Upgrading advice

[redstar1]

Hey guys,

Firstly nice to see an active Astronomy forum, keep it up!

Secondly am hoping for some advice on a new telescope. Over the years I've had a series of second hand ones which have been great. Currently using a Celestron C6N with a CG5 mount, although the motor has gone, it still gives me great pleasure viewing the moon and planets. Time to upgrade though...

The vast majority of my viewing is done from home, in the middle of a light polluted city. It is a shame but I make do. I also have some difficulty viewing north due to buildings, which can make the equatorial alignment a bit of a pain. Therefore I'm very keen to move to a GoTo scope which can align with prominent stars and not just Polaris.

Been looking at a Celestron NexStar 6SE or 8SE, Celestron primarily because I have a number of Celestron eyepieces. I understand Meade make some equivalent scopes, but am unsure about eyepiece compatibility. I would also possibly like to use a Canon 1000D to toy around with some basic astrophotography, but it isn't a deal breaker.

I'm not expecting a miracle jump in viewing quality, but I would like an 'upgrade' in that sense. Primarily, on the nights when I have a spare 30 minutes/hour, I'd like to be able to go out to the garden, tell the scope what I want to see and it points towards it

Budget wise I'm comfortable with the price range of the two Celestron scopes in the UK.

Apologies if this reads as a nonsense post but any and all advice very welcome.

Dave

[baggywrinkle]

I have the 6SE, the 8SE is on the same mount and of course 2'' bigger so 2'' more light grabbing power.

As far as I am concerned the goto set up is a breeze as you pick the stars rather than the mount suggest stars which might not be visible (Skywatcher Synscan)

Adapting a Canon is easy too, T rings are available and you have live view for focus. I would suggest investing in the Backyard EOS software as it allows you to set up your canon for shooting runs and it has a very good focusing gizmo.

With the AZ mount properly set you can get about 20 secs before trails set in. But of course for moon and planetary that is more than enough. For DSO's you can shoot and stack. I have done a lot of single shots of 20 secs and have been reasonably please with the results.

You will proably needa focal reducer to get a complete moon as an image when on the camera.

The other thing to consider is a dew shield. The front plate of the OTA is a dew magnet.  You can use a standard shield or go for some tape heating. I was lucky when I lived in WA we did not get much dew so I cannot recommend a dew tape brand.

Below is my camera attached with a focal reducer on the 6SE

[baggywrinkle]

Oh! and by the way...welcome to SGL...

[redstar1]

Oh! and by the way...welcome to SGL...

Thanks very much, should maybe have posted in the new members bit first but hey ho...

Your comments much appreciated. I can guess that you are satisfied with the 6SE. It may end up being the 6SE I go for... depends what sort of deal I can find on the 8!