power supply and Image quality

[newbie6969]

I've always been interested and have loved the universe and outer space, and have wanted to see it through a telescope from a very young age. I finally saved up and bought myself a Celestron Nexstar 6se, so I am very new to this hobby and I have a few general queries that I hope will be able to be cleared up for me.

The first thing I wanted to know is what is the best way for me to power my telescope? I know batteries are no good, and I have read through these forums and most people seem to be saying that a powertank is the best way to go. I know I could get a celestron powertank for this, but I wanted to know if I could buy another powertank from an electrical store that may not cost as much. But I am not sure what type of powertank I need nor do I know anything about the types of powertanks available. I also wanted to buy an AC adapter to plug into a a powerpoint into a wall and was wondering what kind of AC adapter I should use. I heard I could buy a universal AC adapter, but I would have to make sure the power supply suits the telescopes needs which I have no idea about.

The second thing is once I aligned my telescope in my backyard and went on the SkyTour, I was surprised and excited at how many different things I was able to see but every time I went to have a look at a galaxy, nebula etc. it just looked like any other part of the sky, just a few stars here and there. I don't live close to the city and you can see the stars pretty good with the naked eye where I live which is considered semi - rural. I'm not sure if there is still too much light pollution where I live because looking at photos taken with other people and their 6se's the galaxies and nebulas look pretty amazing, and even Jupiter looks really good but when I aligned my telescope with jupiter it was just a fuzzy white dot that looked a bit bigger than the stars did. So basically I just wanted to know if I need to go somewhere with less light pollution even though there isnt much where I am or do I need to spend money to buy certain eye piece attachments or other similar things to be able to see things really well or if the photo's are only as good as they are because of the camera being able to see more than the eye.

I know I probably sound stupid with my serious lack of knowledge but advice would be really appreciated so I can learn how to do this right

thanks

[ecrehous1]

Hi and welcome to the lounge.

I will give you several answers.

I have a nexstar 5 and always leave the batteries in the scope in case you pull out the external power supply when using scope.

I work in the marine industry and I have a jump start pack and this has a cigarette lighter plug socket on it which I use to power the scope. You could easily use a car battery and connect to the positive and negative with crocodile clips.

I hope this helps for some of your questions

[ronin]

Maplins is most likely the main alternative, they sell power tanks and I guess of various sizes.

One important aspect is if they are allowed to drain then the battery will be damaged and you could well need another one. Lead acid batteries do not like getting drained. What happens is one of two things:

First you use it, take it in and leave it until the next time it is required and it goes flat and the plates get damaged.

Second you use it until it runs out of charge, it is drained and most likely damaged.

For AC mains:

Maplins

Just get the polarity right. They do one that supplies more current, you will have to find it.

I can rarely locate anything on the Maplins site, I can get this one as I have 2 of these power supplies for 2 of the scope I have.

Are you sure about other galaxies etc taken with a 6SE ?

They are slow scopes and both not suited to DSO imaging, not often used and the mount is wrong and will not do long exposure imaging. Finally you eyes operate different to a camera so what a camera produces will not resemble what the eye produces. Stare at a blank bit of sky, you will never reproduce on the retina the Hubble deep sky image that took a 10 day exposure.

Jupiter - what eyepiece? Go for a magnification of about 80x and above.

[CSM]

Is there a Maplin in New South Wales? As for leaving the batteries in there is the danger of them dying and leaking. I use a Skywatcher Power tank and it works fine. I always charge it up again after use but it took me a while to realise that when it is fully charged the green light saying that it is fully charged goes out - I think it stops charging then. If fully charged when you switch it on it will glow green, then go out.

As for Jupiter if the atmosphere is steady and reasonably clear you should be able to see the bands clearly. But if you only have the 25mm eyepiece you won't see much more than what you have described. I would suggest a Skywatcher 7 - 21mm zoom eyepiece to start with, that gives you 5 eyepieces in 1 - 7, 9, 11, 15 and 21. You might just be able to see the red spot at the higher magnifications though the only time I've 'seen' it was when imaging. I do think the camera sees more than the eye.

[newbie6969]

Thanks for your reply

There isn't a Maplins in New South Wales the only place I can think of is battery world which I think would have what I'm after. I think I have the 25mm eyepiece if that's the one that comes with the telescope when you buy it. Where would I get another eyepiece from? and do you get pretty good photos with yours? I saw on celestrons website that you need a universal camera attachment thing and a T ring to take photos with an SLR

[newbie6969]

Yeah I could be wrong they were just on the internet so they said they were taken with a Celestron 6se but they probably taken with something else.

I have the eyepiece that came with the telescope, I assume it's not good enough to see Jupiter more clearly so I will probably have to buy another eyepiece, what would you recommend and how much do they go for?

[hazegood]

The Maplins tank people are mentioning has a 12v car cigar lighter outlet on it, which with the right lead can be used to power your scope. its a lot cheaper than the celestron version, I am sure you can find something similar in NSW, its a car jump starter / battery booster, look for one with around 17ah, you will then need a cable, that goes from a cigar lighter plug to a 2.1mm power tip with the centre positive. hope that helps