9.25” Celestron is great for planets and deep sky objects but it’s best to pay more for a computer driven mount. The upgrade on the mount is worth the price. Type in right ascension and declination and the computer does the rest. The computer clock drives work much better than the gizmos you attach to the mount.
I’m looking to upgrade my mount. Shoulda bought the better mount when I bought the 9.25. Wonderful seeing in the great Southwest, not so much in the East. Good luck.
-Frank
Gotta a free tour of Kit Peak in 2009. We spotted Venus before the sun went down. But neatest experience was watching the sunset at 8,500 ft. The shadow to the East came to a point above the horizon. At that moment I understood why mountain tops are sacred to Native Americans.
Our guide wasn’t motivated to discuss the history of astronomy so I got him talking with questions about Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and his brass nose, Kepler, Galileo, Shapely (globular clusters), spectral analysis of stars, Hubble, type 1a and type II supernovae et al.
After the tour several ppl walked up and thanked me for making the tour more interesting. I love the history of science.
-Frank
Thanks. I’m looking into that one now.