First Light - Celestron Nexstar 6SE

[greglloyd]

Tonight was my second outing with my new NexStar 6SE which arrived during the week. Seeing was very poor on it's first night (Wed) so spent that evening familiarising myself with the GOTO system and tonight was really the first opportunity to give the scope it's first light.

Scope arrived with optics fairly well aligned, but I still suspected that they may have been just slightly out of collimation as the contrast on Jupiter just didn't seem as good as I had hoped it would be and high mag views of out of focus stars showed non-symmetrical patterns but I didn't adjust anything on Wed as I suspected a lot of the issue was to do with the poor seeing.

Tonight, I let the scope cool down for around 3 hours prior to star testing and then determined that yes, the seeing was definitely playing a role but the optics were also just slightly out. Did a few very slight turns to one of the screws at the front and got a nice symmetrical pattern (well as good as tonight's seeing would allow anyway!). I feel the scope is pretty well collimated now and will wait for better seeing conditions before making any other changes.

Although tonight was clear and transparent here, seeing was again very variable. Even so, I managed to bag a much sharper view of Jupiter this evening with a nice view at 125x and quite a good, close view at 214x - however with this evening's seeing this was probably beginning to push it a little.

Next lesson learned tonight was the due issue. Whilst cooling down, the scope's optics were absolutely clear, but as soon as I pointed it skyward the corrector fogged over completely. Got the AstroZap on the front and the fog cleared off again and viewing was back to normal. However, I noticed that by the end of the session it was starting to fog over again even with the dew shield in place. Probably should have had the shield in place right from the start, but I guess it would still have fogged over eventually anyway?

Due to mainly testing and tuning the optics this evening, my list of DSO's was on the small side. However, I did get some nice views of M42 with plenty of detail in the wings, a nice sharp Trapezium, clear detached M43, and an extended glow away from the wings (not as much extended glow as the 10" scope used to give but I must say that this scope did seem to give comparable detail). The nebula is also quite large in the 25mm eyepiece with this scope (compared with the 32mm eyepiece in the Dob I used to have).

Other DSO's I tried out this evening were M35, M36, M37, Double Cluster. All these star clusters looked pin sharp through the scope with great contrast. Was very pleased with the views. They were all framed very nicely in the 25mm eyepiece filling most of the FOV (though the double cluster was a little too large - but still easy to pan between the two clusters as they were just slightly larger than the FOV).

Finally, I took a quick peek at Castor before the batteries caved in. Split it very cleanly at 60x in the 25mm. After this, the batteries decided to throw the towel in and the GOTO started going off on a tour of it's own. So it was time to call it a night.

All in all I am very pleased with the scope. Looking forward to more viewing sessions. I still feel that it may not be giving me the sharpest of planetary views yet and I'm unsure if this is just the seeing conditions, or if a further slight tweak of collimation is required.

[John]

That sounds a decent 2nd session

If you can split Castor cleanly at 60x then the seeing / collimation is not too bad.

You will need a power pack for the mount - they just eat batteries !

If you get a power pack with a couple of sockets then you could use a heated dew band as well as the dew shield. If used from the start of a session that should really keep the dew at bay.

[greglloyd]

Thanks, must look into that.

[Astro Imp]

Good to see you managed to get out and test your new toy and that you are pleased with your purchase.

[VigdisVZ]

Glad you had a nice evening with your new best friend. Being an SCT it's very prone do dew. A shield will only do so much, but if you havea real power pack you either DIY or buy a heatstrip for it.

This is a popular power pack I've seen people use. I have a similar 19Ah version for my NEQ-6. http://www.maplin.co.uk/portable-jump-starter-and-air-compressor-49038

[Dunkster]

Congrats on a good session with your 6SE! Sounds like your skies are the business

Planetary viewing I find to be very hit and miss... of a handful or sessions earlier this year only 1 gave nice detail on Mars. Fortunately, there are always other objects in the sky to view...

Expanding your view can be achieved with a longer and or wider EP. The E-Lux isn't a bad little eyepiece, but a 32mm plossl or 24mm 68 degree EP could show you up to about 1.1 degree FOV compared with 0.83 for the 25mm E-Lux. The double cluster just about fits in that

[greglloyd]

Had the 6SE out again for another test last night. Cooled the scope down from around 7pm and observed from 10:15 onwards.

First target as Jupiter and I was rewarded with a much sharper view on this occasion with plenty of detail on the surface at 125x with four bands, shadowing, and the GRS along with other turbulence visible along the bands. Bumping up he power to 214x gave good views as well though a mag in between would have probably been ideal as seeing was good but probably not exceptional. Could clearly see Ganymede resolved as a disk as well as one other moon (can't remember which) which is the first time I have seen the moons as 'moons'.

Decided to check out some DSOs with the GOTO :-

1. M1 Crab Nebula. Scope slewed it right into view and it was nicely visible despite the fact I hadn't dark adapted for long. Nice and large view at 60x. Without even conciously trying for it, I could have sworn I was able to see some of the dim 'exploded' detail in it with adverted vision. Is that even possible in a 6" scope??

2. Next target was the Orion Nebula which was nice and large and bright. Plenty of detail, but didn't spend to long on it yesterday even and mostly focused in testing the scopes resolution on the stars within it (e.g. Trapezium at various powers). The E and F components could be seen in the Trapezium.

3. Slewed the scope over to the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini. First time viewing this object and I must say this is where I do love the GOTO facility of the scope. It presents nice handy object lists for you to quickly get to new and interesting objects you may not have have either found and tried to find before. For me, this object is one of them and within 20 seconds there it was in the FOV. I threw 125x at it and could clearly see the nucleus surrounded by a mottled halo. At that mag it wasn't overly bright in the 6" scope (but still quite bright). The SCT gives great contrasty dark sky behind objects by comparison so that they look impressive for a scope of this size.

4. Swung the scope over into Andromeda for a 60x view of M31 / M32 / M110. This looked a little unusual to me due to the different orientation of the view in the SCT combined with the angle I was viewing Andromeda from but got some good views of M32 and M110 and a good close view of the nucleus region of M31.

5. Did a quick test again on Castor last night. Very cleanly split at 60x again. I think the optics are in pretty good alignment.

6. Finally, I checked out M36, M37, and M38 again and all three were very well resolved to tack sharp pin points across the view.

Dew was a problem again when I first started to observe. What I'm basically doing is letting the scope cool down outside with the front cap on. Then when I begin to observe, I stick the Astrozap on the front - but the corrector fogs up completely before I even finish fitting the Astrozap. However, if I leave the scope for around 10 mins the fog completely clears again. It stayed clear for the rest of the session (approx 1 hour).

Now that I'm getting nicely aquainted with the scope and the GOTO system I must say that it's become my favourite of all the scopes I've had. Previously I've owned a 130EQ, 6" Dob, 8" Dob, 10" Dob and this one definitely has pleased me the most. It definitely gives comparably detailed views to the 200P I used to own.

The GOTO system is just great for suggesting what objects to go looking for and I'm increasingly finding myself now going for objects I may have previously not bothered with.

Looking forward to the next night out with the scope and trying for some new objects now that I've mostly finished with testing the optics

[greglloyd]

One question. I notice when I focus and defocus Jupiter that the ghosted edge moves into and away from the planet's disk on the lower half rather than in and out evenly in all directions. I would have thought that a perfectly collimated scope would defocus out all around the planet's disk evenly in all directions. Does this make sense?

Is this normal, or does this indicate that the collimation is still out a little?

[VigdisVZ]

Nice read. Your scope is certainly capable, it's usually the sky conditions that sets the limit.

[Dunkster]

<p>

One question. I notice when I focus and defocus Jupiter that the ghosted edge moves into and away from the planet's disk on the lower half rather than in and out evenly in all directions. I would have thought that a perfectly collimated scope would defocus out all around the planet's disk evenly in all directions. Does this make sense?

Is this normal, or does this indicate that the collimation is still out a little?

I've not seen that with mine, or at least, not noticed does this happen with all of the EPs? What I'm getting at is, is it a function of the EP or the scope?

Either way, it sounds like you're getting great results with your new scope which is really promising it's even made me doubt my star test now! I've only seen M1 once from here last season, and it was a big slug-shaped smudge, but given my level of LP I was still impressed to see that.

Have you tried any of the other alignment routines or are you having success with SkyAlign?

[greglloyd]

Both the 7mm and 12mm X-Cel LX eyepieces show this (I think!). Defo the 7mm shows the effect. I must check again to see if the 12mm shows the same effect. It's more noticeable at the higher power. Could be the eyepieces I suppose. The only other eyepiece I have right now is the Celestron MA Plossl 25mm which is too low power I reckon to see the effect.

Defocused star patterns look symmetrical in the 7mm so that baffles me all the more! I currently have no other brands to compare with at the moment (used to have some Televue Plossls but got rid of them with the last scope!)

Haven't tried any other alignment routines as the Sky Align has worked well so far. I do get a little bit of drift after a while at high power but I'm selecting Belfast as my location which is approx 22 miles east of me. Would this cause a slight error in tracking over time? I plan to put in my exact GPS coordinates for future sessions. Only had the Sky Align fail to match once, and this was when trying to use a star in Pegasus as my third option.

[greglloyd]

Took the scope out again early this evening to take advantage of the last clear skies for a while. There's a haze tonight with some very thin and high cloud around too, so decided to view Jupiter and do some final tweaking as well as check the eyepieces following the earlier posts.

Defocused star pattern of Capella looked symmetrical at 214x, but decided to try a little in focus tweaking with Capella and Jupiter's moons. This reaped benefits and I got the razor sharp image I have been looking for. Very sharp views of Jupiter at 125x and plenty of detail at 214x. The four main Jovian moons were pin sharp with one or two definitely resolved to disks. Enjoyed watching Io transit off the left side of Jupiter with it's shadow clearly shown on the planet.

I'm a happy bunny now!

[greglloyd]

p.s. This sorted the Jupiter focusing issue I mentioned in an earlier post.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Some nice observations and reports there. Glad you like the little cat!

[greglloyd]

Another session with the Celestron CAT this evening. Unfortunately, high cloud moving in the from west cut the session short...

As the scope cooled down, I decided to check out Jupiter first and noticed that the GRS was beginning a transit - so I watched it progress through to the middle of the disk whilst enjoying nice crisp views of Jupiter.

Next object was Uranus - and this was the first time I had hunted this object down and actually viewed it's disk. With the Dob's I either didn't bother to go for it or didn't find. This year, I spotted Uranus in the binos and decided to train the scope on it this evening. Could clearly resolve the disc at 214x but that's about it.

After a while, I decide to start my DSO tour for the evening and went for the Eskimo Nebula which looked bright and distinctly non stellar at 60x and a stellar core with an extended halo and mottling at 124x and above.

The next object I slewed across to was mistakingly NGC 7790 - I had actually intended to look at NGC 7789 but punched in the wrong object! Will go for this one again next time!

The next object was one on the NexStar handset's list - the Christmas Tree cluster. It was framed fairly nicely in the 25mm eyepiece with just a little panning around it to get the full context.

I decided to challenge the scope with the next object.. Tonight's sky conditions were pretty good - but not the best I've ever seen here, but still pretty dark. I punched in NGC 891 int the handset and the scope slewed over into Andromeda. Initially I couldn't see anything centered in the field of view, but as soon as I hit a tap on the slew button I could see the elongated dim glow of NGC891 from the top to the bottom of the eyepiece view. Dim it was, but certainly clearly there and quite visible when you tapped the view back and forth. I'm pretty please to bag this magnitude +10 edge on galaxy in a 6" scope.

High cloud was beginning to spoil my options, so I finished up with a quick view of M42 (whish is always a show) and then a final view of Jupiter with a moon coming off the right hand limb and the GRS moving to the left hand side of the disk (as seen in the SCT view) before packing up for the night.

All in all, another great session with the 6" SCT and I'm still quite surprised how much it can punch above it's own weight when compared with the views from my Skywatcher 200P and 250PX Dob's which I previously owned. Combining the optics with eh GOTO system is a winning formula!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Glad you are enjoying the scope. NGC 891 is pretty hard, in my experience; well done getting it. The Eskimo is a favourite of mine. It can take 200x with ease in my C8, so you should readily be able to do 150x. The core shows more detail then.

[springbok]

Great reports. I have an 8SE which is used for "family" visual sessions.

It's ideal for this, quick to set up and have a look about, before the daughter and wife get too cold

[greglloyd]

Hi Michael,

re: NGC 891 - without the GOTO system I wouldn't have found it. It's definitely a challenging object and just within the capabilities of the scope. For me the buzz with this object was simply finding it at all rather than it being impressive to look at in any way. However, despite it being a faint object I will probably try to revisit it from time to time. It's elusive nature is quite interesting

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Hi Michael,

re: NGC 891 - without the GOTO system I wouldn't have found it. It's definitely a challenging object and just within the capabilities of the scope. For me the buzz with this object was simply finding it at all rather than it being impressive to look at in any way. However, despite it being a faint object I will probably try to revisit it from time to time. It's elusive nature is quite interesting

Good skies are essential for this kind of object, aperture comes second. One brilliant side-on galaxy which is much easier is NGC 4565. Well worth a visit in spring.

[greglloyd]

Agreed regarding skies over aperture. I've viewed 4565 in the 10" Dob and recall it being an easy target for that scope. Will defo try for it in the cat come the early spring.

[Astro_king]

So maybe the extra price justifies this i suppose. I do own an 8 inch Dob but I am looking to buy something to travel abroad with like on an airline far far away to dark and warm beutiful places in the east. What would you suggest? Would a 6se nexstar be good enough to pack in a nice hand carry bag? or the 5se is the very limit? also how big is the tripod? which i am thinking to just give in in the main luggage.

[Dunkster]

The 6SE ota is small enough (and light enough) to fit in a well-padded carry-on bag or peli case if you want to push it a bit for weight (depending on the weight limitations imposed by the airline). I wouldn't want to trust it with the baggage mis-handlers without an oversized peli case, but that's just me

The mount itself separates from the tripod, but with the diameter of the mount base (containing the az motor) and length of the tripod legs, you'll need a large-ish suitcase to accommodate it. However, if you were willing to forgo the goto, you could get away with a port mount... the head is more compact and the tripod is light, but the legs would still need to be stashed diagonally in a suitcase.

[Astro_king]

The 6SE ota is small enough (and light enough) to fit in a well-padded carry-on bag or peli case if you want to push it a bit for weight (depending on the weight limitations imposed by the airline). I wouldn't want to trust it with the baggage mis-handlers without an oversized peli case, but that's just me

The mount itself separates from the tripod, but with the diameter of the mount base (containing the az motor) and length of the tripod legs, you'll need a large-ish suitcase to accommodate it. However, if you were willing to forgo the goto, you could get away with a port mount... the head is more compact and the tripod is light, but the legs would still need to be stashed diagonally in a suitcase.

Thats what I had in mind originally.. A small scope in hand carry along with the goto bit and the tripod in main luggage... Thanks for the info... Time to flock eBay with bids

[Astro_king]

Just out of curiosity.. How big is 8se's ota?

[Dunkster]

iirc, it's approx. 8.5" in diameter and 17" long.