New telescope delivered? Tick

[Citizen]

Star chart at the ready? Tick

Warm clothing and hot flask of tea? Tick

100% cloud cover and snow on the way? Tick

Doh!

[The_PSY3NTIST]

100% cloud cover and snow on the way? Tick

Happy new telescope

[nightfisher]

congrats, what did you buy

[DaveBolton]

Come on Citizen, spill the beans... what scope did you choose?

[The_PSY3NTIST]

Come on Citizen, spill the beans... what scope did you choose?

Must have been a break in the clouds to test it out

[Capricorn]

Got to have been at least a Tak to have caused this much foul weather.

[The_PSY3NTIST]

Considering its wiped the country out maybe it's one of these!

[Citizen]

Well, I eventually decided on the Nexstar 6SE. Been umming and aahing over several models and had to make the plunge eventually. Been reading up lots on it and had several visits to Astronomia in Dorking, Surrey, to have a look and get some advice. Was overwhelmed with reflectors and refractors and Dobs and SCTs to be honest.

What is the general opinion on the Celestron Nexstars? I've read good things but would be interested to know any bad reviews. I was lucky to have recently received a budget to allow such a purchase but was worried a GOTO might stunt my embryonic knowledge of the skies and star hopping. I believe the two can still go hand in hand. Advice welcome.

[The_PSY3NTIST]

That was nearly my first scope too. Not had any experience with it but I know its good. As for goto.. Wish I'd have had it from the start. Treat it as your mentor I sometimes sit at the side of the scope for 10 mins finding where things are and not even looking through the scope. I've found it a good way to put together a map in my head. Course there is stelarium for that but I feel it glues better when I'm outside you will find goto is marmite to a lot of people. I can see reasons for having it and not but personally I wouldn't be without it on my small scope.

[SeedyF]

Citizen - congrats on the new scope and thanks for the clouds. Mrs Seedy is pleased to see me indoors for a while

I switched to a GOTO after 7 years with a manual and it really can help you learn more of the sky. I now find myself working out which constellations will be around and what they contain and plan my observing around them. So suddenly I am getting to know much more than the main stars. And living in an area where the light pollution is bad I have been able to see things that would be near impossible to find star hopping - last weeks views of the Eskimo Nebula is a perfect example. Something small and dim isn't visible at all in my spotting scope so I could spend hours trying to find it. Now I spend those hours trying to see as much of it as I can. I'm pleased I spent several years learning the ropes but GOTO shouldn't be seen as cheating, I think some pureists on here treat it with something approaching distain

[Citizen]

Cheers Dave & Chris. As you say I am hoping the GOTO will be as much a tutorial as it is a cheat. I'm reading up as much as possible on sky charts, star navigation, constellations etc (and know some basics already) and so with some objects I'd like to think I will know which way the 6SE is going to take me. Others I will just enjoy the ride.

However, for now this is the 3rd day and counting for total cloud cover since I got the new scope!

It looks lovely in the corner of the living room though. Read on the here about some difficulties with 3 star alignment so look forward to that.

[The_PSY3NTIST]

Cloud cover comes free with every new scope but they never list it in the features.. Probably in the small print I have the celestron slt mount and have yet to succeed in 3 star alignment.. Two star is alway enough for visual I find and that never fails unless the time and date are wrong in the settings.. Thats a tip to remember if you have any problems aligning! Mine nearly ended up in the pond one night through frustration because it had reset :s

Enjoy

[kiffy]

ive just bought a 6se, and as a total newcomer to astronomy and goto's the alignmentprocess is killing me, it seems so easy on the videos ive found but i cant get it right... and my finderscopes not right, doesnt seem to have the adjustmet needed to get the red dot over what im looking at.. was out last night and the night before playing but frustration and the freezing weather beat me... not gona give up though, my first look at jupitar and its moons settled that.. i want.. no NEED more now

[Citizen]

Kiffy, I am seriously no expert on this whatsoever (a total novice in fact), but can you adivse you in from the point of view that I have my 6SE aligned and working pretty well.

Firstly make sure your finderscope is aligned with your eyepiece. After doing this for a few nights in the cold and dark I took some advice from here and did it during the day, using a chimney stack down the bottom of the road. Any decent object far enough away will do I'd reckon.

Find the object in the middle of your finderscope with the red dot, then check the eyepiece. Now centre the object in your eyepiece (using the hand control arrows) and then go back to the finderscope and using the two adjustable control nobs (azimuth nearest you and altitude toward the front of the finderscope), play around with them until the dot is back in the centre of view. Aligned and ready for the night time star alignment.

Go with 2 star first just to get some easy success and see that the GOTO commands work. A little moral booster. You'll need to know a few stars and where they are for this, but you can select them from a list the hand control will give you, and any star map will help you find decent stars to use.

Try 3 star later on, but many say they never achieve it and to be honest, even though I have now, the 2 star will take you to all the GOTO objects anyway. Well, it has for me.

p.s. make sure your location and time are spot on and also the date is MM/DD/YY (US style).

Good luck

[kiffy]

there doesnt seem to be the adjustability i need in my finderscope.. it seems likes it fixed correctly, and with the mounting system i cant see how it isnt square on the mount but ill whip it of tomorrow and have a look.. pretty sure i had settings right

apart from the sighting issues i must say im very happy with the 6se so far considering its size

[Dunkster]

The finderscope adjustments are round dials like the volume knob used to be on everything last century

Congrats both on the 6SE! The 6SE is generally well regarded, despite maybe living in the shadow of the 8. The main issue I find is that it's a dew magnet

Another alignment option I've used a lot is the solar system align... I've only used it for tracking planets but works close enough. Date, accurate time and location are key.

[kiffy]

yeh ive found the knob.. never had an issue finding it really

the front ones just so tight there seems to be no adjustment left.. ill get it sorted tho... have to