timothy4

Thank you Cosmic Geoff for the useful information. I am pretty confident I did not overtighten as I am very wary of this given how flimsy the locking nuts and mechanism on the legs have always felt to me and despite this I found that you do not need to tighten much to lock the legs firmly. Understand about the message to newbies but it still seems like a remarkable lack of fulfilling observing as far as I am concerned. I had a much better fun with a £70 refractor scope form Argos about 20 years ago in the SE London Suburbs as opposed to the edge of a Cotswold market town and £1300 scope. I know it is hard to make direct comparisons like this but I can't help it. I will try some double stars as I do not think I have tried that yet. I did wonder about a finderscope upgrade but obviously not completely sure whether I am going to sell up or not at this stage. Good to know I should get a good price if I do decide to sell.

Hii All. I used my Celestron Nexstar Evolution 6 scope I bought about 6 months ago lastvnight and one of the thumb screws on a leg made a clicking sound as I loosened it to take the scope down and it no longer clamps the leg so need a new leg. A similar thing happened to another of the legs shortly after purchase which the retailer replaced. The leg clamps have always felt poor quality and weird to me but seem to firmly clamp the legs, at least temporarily! All the legs produce a metallic sound like there is something loose inside and I can see a little metal plate through each thumb screw hole that slides around slightly; I don’t understand the mechanism inside. The thumbscrew of the broken leg now just spins around in the hole and does not seem to tighten down on the leg. As I say this is the 2nd leg now this has happened to within 6 months of purchase. Can anybody shed any light on this strange phenomenon or experienced the same issue? I persuaded the retailer to send me a replacement leg last time without having to bother returning the tripod but I think I may need to send the whole tripod back as all the legs could potentially be dodgy. Weird thing is the locking mechanism of the replacement leg they sent to me when the first leg broke feels weird like the others and no different. I aborted my observing session last night as was about to do my alignment and the red dot finder did not seem to turn on and assumed it was a dead battery. I took the scope indoors and subsequently found out you have to remove the finderscope to replace the battery which I did. Then guess what; I turned the finderscope on and it came on!!! I am beginning to hate this telescope and astronomy as I cannot see much with the scope anyway. Yes, I have realistic expectations, use the Messier list and Stellarium to choose targets appropriately but alas all you see is a faint tiny fuzzy patch but mostly you see nothing at all. Jupiter and Saturn which this scope would be good for are not observable at the moment from my location. All I find myself looking at is the moon; I did not spend £1300 on a scope to look at the moon fascinating though it is. This whole experience has been crap, very frustrating and disappointing. The ironic thing is that I finally sorted out issues using SkyPortal on my phone and tablet with the scope a few days ago. It worked like a dream and was the coolest thing ever but I still couldn’t see s**t Will I be able to sell the scope easily with a new tripod leg of course? This rant had been very cathartic, thank you for reading in the unlikely event you got this far.

Thank you for pointing out iapa. I managed to update the handset and mount using CFM this morning. Got an error message first time saying scope memory was corrupted or something tried again and it installed 11 updates!

Interesting. I am using Android 10 and iOS 12.5.1. Apologies; my iPad does not turn off WiFi in Airplane Mode but my phone does. My iPad does not have cellular turned on. Maybe it is cellular messing things up.

Very kind, thank you Brown Dwarf

Thank you that is very useful to know. The Celestron support webpage is a useful resource but does not seem to be comprehensive and much important information seems to remain somewhat esoteric!

Thank you. My phone and iPad were used separately of course, not at the same time. I thought the same as you about Airplane Mode, it turns off cellular, WiFi and Bluetooth but you can still connect with Wifi to a selected network even in Airplane Mode at least on my devices. So when in Airplane Mode I connected to the Evolution Mount WiFi. Interestingly, I was able to do a 3 star alignment in SkyPortal when in Airplane Mode. I have not managed to do a successful alignment in SkyPortal when I have managed to connect in the past before I knew about the Airplane Mode thing; the scope was always pointing in the opposite direction (180 degrees) form where it should have been...

Thank you White Dwarf, much appreciated

Thanks, yes I did that Shimrod but still no luck unfortunately. There is a YouTube video here where he talks about a driver that also need to be installed which I think will be the next thing I do and then try using CFM again. This is part of the problem I have with Celestron; that you have to piece together information like this yourself from across the internet instead of them providing the required information. The workflows themselves I find very inefficient as well although I know it seems to work well for some people

Thank you for the response Mark, the lack of an obvious pattern to the problems is very frustrating isn't it; glad you found a workaround and I will take note of that. I am surprised by the lack of information and technical support form Celestron; aftersales seems a bit rubbish. As mentioned above, Interestingly, I turned Airplane Mode on my phone last night (and iPad) and it connected, I got the alignment spot on (can do this now in about 5 mins flat) and the scope operated like a dream; it was awesome even though I did not see much apart form the Moon pretty much. Not much around to see at the moment it seems at least for me with my equipment and skill levels.

Thank you for the advice. Tried updating using CFM yesterday which I found a whole world of pain and information on what cables to use is sparse or seems conflicting. A USB form PC to the mini USB at the bottom of the handset was not recognised. Seems like a mini usb to serial cable may do the trick so may try that next. Interestingly, I turned Airplane Mode on my phone last night (and iPad) and it connected, I got the alignment spot on (can do this in about 5 mins flat) and the scope operated like a dream; it was awesome even though I did not see much apart form the Moon pretty much. Not much around to see at the moment it seems at least for me with my equipment and skill levels.

Thanks, I thought somebody might say that Only thing probably have not tried so will give it a go. The CFM software only seems to run with Java; is that correct please? Celestron support seems a bit rubbish as I understand Java is obsolete because of security issues!

Hi, can anybody direct me to UK technical support for Celestron products now David Hinds has closed please? I am having problems connecting SkyPortal to a Celestron Nexstar Evolution 6 having tried various possible solutions I have found in the user manual and online; forgetting other WiFi networks, ensuring I am using Direct Connect, powering mount down and back up again, starting SkyPortal and then trying to reconnect etc. A message comes up on my phone and iPad (used separately of course) saying a connection has been made but the telescope is not responding, make sure the correct scope is selected and other times it simply cannot make a connection! I do not live in an area with particularly hi levels of WiFi traffic/networks. Many Thanks Tim

Thanks, that is reassuring to know 👍

Thank you

Thanks for reply; it was the OTA and mount too

Just an update after following advice above; the mirror and corrector do not appear to be cracked after a fairly thorough inspection and also the focuser still works so hopefully I may have got away with it barring a possible need for collimation. Probably a good idea for me to start checking collimation anyway...

Thanks. I cannot see a crack in the mirror or corrector but guess it could be a hidden thing and will not know until I try to use. I’m scared to look but will of course; worse case scenario that would be £1,300 down the drain

Will do, thanks

Hi All. Using my skill and judgement I placed my newish Celestron Nexstar Evolution 6 scope on my office chair last night after observing and turned my back and then about 30 seconds later heard an almighty crash as my scope crashed onto the wooden laminate floor. There is no obvious outward signs of damage to the scope but there is now a dent in my nice laminate floor! Will the scope be alright or have I likely irreparably damaged it? What should I do next; check the collimation? I am a technically minded beginner and this is my first scope so I have never collimated before. If collimation is what I need to do what is the easiest way to do this? Is any specialist kit of use; I can see the advantage of an artificial star as you can collimate any time of day and not be weather dependent? I feel really gutted about what happened as I am naturally a very careful person. What happened is slightly mysterious too although I remember now that I may have the seat of my chair set on a very slight slope; its meant to help protect the lower back. Am hoping the damaged floor will be covered by my insurance so have to investigate that as well now. Thank you in advance to all you kind stargazers for any advice on where to go from here.

Thank you Armand for the useful information and encouraging words. I am going to keep practicing and not give up.

Thank you for pointing out this useful resource

Thank you for the useful, practical and encouraging advice

Thank you, I can now understand the attraction of imaging vs observation, at least theoretically as I do not know from a practical point of view, at least not yet

Thank you for the advice