoe (made by Orion) along with a dual or triple Vixen style adapter. A Telrad is also a nice option for a 1:1 red finder.

Down to the nitty-gritty:

It's an awesome telescope. I highly recommend it if you can move the thing around.

Bare minimum additional purchases in addition to the telescope purchase itself:

Celestron PowerTank #18774, a car or motorcycle batter or the larger Celestron #18780 AC adapter; you need lots of juice to run it. I use an older PowerTank 17.

A dew shield: Mine is from Farpoint, but Celestron sells #94014 for under forty bucks.
Celestron #93503 vibration suppression pads - keep your tripod points nice and dampen vibrations. They really do work well.

Recommended accessories as your future add-ons:
Explore Scientific 82 degree field of view 30MM eyepiece.
Explore Scientific 100 degree field of view 14MM eyepiece. Not cheap, but absolutely amazing and well reviewed eyepiece.
Explore Scientific 100 degree field of view 9MM eyepiece. Again, not cheap, but those three (plus the stock Luminos 23MM) should cover the bulk of visual viewing.

Celestron #94005 StarSense auto align is very, very nice. It is not needed, and I can do a three-star alignment in about 5-10 minutes, but the StarSense is super-accurate and does it in two minutes.

It arrived in perfect condition and it is 100% brand new as described.

I'll be honest, I was a bit scared because I ordered and then it took a week for it to ship. I wondered if OpticsPlanet was a rip-off site. I called maybe 5 times in the week after the order, and they kept saying it was going to ship, but then it did not. I read some negative reviews and thought I had messed up ordering from Optics Planet. I was frustrated, but then I talked to a manager and he said on such an expensive order they were worried about fraud and had to do some checking. Anyway, it finally shipped. Needless to say I was elated when it arrived and it is perfect! I would definitely buy from Optics Planet again since they had the best price I could find anywhere.