My experience and a few (noob) questions about my new Celestron Nexstar 127SLT MAK

[IWatchStars]

Hi,

I recently bought a Celestron Nexstar MAK. The weather was good past Saturday so I set up the telescope in the garden and used it for a few hours.
 

This is my experience and questions:

- Regular AA batteries lasted me for about 5 hours.
 

- The manual says that you can move the optical move manually when no power. Quote form the manual:  "In case of a loss of power, the optical tube can be moved by hand. However, when powered on, the telescope should always be controlled via the hand control. ". In my experience this is only true for the alt direction. I can't move it in the azimuth direction manually. Is it possible to use this scope without power or not?
 

- I managed to get the following objects in my field of view Saturday:

1. Saturn: I could clearly see the planet and it's rings, but I couldn't make out the cassini division. I should add that the seeing conditions were pretty bad because Saturn was very close to the moon and to the horizon. Is it possible to see the cassini division with this scope?

2. The moon: It looked great, nothing more to say.

3. Albireo: Also great.

4. M13 and M31: These two DSO's looked like very faint and hard to see white smudges. Not really impressive. To be honest it kind of looked the same as watching them through my 15x50 monocular. Will I be able to see more detail on these objects in a low light pollution area? And is there a good way to measure light pollution in your area? I tried to determine what magnitude stars I could see with the naked I. I could see stars up to magnitude 4 when they where high in the sky. I could also see pleiades when it was high in the sky. I stared at the sky for about 20 minutes but I couldn't see M13, M31 and the milky way with the naked eye.

5. Pleiades: Looked great.

- Noob question about powering the scope: Can I just use Rechargeable AA batteries or my 16000 mAh usb powerbank with some kind of adapter to plug it in the scope? I'm guessing that using rechargeable batteries will be more economical.

- Mount: Like everybody already mentioned on this forum, the mount is wobbly. I couldn't even move my feet when looking at saturn through the 9mm eyepiece without causing an earthquake.
 

Also I'm already looking for new eyepieces to replace the 9mm(it is a bit disappointing) and a eyepiece with a bigger fov for DSO's. Any suggestions? I am on a bit of a tight budget, I can't spend more than 120 euro's on both eyepieces. Is this enough for a noticeable improvement?

Thanks!

[IWatchStars]

By the way: Is it really that expensive to use AA batteries? I can buy 100 AA batteries for 40 euros. that would last me about 60 hours which is about 1,5 euro per hour. I guess that is a lot if you are a hardcore stargazer, but for me it's maby 10 euro's every month. Will it be cheaper in long term if I buy a powertank?

[chiltonstar]

I have a modified Skywatcher version of the OTA on a different mount (EQ), both scopes made by Synta I assume. I use a DIY store leisure battery for power, which I keep charged up with a solar battery charger.

When the seeing is good, you will see the Cassini division clearly (all the way round), but it does need good seeing and for Saturn to be well above the horizon. In my experience, slightly better eyepieces work a lot better than the stock ones, for example BST 8mm, 12mm giving x190 and x125.

M13 will be a glorious sight with this aperture, but you need a dark place and good seeing. Two nights ago, my Mak at x125 and x190 gave beautiful slightly twinkling stars to the centre of M13 - you will have a magnificent sight with averted vision! You need to go somewhere with low light pollution (not easy in the Netherlands/Rotterdam, judging by the year I spent in Delft!)

Good luck.

Chris

[damnut]

Hi There,

Nice report, can only echo the quality of the BST eyepieces.