The CGE Pro 1400 HD combines Celestron's state of the art CGE Pro Computerized Equatorial mount with its new EdgeHD optical system. With more than 60% more light gathering power than the 11" telescope, this observatory-class instrument is Celestron’s largest optical system in its class.
Featuring our premium StarBright XLT coatings, this telescope is especially at home as a solid platform for long exposure photography with optional CCD cameras or photographic equipment; it is a serious scientific research tool. German Equatorial mounts are recognized as being the superior choice for astrophotography because of their rock solid stability, simple balancing and easy accessibility for attaching equipment. With sophisticated software features like the Hibernate function, the CGE Pro can maintain its star alignment night after night without needing to be re-aligned, making it an ideal instrument for a permanent observatory facility.
The EdgeHD optical system takes all of the compact power popularized by the Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) and combines it with an improved high definition optical system for wide field, astrograph quality images.As a visual instrument, EdgeHD optics deliver pinpoint images even with your widest field eyepiece. You can search for all of the Messier Catalog objects, and see hundreds of other equally interesting NGC, IC and Caldwell objects with amazing clarity. For astroimaging, the EdgeHD optics produce aberration-free images across your favorite CCD or DSLR camera. All EdgeHD optics are designed to produce an extremely flat focal plane precise enough to match the strict tolerances of the largest commercial CCD detectors, allowing all stars to be in tight focus to the very edge of the chip.
The Celestron Product Development team has released a whitepaper outlining the technology behind EdgeHD. This paper describes the development goals, design decisions, optical performance, and their practical realization in 8-, 9.25-, 11-, and 14-inch apertures. We include cross-sections of the EdgeHD series, comparative spot diagrams for the EdgeHD and competing “coma-free” Schmidt-Cassegrain designs, a table with specifications for visual and imaging, graphics showing how to place sensors at the optimum back-focus distance, and details on the construction and testing of the EdgeHD telescope series.To download the Celestron EdgeHD Whitepaper, go to the Support & Download tab.
EdgeHD 14" optical tubes come with Celestron's top of the line Axiom eyepiece. With a 23 mm focal length and 82° AFOV, you get an incredible combination of power and wide field of view. Plus each Axiom eyepiece is optimized to deliver pinpoint images when used with a flat field telescope
With a maximum payload of 90 lbs, the CGE Pro mount is able to hold the 14" telescope more securely even when fully loaded with all your imaging gear.
With just a standard hand control alignment, CGE Pro has the ability to center a star in your eyepiece or CCD chip to within 5 arc minutes. Using NexStar's advanced pointing features such as Calibration Stars, Sync and Precise GoTo, further improves the pointing accuracy to as low as 1 arc minute in the desired region of the sky
Celestron's NexStar hand control has built-in compensation features essential for accurately placing small objects on the center of your CCD chip or high power eyepiece. Aligning on multiple Calibration Stars creates a model of the opto-mechanical inaccuracies inherent in all equatorial mounts. This model is stored within the hand control and is used to compensate for these inaccuracies, thus improving your pointing precision each time you slew your telescope