6 se owners

[redfox1972]

hi just wondering what you 6SE owners think of your scope, getting my first scope soon and think its going to be a 6SE and would like know what your viewing and how your finding it at differant stuff .i have been told its a good all rounder (by the shop owner ! ) and read good reviwes of it, but i think you canrt beat people who actually owne and use one for advice, any help / info would be great

thanks clarke

[Midpoint]

I think they're great scopes. Easy to set up and align meaning less faffing and more observing (clouds allowing). A power tank is a must though as the mount eats batteries and odd things happens when they start to run low.

[redfox1972]

thanks midpoint

ho w do you find it on DSO's and do you have a lot of problems with dew on corrector plate

once again thanks

[Dunkster]

6SE is a great scope IMO... I 'upgraded' to the 8" ota for DSOs as the light pollution here is pretty bad but if you live under a darker sky you will undoubtedly have better luck. The 8" is more of a dew magnet I usually put the 6 in the car too, for when the 8 dews up

The 6" feels better balanced on the mount than the 8" too, either way it's fairly light. Nexstar is pretty easy to use, but as Midpoint mentioned a power tank is a must for your own peace of mind.

Just be aware that you can get more aperture for your money if you went for a manual/non-computerised scope.

[Pig]

I also have this scope - and I am over the moon with it (forgive the pun)

1) I have no problems with deep sky objects especially since i purchased a UHC filter, light pollution was the main cause not the capabilities of the scope.

2) Dew is a problem for all casssergrain scopes due to the corrector plate and our climate, to stop this I purchased a dew sheild.

You will also need a power supplyas it eats batteries.

I purchased a jump starter power pack from halfords for £80 it lasts for ages and ages and ages without affecting the slew.

Make:

Ring 34ah with a mains inverter and cigarette socket,

Any more questions please do not hesitate to ask.

[redfox1972]

thanks PIG / DUNKSTER

does the dew sheild stop the dew completly or do you use any sort of heating ?

i intend to get a power tank, revelation eye piece + filter set (+dew sheild now) have you any experience with the eye peices

thanks again

[Pig]

The dew sheild stops mine completely. However, I do leave the scope outside for a while before I use it and I hang a tea towel off the front of the dew sheild until i am ready to use it, and when i have to pop in the house to warm up inbetween sessions

I have Celestron Ex-Cel LX eye pieces thus I am unable to compare for you.

I only have a moon, Sun and a UHC filter so im not sure of the use for other coloured filters.

Look around for a power tank and check the "ah" (amp hours) rating.

EG. Mine has a rating of 34ah, which means if you consume 1 amp per hour it will last 34 hours before it needs re-charging.

[redfox1972]

cheers pig

thanks for your help,great stuff.

[Pig]

Your most welcome

[Dunkster]

If I were you, I'd probably stick with the included 25mm (which is actually fairly decent) and a shorter FL one to start off with - 8 or 9mm if you're into planetary. The Xcel-LX get excellent reviews generally, but the BST/Starguider in an 8mm might be a good place to start also The choice in EPs is huge, so it really depends on your budget. Revelation or even Vixen NPL might also be a good starting point. I moved on up pretty quickly to the wider FOV EPs so it didn't feel like looking down a straw

[Hugechris]

The 6SE is a great scope for starting out,the views of the planets and moon are great for DSO's the more apature the better.

If you have no burning desire to perform long exposure DSO imaging the SE Alt-Az mount tracks well for hours with good alignment. I typically only do a 1-star or solar-system object alignment for my usual viewing / imaging needs.

However if astrophotography is where you want to be in 6months then it may well be worth saving the extra £400 or so to get a decent equatorial mount. The set up may be more complex but it will give you the option for better imaging in the long run.

As said above a power tank is needed. I have the revelation EP kit and I find them to be good all rounders. The 32mm EP is lovely for those wide field views and the shorter focal length EPs are great for planetary observation and combined with the Barlow allow some decent views. The only other EPs I use are zoom EPs the Seben which is respectable for its price and the Baader.

As for filters, I have played around with them but tend not to bother too much. Filters tend to be useful for wider appature scopes where the planets can be too bright for the eye, with the 6SE this is not an issue.

[matsey]

I also have this scope, have had it for just over 18 months, and I absolutely love it.

Planets, double stars, the less-faint DSOs all look amazing (M13, the globular cluster in Hercules looks spectacular in this scope), it does struggle with some of the faint DSOs (particularly galaxies) but some of that for me at least is down to light pollution - taken to a proper dark site you'll see a whole lot more - from Kelling last September I could see both cores of the Whirlpool Galaxy with some of the dust lanes too, quite amazing. And at a public star party last year organised by my astro society, I was told by a number of visitors that the views of Jupiter through my scope were the best they'd seen all night (proud 6SE-owner moment right there !!). The GOTO takes a little bit of practice and getting used to, but that would be true of all the GOTOs really, and once you "get it" you'll be up and running in minutes.

I've just started on my own upgrade path and although it seems quite common to sell existing equipment to fund the upgrade, I have absolutely no intention of ever letting go of my little beauty ! Definitely makes the upgrade a bit more expensive, but I know I'll still get a lot of use out of it, particularly taking it to star parties, camping trips, shorter viewing sessions, and it all fits easily into the boot of my car (and I drive a Mini !!), so definitely portable too.

EPs - tend to agree it's worth sticking with the 25mm that comes with the scope, it's a decent eyepiece. There is a sticky in the beginners section, "Eyepeices - the very least you need" (linky: http://stargazerslou...least-you-need/), which I found really helpful to understanding eyepieces for different apertures. In the end I went for the Celestron eyepiece kit, which I found really useful in that it allowed me to try out different magnifications on different objects to see what worked best. Then I just upgraded the pieces that I found I used most frequently. If I'm honest I don't now use most of the eyepieces in the kit, but I still have no regrets buying it, as if nothing else it made sure I only upgraded the eyepieces I really needed.

Dew Shield / Dew Heater - my recommendation would be to start off with just the dew shield (which definitely you'll need!) and hold off getting the dew heater unless/until you know you need the extra protection. Although I have both now, for the majority of the time I only need the dew shield, so you may find that's more than enough.

PowerTank - an absolute must as well !! For me, I've got the Maplins 3-in-1 jumpstarter, cost about £40, it easily lasts the whole night and has plenty of charge left at the end.

So I definitely wouldn't hesitate recommending this scope, it really is an incredible scope, you won't regret it I'm sure.

Hope that helps, and wishing you clear skies when you get your new scope, whatever scope you get.

Matsey

[Mem]

Hello redfox as i mentioned in your previous post I have had a Nexstar 6 for 18 months, it's a fantastic scope, great for moon, planetary and double stars, I was initially getting frustrated with the lack of details in DSO'S however I took the scope to kelling Heath and was blown away by how the scope performed with incredible details of M1, Andromeda. I Love my nexstar 6, however if you want to learn more about the sky and starhopping i would advise you to buy a meade 12" dobsonian! You may quickly want more apperture due to the limits of the nexstar6 for DSO's! If you do want a goto I would wait and save for a Nexstar8 there is a big difference in performance!

[Patrice Lanteigne]

I've had a 6SE for over 5 years now. It's a good telescope for a variety of targets except for the really big stuff. It does well on planets, binaries, globulars and some of the smaller open clusters. I particularly like it on lunar craters using a lunar filter. I have a sun filter for it so white light sun spot counting is fun with it as well.

Over the years I have found that the supplied 25 mm eyepiece and a 10 mm wide FOV eyepiece are mostly all I need with it. An external power supply in the form of an inexpensive jump starter is a must. A dew shield is also recommended. these can be expensive when bought from an astronomy supplier so I made my own from 2 mm thick craft foam bought from the dollar store.

The setup and alignment is dead easy and fast. Read the manual carefully and take your time the first few tries and in no time at all you'll have it down in a couple of minutes. A reticle eyepiece works very well for that, I use one from a finder that came with another scope. There are some complaints about the supplied red dot finder. Take 30 seconds at the start to align it to the scope first off and you'll be good. It does what it is supposed to do.

Being a closed tube telescope with a mirror at the back means it may take a bit of time to reach thermal equilibrium. I bring mine out just before twilight and then go have a cup of tea. An hour later when it's dark enough to do an alignment all is well.

The mount itself is not a bad bit of gear, its weakness is the supplied tripod. You will notice that the whole rig seems to vibrate for a bit every time you focus. This can be mitigated somewhat by not extending the legs, setting up on grass and having a very light touch with the focuser. Some folks have increased the diameter of the focus knob by a variety of means such as jar lids and rigid foam pucks and it works.

I now use this scope with SkyFi control through SkySafari running on an iPad. Works a treat.

This is a nice and portable little telescope and is worth spending some money on it if you so wish. I'm adding a 2" visual back and diagonal to mine as well as a feather touch two speed focuser which I'll likely motorize. I've also made an adapter to mount it on a very solid DIY tripod.

Here are a couple of snaps of the DIY dew shield:

[redfox1972]

Thanks for all your replies , really helpfull

[Joe_L]

Hi All. I've just bought my first scope - a 6SE, so clearly I've made an excellent choice!!! First light the other night with the moon and Jupiter, despite the weather not being very great. I was astounded to get useable views of Jupiter through a layer of cloud.

I need to get some more eyepeices. I've got the standard 25mm and the Xcel LX 18 which seemed really nice and very comfortable to use (the extra eye relief is great as I am beginnning to need glasses). I was wondering about 25/18/12 with a 2x or 2.5x Barlow, or alternatively 25/19/12/7 fixed. Any thoughts on how this combo works on this scope?

Sadly it seems the Tal barlow is no longer available - what's the alternative e.g. GSO/REvelation 2.5x? Does anyone have experience of the XL series Barlows with this scope and the other XL EPs e.g. do the 2x or 3x ones cause vignetting?

Joe

[mlp2k]

I recently bought a 6SE but due to time and weather I still haven't really used it with alignment. Size of storage was a big factor for me and I thought goto would be useful feature as a beginner. So i haven't really used it in anger yet I have manually viewed the moon and jupiter and it was fantastic I do however wonder if a dobsonian manual 10 or 12 inch would have been a better starter. Not being able to manually slew the scope is a bit of a pain. Sometimes it would be great to just lift out a scope and get going without having to worry about power alignment etc. If you have the time I suggest you try both and see what you prefer. Collimation was something on the dob that scared me a bit and the fact i couldnt fit one in the car (very small boot). In time I think the 6SE will be great when i get going and be useful for travel however a manual dob could well be a scope that will be used more for some people. This is just a view from a complete novice with little patience so others might disagree! try both and see

Mike

[Patrice Lanteigne]

Strictly speaking you don't need to do an alignment to use the Nexstar 6SE. Once you've connected the power and have pressed escape to get rid of the "Don't look at the Sun" warning you can use the direction keys on the keypad to slew the scope to where ever you want to look. However it will not track until you do an alignment. This is great if you want to use the scope in daytime to check out the beach fauna.

[Dunkster]

And as has been said earlier, it's easy enough to activate the tracking by doing a 1-star alignment - quick and easy

[matsey]

Mike - Yep, agree with Patrice and Dunkster - you can do the quick alignments (or no alignment if you know where you're going!). I do feel your pain though - when I first started out it would take me ages when all I wanted to do was look at "stuff" (and back then, I had no idea what that stuff was supposed to be!!), but once you get the hang of what you're doing, it really doesn't take long at all, so it is worth sticking with it I think. ..... though having said that, I have been at star parties with dob owners and they're all "oooh, look at Jupiter" and I've barely just attached the mount to the tripod !! Horses for courses I guess, but given the choice again, I personally still prefer my 6SE

Joe - and welcome to you to the ever growing 6SE owners club ! I don't have an awful lot of expertise on eyepieces in terms of range/makes/barlow or not to barlow, so sure someone else will come along soon to advise, but I will say in terms of something that gives 12mm, I do think that would be a good choice for your scope. I've got an 11mm which is close and I get a lot of use out of it - in fact for Jupiter and M13 (globular cluster in Hercules) it gives the best views by far of all my eyepieces.

Matsey

[Pig]

Sadly it seems the Tal barlow is no longer available - what's the alternative e.g. GSO/REvelation 2.5x? Does anyone have experience of the XL series Barlows with this scope and the other XL EPs e.g. do the 2x or 3x ones cause vignetting?

Joe

I have The Ex-CEL LX Barlow its brilliant - I do use it with Ex-CEL LX eyepieces so I dont know if this helps.

I have used other Barlows ( not the TAL) and this is better.

[Joe_L]

I've only done the align once and found it a bit confusing until I paid attention to what the screen was asking!! The next day I read the manual again and had a practice indoors (!!) just to get the hang of the menu and which keypresses it wanted so I recon next time I get a clear sky it will be easier.

I spent a lot of time thinking about a dob, but in my case it was being convinced I wanted a light bucket, but it the end it was portability without too much bulk & weight that swayed me.

Matsey - thanks, it's useful to know what sizes other people find regularly useful.

Joe

[Joe_L]

Pig - I'd be using it with other LX's and the 25mm that came with the scope. It's a toss-up between the LX barlow and the Revelation.

[matsey]

Matsey - thanks, it's useful to know what sizes other people find regularly useful.

No problem at all I actually started with the Celestron kit as I had no idea what to use for what, then I just upgraded the eyepieces I found I used the most. So now I'm very happy with the range I've got - the 24mm gets used all the time, followed by the 16mm and the 11mm. The 7mm not quite so much, really depends on the seeing conditions, but when they're good the views of Jupiter with the 7mm are incredible, and it's also a good eyepiece for splitting double stars (again, when the seeing is good). Sometimes I think there *might* be room for a 19mm in there, but I have been very happy with that spread of mags, so I don't feel any urgency to do that. With the 12mm you will end up with a fairly similar range to me, so I'm sure you'll be very happy with what you get.

..... that's if the skies ever clear

Matsey

[Dunkster]

In the UK, where the weather doesn't always give us the best of conditions, it's good to have 2 in the upper range as Matsey says... I use a 6SE (and 8SE ota) with a combination of 11mm and 8.8 mm - often the 8.8 is too much even for the 6SE But on decent nights, it's worth having something in the range of 7 - 9 mm. I had 3 sessions observing Mars last year with my 6SE and only on one of them was the weather good enough to benefit from the 8.8. A shorter FL EP will give you a "bigger" view of planets, like Jupiter, but in our atmospheric mix it's not always better, and it will probably be the same image just bigger and more blurry most of the time. You could go higher, but you'd be excluding more and more sessions where it's useful.

So the second in the range about 10 or 11mm is useful for those nights that aren't so great. This will probably be the one you use the most for higher magnification viewing, so choose carefully! This is also a useful magnification for viewing globular clusters, larger chunks of the Moon (for zooming in on the Moon is possibly where you might use the shorted FL EP the most).

Then, a 3rd focal length for wide observing. If you already have other Xcel LX EPs, you can't go too far wrong for the price in picking up the 25mm. This will give about 1 degree FOV.