Sorry, expect clouds for the next few days.....

[alfingido]

Well, the sun was out and the sky was totally clear at 12:15 today.

12:20, Interlink Express called with a large parcel

12:30 clouds started rolling in.........

Anyway, box opened up and inside was a brand new Celestron Nexstar Evolution 6.

Its a bit more substantial than I thought but easy to carry around. If the sky clears anytime soon, I'll do a quick report on how I get on with it.

Allan

[Jonk]

Sounds like you weren't expecting it?!

[ScottS]

Keep the clouds. You're miles from me.

[alfingido]

Sounds like you weren't expecting it?!

I originally bought an Allview mount but sent it back. I was just looking for another mount for my refractor and was discussing options with the retailer. They offered to send me this setup and also knocked a substantial amount off. I only ordered it yesterday, I didn't think it would be here till next week.

Still cloudy with a few spots of rain........

Allan

[alfingido]

Still a bit of light cloud tonight, but at about 8:30 it started to clear a little and I could see Jupiter and the moon with a couple of stars dotted about.

Thats good enough for me, I just needed a reasonably bright star to do a quick collimation test. Set the scope up, aligned the finder,  and collimation was spot on, so I went through the Skyalign procedure, very easy to do, just slew the telescope to any 3 bright stars and press enter, centre in the EP then press align. It took a couple of minutes to complete and the align was successful. Tried a Goto of Jupiter, absolutely spot on in the centre of a 28mm EP, then tried the moon and that was spot on too. Very impressed. As the sky cleared, I zoomed around the sky, looking at Castor, a couple of DSO's and more of Jupiter with my 8mm EP. The optics are lovely and crisp giving nice clear views of the bands, no GRS though tonight......

Next I tried the Skyportal with my iPhone. Again, I used Skyalign, and after another successful alignment, every goto was spot on. 

I can't believe how good this is, I'm already thinking of selling my Meade LX90 ACF and getting a 9.25 Evo!

I'll try the two scopes outside together to compare goto accuracy and image quality.

I also bought a Skysense camera thingy, I had to order an RS232 lead to do the firmware update because I don't think it's compatible with the Evo as it is, and that should be here in a few days.

So, what don't I like about the Evolution 6? Maximum slew is a little slower than my LX90, a handset holder on the mount instead of the tripod would be a good idea for when the handset is being used, but thats about it. Everything else just works fine, and with the internal battery and using Skyportal to connect with wifi, there are no wires anywhere to trip over / get wrapped around the mount.

Brilliant.

Allan

[trogre]

Cold ,Rain & Cloud today ,normal day for spring!!

[Gazabone]

It's guatanteed to be cloudy all next week...... Just ordered a SW EQ6 syntrek from FLO!

[alfingido]

So, my rs232 cable arrived yesterday and I managed to successfully update the Nexstar + handset, Skysense camera and handset. All ready to go and right on cue, the clouds cleared and stars filled the sky.

Skysense was easy to set up and the resulting Goto's were absolutely spot on. I took my LX90 out to to compare them. Alignment of the Meade is so much quicker but both performed admirably giving me exactly the same views with each goto using similar sized ep's.

There was definitely more contrast through the meade showing more detail in Orion and various starclusters, but the full moon was rising and washing out everything fainter.

Then the clouds rolled in and I was having to use a hair drier on the Celestron ( I have dew heater bands on the Meade).

I was very impressed again with the Celestron. It's light and easy to move around, goto is very good, it's not too noisy and the optics are excellent

I think I am going to enjoy this setup, can't wait till the moon starts hiding, we get really dark skies here.

I can thoughoughly recommend this little 6" Celestron, I can imagine the 8 and 9.25 are even better.

Allan

[mikeDnight]

Look! Just stop it!

I'm fed up with all you inconsiderate folk continuing to buy telescopes. I bought my latest scope nearly two weeks ago and have not had much chance to use it yet because of the cloud. It can't possibly be all my fault, so its got to be yours.

Mike:-(

[alfingido]

Look! Just stop it!

I'm fed up with all you inconsiderate folk continuing to buy telescopes. I bought my latest scope nearly two weeks ago and have not had much chance to use it yet because of the cloud. It can't possibly be all my fault, so its got to be yours.

Mike:-(

Another clear night, thats 5 in a row............

[damnut]

Must be broken. Clear here tonight.:-)