Bugdozer

I know I am late to the party here, but to answer something in the OP... I believe barrel security recess is a groove around the part that the little grip screws grip on, so if a screw works too loose to grip the barrel, the eyepiece can't drop out as it's still within the groove. My default Celestron eyepiece has one. 

I currently have the following eyepieces with my Celestron Nexstar 5SE (f/10, 1250mm focal length, 5 inch aperture):

25mm Celestron Plossl (came with the telescope)

9.7mm Meade Super Plossl (about 24 years old, used to use with my previous ETX scope)

2x Barlow Lens

I have no complaint about the quality of these, but as they're the only ones I have used with my current scope, I don't have any basis for comparison either!

When I use the 9.7mm for planetary observing I get a nice clear view at around 130x. However, adding the Barlow pushes this up to 260x which is right at the limit of the telescope's resolving power and to be honest the images sometimes seem TOO magnified and I end up taking the Barlow out again. However, I'd still like to have a slightly closer view sometimes.

So, would I be better to get a slightly shorter length eyepiece, such as 6mm? Or would I be better off using a lower power Barlow, like 1.5x? I am prepared to spend some £ to get good quality, I'm not on a very tight budget. I will admit I don't fully understand the impact of things like eye relief and field of view in a practical sense.

My second question goes the other way - is there any benefit to getting a a longer length eyepiece than the 25mm for deep sky observing? I do have trouble getting things like the Pleiades and Double Cluster completely into the field of view, and if there's any benefit to brightness or clarity from a lower power eyepiece then I would consider anything you might recommend.

1 minute ago, carastro said:

Your telescope will be fine for planetary imaging but unless it has an equatorial tracking mode it is unlikely to be suitable for long exposure.  Plus the focal ratio of the telescope is likely to be too slow.   But you could give it a try, you will soon find out its limitations. 
 

 

Yes, I can put it into Equatorial mode but it's not the easiest scope to do that with. I'm not expecting Hubble quality results, the mount is not really ideal for photography, but as you say, planetary could work well. I'm awaiting delivery of an eyepiece projection adaptor right now. I have some good photos of the Moon and M13 taken at prime focus with extension tubes, but I really am still learning!

55 minutes ago, GasGiant said:

Instantly banned !? lol . Why ?

 

Who knows? Maybe because I'm using a Hotmail email address?

On 19/09/2023 at 20:28, rpdayton said:

Most of the time it would miss it by >30° in Alt, often times it wouldn't even end in the correct hemisphere of the sky.  I gave up trying to goto specific stars almost immediately, as it will rarely goto even one of the alignment stars it just aligned to.  I started using the moon only as a sanity check... if the moon's high in the east, and the scope points at the ground after a goto, my assumption is that it isn't going to the correct location.  In hindsight, I assumed it would be able to find the moon's location very easily; I will stick to stars. (That would also explain celestron's tech support telling me to absolutely not use planets for alignment even though the manual says that's acceptable.)  My second reason for choosing it is to easily ensure it would track an object after a successful alignment, but that is something I've never been able to get working.

OK this might be a very off the wall suggestion, but I actually got caught out with this on my Celestron go-to... Are you entering the date in American format? Mine requires that. Otherwise it gets confused either just a little bit, or a huge amount. What you describe here sounds like it might be the same problem, rather than the screw. 

Hi, I am Simon, pleased to be here! (I signed up for the Cloudy Nights forum too, but was instantly banned before I had even posted. Stuff that!) 

I currently have a Celestron Nexstar 5SE which I am also teaching my teenage daughter how to use. I have been into astronomy my whole life, I initially had a crummy refractor from Argos when I was about 13 (almost impossible to see anything due to the wobbly mount) then a Meade ETX90 when I could afford a "proper" scope, and now the Celestron. Although I have been observing for a while, I am only now taking my first steps into photography through the telescope. I am sure lots of you will be able to advise me!