dweller25

Hello and welcome to SGL 🙂 The C6 is a great scope, for best results make sure it cools down to ambient temperature before viewing and learn how to collimate it 👍

Excellent 👍

Well done for seeing Jupiter’s rings, I have tried and tried but they just elude me 🙂

Still following this excellent post 🙂👍

Superb 👍

Great image @Fedele Have you imaged Jupiter at the same time with the 120ED and the M180 for comparison ? I thought you did but cannot find it !

In my opinion - Yes You have to make the best of the few clear spells we get in the UK, so a fast cooling scope with no central obstruction does it for me. But clearly Fedeles images show what good value the Skymax 127 is.

Better aerodynamics for the dovetail 😂

I remember seeing Jupiter with just one visible equatorial belt - 1989 to 1990 !

Awesome photo 🙂 I’m sure there is some form of life out there somewhere but nature in it’s infinite wisdom keeps us very far apart 👍

X180 will be about right for Jupiter and Saturn in the UK, so a 4mm eyepiece 👍

Hello @Pthreat and welcome to SGL. The black dot you can sometimes see is due to the secondary obstruction and is normal. You will always need to readjust focus whilst viewing different targets. Venus is very low so you will get a lot of atmospheric disturbance. Make sure you are not observing on hot concrete or near hot rooftops - the thermals will lead to very poor images in your scope. The best way to align the finder is to find a star in the telescope first at around 45’ high and then adjust the finder to put it centrally on the crosshairs. Make sure the scope is well collimated.

Great thread this, I appreciate the effort you are putting in 👍

Have you snugged up both latitude adjustment bolts ?

Marvellous 👍

@Trentend Yes the Allen screw needs to go in further to ensure it’s correctly seated. On my C6 it sits right at the bottom of the cut out notch. You may need to re-collimate once the secondary is seated properly.

Great thread 👍

This shows how it should look http://www.robincasady.com/Astro/collimation/

Or use it as is and wait for darker nights and a star - which is defo the best way to collimate

Or make a star by putting a pin hole in a piece of tin foil, place it in a shoe box (to try to get some darkness against which to see the “star”), put a torch behind and put it at least 100 feet away. Then collimate with an eyepiece as normal.

Collimate from the front. Sit away from the scope at least the distance of it’s focal length. Using one eye look at the middle of the scope - all the rings should be concentric. If they don’t use the collimating screws to get concentric circles. It will get you close but not perfect.

Your welcome. If you can store it in a cool place it will be a big advantage. Even with the fans they are difficult to cool down during the evening.

I used to have an OMC200, it had a baffle in the middle of the primary and another baffle surrounding the secondary. It had no circular baffles around the OTA tube wall. The primary baffle is very long so the scope does not need flocking at all. Hope that helps.

@Robindonne Which Mak do you have ?

Really nice and more to come 😁