6 se owners

[CSM]

Another satisfied NexStar 6SE customer. Yes - a power tank is a must as is the dew shield. I have created the same dewshield that Patrice showed - couple of 39P A4 felt sheets from a craft shop. In my case held together with sellotape, staples and shaped by 2 piece of wire at each end. Works very well although I also have one of the heated velcro ones and if it gets really dewy will probably need to use it. As for the Alignment I always used to do the 3 star Sky Align but for the last 4 or 5 months have just used the 1 star and that seems to work as well, if not better. I would add that I have an observatory and the scope is permanently setup so that I use the Hibernate function. This has meant that I have only had to align it twice in 5 months, the second time being because I had tried, unsuccessfully, to install the wedge I had bought.

Do look at the NexStar Resource site. if you get the scope. For eyepieces I suggest that you consider the Skywatcher 7 - 21mm zoom eyepiece. Gives you 5 eyepieces in 1 at a reasonable price - 7, 9, 11, 15 and 21.

You will be able to see quite a lot of deep sky objects but not in any detail. It is a good scope for planetary webcam imaging but for deep sky photography you need a wedge and you are probably better off getting an equatorial CPC. The wedge I have and which should work once I have the correct bolts, is second-hand and they no longer sell it new. The HD wedge looks too expensive and over the top for the 6SE.

[Richard Hather]

Hi everyone I've had my 6se for 2 months now and I've been lucky enough to have 5 sessions with it.

Im extremely happy with the scope and I've decided what eps im going to invest all of my spare money in for the next couple of years.

It has to be the Televue eps my only question is the Ethos range are 100 degree viewing does the 6se allow this much as I know different aperture and sized scopes in general differ thank you.

[John]

I use Ethos eyepieces from 4.7mm to 21mm. Up to the 13mm they will work with the 6SE but above that the Ethos are 2" fitting only and have field stops wider than the rear baffle of the 6SE so you won't get the benefit of their full field of view and will need to fit a 2" diagonal to the scope to use them. Really the shorter focal length Ethos eyepieces are much more comfortable in a 2" diagonal as well - they are large and heavy eyepieces.

 

 

 

[matsey]

I'll certainly not argue against the Televue eyepieces, but I will warn you that once you start going down that path, there really is no going back.....

Just a word of caution on switching to a 2" diagonal though - I did that for a while but found that I had to be really really careful if I wanted to go anywhere near the zenith as the diagonal would hit the mount if it was pointing too high. Stressed me out so much trying to watch and prevent that happening I ended up switching back to the 1 1/4" diagonal (but a new William Optics one, much better than the one supplied). The 2" diagonal I had was a Williams Optics, possibly others would be slightly smaller and not suffer the same problem, but certainly worth watching out for.

By the way - I still love my 6se, even though I've upgraded since and have a bigger scope, I still use the 6se for star parties and astro camping weekends, I would never part with it now