First light 6SE

[Dunkster]

I'm far from an experienced astronomer (I use the term very loosely!), but I'm learning. Maybe someday I'll graduate to something bigger, badder and manual

In the meantime, small goto rules the roost. Time is as limited as opportunity, and living in the Thames valley orange blur I need all the help I can get to find anything

I've had the 6SE lurking in the shed for a month now, since the shiny orange scope was dangled in front of me. Since then the weather has been appalling and like many I've suffered with the season sniffles. Then the weather was worse than appalling.

I already have a 127SLT, so figured the 6SE would gather me a little more light, but besides that it would be more of the same. Having 2 similar scopes may sound crazy, but since getting the 127 I've already had friends/family around a couple of times wanting to look through the EP. For simplicity, they're the same FL so nice and easy on the maths side

Other than a sneaky peek at Jupiter through the EP one evening under poor conditions - 15mm was as far as I could go - this will have to count as first light...

Today was a beautiful clear day and I kept a close eye as we headed toward sunset. Given the forecast, I'd moved the scope into the porch for some cooling earlier on but made it out the back at 5:30.

The mount is a little bit heavier and sturdier than that of the 127, so I was keen to see how that would change the experience. I've really enjoyed the views from the 127, but wobble induced by twisting the focuser means haste is not an option. I'm not certain whether this is due to the mount itself or the arm holding the OTA (I suspect the latter).

On power-up, the experience with the 6SE is much the same as the 127, besides the greeting saying 6SE instead of 127SLT. I ran a Sky Align using Pollux, Betelgeuse and Jupiter and got a success message, despite the choices being less than ideal.

My first target for the night was (naturally) Jupiter... I've had a lot of enjoyment staring at Jupiter with the 127, and was pleased with what I saw. I'm still learning to read the conditions, but I suspect tonight was one of the better sessions. Starting with the 15mm BST explorer showed some lovely detail and colouring with the bands on Jupiter, as good as I had seen with the 127. For kicks, I dropped in the unknown 9mm that was bundled with the 127. I can't say I'd had a lot of luck with it in the 127, but I didn't lose any detail and gained a slightly bigger image. One thing that was apparent with both EPs though was how bright Jupiter was, and I think I could have made out more detail with something blocking a little of the light!

Next target was M45. I'd had a look at the Pleiades before with the 127 and felt the field of view was a bit narrow. With the same FL, but using the "E-Lux" 25mm bundled with the 6SE, it gave much the same impression - my bins have given me the best views of these gems so far. Then I screwed in the Baader UHC-S filter (first light also!) and enjoyed the view. I felt I could see some nebulosity around the brightest stars, but maybe it's just dispersion from the filter - I'm not sure what to expect to be honest.

Next target was one I'd been looking forward to for a long time... M42. I left the 25mm + filter in as I figured I would need the FOV. I was presented with a nice pacman like object, about 1/3 of the diameter of the view. Switching the filter out, I was quite surprised by the difference it made, so promptly put it back in! I recognised the trapezium, and with two of the stars being quite close together, I then tried the 15mm BST with the filter and this further separated them, but also reduced the brightness of the nebulosity. I know the Orion nebula is a large object, normally not suited to long focal length scopes, but I was pretty happy with my first view. I look forward to seeing it again from a much darker location.

Not fully realising how quickly time passes when your flying through space, I asked the 6 to show me the next - and what would turn out to be the final - target of the evening. I was not expecting to really see anything of M1, and initially I didn't see anything and thought the goto had pointed me at some random dark patch of space. But after a little averted vision exercise, I managed to start making out a shape that I later checked with Stellarium. It was very faint, but I could also make out some variation in the fuzziness with the 25mm + UHC-S.

Pointing back towards M42, I found the view wasn't quite the same as before, so I checked the glass of the scope to find it was dewing up (with shield, but no heater). I had been out for 3 hours, and the cold was starting to eat its way through my socks, so I decided to call it a night and pack up and get fed and watered. I almost went back out, with the Mak, after dinner but I'm glad I didn't because it clouded up around 10pm and I would have kicked myself! A side by side comparison of the two little goto scopes that could will have to wait

While I think the 6SE is mostly an incremental upgrade over the 127SLT (and that's a credit to the 127 in many respects), I don't regret the impulse buy (bargain that it was) and look forward to our next adventure, and hopefully some darker skies in the not too distant future. I don't doubt that I will suffer from further bouts of aperture fever at some point, but I think I'll working on the EP collection next