Cosmic Geoff

Are all the buttons failing to respond, or just some of them? or do they only work if you press hard? It should be possible to distinguish between a button contact or other electronic problem.

If it's a button problem, you should be able to work around it with NexRemote. Or just buy another controller. (Some people have deep pockets).

I have had this problem with Celestron hand controllers and found that dismantling and cleaning the contacts and rubbers effects at least a partial cure. No battery involved.

2 hours ago, DarkSkys said:

Given the dates, moon phase, planetary locations, etc., would you focus (😉 ) more on planetary viewing or dso

You can look up the moon phase and rise/set times on sites like' moon rise and set'.

Similarly there are sites like https://heavens-above.com/PlanetSummary which will give you the positions of the planet at any given time.

If the Moon does not intrude, this trip would be an opportunity to view galaxies (almost a waste of time from an urban site).  Provided you can use GoTo.

1 minute ago, DarkSkys said:

What kind of viewing experience can I expect from the included  25mm eyepeice on the C6? From what I understand, to get decent visuals I would need an upgraded eyepeice and barrow(?). 

The included 25mm eyepiece is okay (I use mine every time I take the scope out) but the hirer really ought to offer a range of eyepieces, something like 15mm and 8mm, or a zoom eyepiece, and maybe a 32mm to widen the field.  A Barlow will work, but the C6 has a 1.5 metre focal length so there is no need for one if the suitable eyepieces are on hand.

I have taken the similar C8 to a dark skies site and found I could see a lot of galaxies with it at this time of year.  You could also look at double stars and globular clusters. Also Jupiter and Uranus if you set up early in the evening.  Other planets will probably not be accessible.  This depends on you being able to operate the GoTo. I found the Celestron Nexstar alt-az GoTo system easy to master, and got the hang of it in one evening, with the aid of the manual.  GoTo mounts seem to baffle some folks, though. 🙂

If you do rent the C6, make sure that you get an external power pack with it and are not relying on the internal dry cells.  

As mentioned above the C6 SE package is not suited to imaging.  If you want to get imaging results from a short holiday, hire or buy a smart scope, e.g. the Seestar S50.

The Celestron 6SE should be easy to set up and use for visual. 

I don't know about the Vaonis Ve 50 Vespera, but the USP of these smart scopes is that they are supposed to be easy to use for imaging.

48 minutes ago, DarkSkys said:

I am interested in astrophotography as well and plan on also renting the Nikon F adapter if I go with that option.

I don't know what you intend here, but I would not try attaching it to the C6 SE if I were you, as this scope is not well suited for imaging.

Try defining your goals. If you want to take award-winning images, some major changes of kit may be necessary. If you want to just collect some images with modest effort, you could go for EVAA and live-stack images collected with Sharpcap and a Startravel 102mm refractor.

A new Startravel 102 should be within your budget, and you will not need guiding.

44 minutes ago, John said:

Celestron branded (China made of course) prism diagonal - the one with the part number of 94115-A.

I have two of these. They work well on my SCTs. I have no problem with them.. 

18 hours ago, bosun21 said:

There are actually two types of Starsense units now. The one costing approx £400 is the basic one which automatically does the star alignment for you and a newer release which actually does the alignment as well as guiding or plate solving I believe. The cost of the newer version was in the region of £700-800.

The newer one is a different and  more complex product, with guiding, which does not seem to have attracted a lot of attention so far.

I think the way to go is to buy the gear, set it up, use it, and THEN see if there is any function worth paying £400 for that isn't covered by an ASAIR, park or whatnot.

Be aware that upmarket diagonals offer better build quality and longer life rather than any noticeable improvement in the view. I upgraded the diagonal on my 127mm Mak and could not see any difference.

It depends what mount you are going to use it on, and whether said mount is permanently mounted on a pier, and whether the mount has built-in GPS.

In the case of a permanently mounted EQ-5 Synscan, and a CPC800 with GPS, I have not seen much point in attaching the Starsense.

But attached to a C8 SE it is quite useful as it allows the outfit to be carried outside and got going within minutes.  

The review video seems to be 90 mins of speculation. 

If you look up the size of an IMX533 sensor, this will give you the field stop size of the equivalent eyepiece.  Not very wide-field, I think.

I assume there is no optical see-through, just a magnified view of a small display screen.

Convenience apart, it remains to be seen what this device does that you could not do with an IMX533 chip camera, a laptop and Sharpcap.

I understood this part, Sony IMX533 Color CMOS sensor but otherwise am not sure how the thing works, or how much it costs.

On the smaller 102mm Startravel the dew shield just pulls off.

No idea, except that I stopped using my LiFePo Celestron powertank with my EQ-5 Synscan mount after it shut itself down a couple of times. Now I use a lead-acid car engine starter, which does not have that problem.

You do have to enter the location. if you read the Autoalign manual, it will tell you how.

12 hours ago, woldsman said:

OK so I tested an adapter for a household applicance plugged into the mains supplying 14v. Black probe in the pin and red probe on the side. The reading was -14. On the plug itself there is printed a minus in a circle, a C sign and a plus in a circle. So it is centre positive. Conclusion: the red probe goes in the pin and the black probe touches the side. That gives 14v the correct result. So the 12v battery pack and 9v step up lead are both center negative. 

You still appear a little confused by meter use. As a former electronics engineer, I find it hard to put myself in the position of someone who has no clue about electrics. However, your appliance PSU above appears to be centre positive.   If the meter indicates positive, then whatever the red lead is contacting is positive.  When testing such plugs, it will be less confusing if you always touch black to outer and red to pin, so that centre positive leads indicate (+) and centre negative leads (-).

If you have any round batteries (e.g. AA) lying around, test them with your meter.  The flat end is always negative, and the domed end positive.

No reason why you can't make a wedge, but why is it necessary?  It is implied here that the mount that came with the telescope is alt-azimuth (otherwise it would not need a wedge).  Many alt-azimuth mounts are not suitable for astrophotography even when placed on a wedge, so it would appear a better plan to buy an equatorial mount that is suited to astrophotography.

What are the telescope and mount in question?

A question. How do you intend to fit an ADC to a 200PDS, given the extra path introduced by the length of the ADC, and the limited focuser travel of the typical Newtonian?

42 minutes ago, PatrickO said:

I'm presently using a Celestron C6/8 mount, but it limits how near the zenith I can go.

What exactly is the problem here? I have the same mount, and it isn't limited in how near the zenith it will go. The qualifiers are that being an alt-azimuth mount it does not behave well at the zenith, and you have to set the OTA correctly in the dovetail (i.e. as far forward as it will go) and not have overlong trains of equipment attached to the visual back.  Note that there is a software limiter that can be set to determine how close the mount can approach to the zenith,

You need to tell us your budget. 

Swapping the C8 SE for the CPC800 will give you a sturdy GoTo mount that, with its built-in GPS, is quicker to align, once you have the outfit assembled and in position.  It is heavy, though...  Much better all-round than the C8 SE, asides from the weight.

Adding the Starsense Autoalign system to the C8 SE will make it quicker to setup. I have Starsense on my C8, forming a quick to deploy and align outfit I can carry outside in one piece. 

From a BBC magazine review: As a bonus, the mount has a port for a SynScan AZ handset, giving you the option to turn this into a full Go-To mount.

I don't think we have the full story here.  If you have an EQ-5 Synscan mount, why not just mount the heritage 90 on it instead of on the Virtuoso mount?

I have had error 17 with my SLT mount, which was caused by corrupt firmware and fixed by re-flashing the mount firmware. 

I have also read advice to the effect that mounts should not be powered via the ASIAIR.

2 hours ago, Space Manta Ray said:

It is in my "Igloo" dome observatory in the back yard.

The Starsense system depends on having a fairly unrestricted view of the sky, so I do not expect it to work well from inside a typical observatory dome.

Once you turn the system off, it is irrelevant whether you move the tripod or not. So far as I recall, it does not have a 'Park' and 'Resume from Park' as the Skywatcher EQ series mounts do.

There should be several screw locations on the OTA Mine has (looking from rear)

lower right - used to mount Starsense.

mid right - front and back points used to mount a custom accessory bar

upper right - red dot finder position - only used for initial alignment of the Starsense, or for 'solar system' alignment.  

I suggest you use the mid right or upper right positions to mount the DSLR (you may have to buy or make a suitable bracket).

Anyway, the SE mount is not really suited for imaging, either piggyback or through the telescope.

You will find it less frustrating to use a camera tracker mount for the DSLR, or invest in an imaging-capable mount like the AVX or HEQ5.

Can you clarify whether you have the Autoalign camera system or the smartphone software version?

Assuming it's the former, I would suggest that unplugging things while powered up is not a good idea, and what you need to do is to provide mountings for Starsense and DSLR simultaneously.  You might have trouble getting the Starsense off without causing the vertical alignment to slip. (On my outfit, the Starsense camera is mounted below and to the right of the OTA, looking from the rear.)

Anyway, the C8 SE is not a great mount for astrophotography.