First time use of Nexstar 6 - a few questions

[JohnKW]

Well as I finally turned 40 yesterday I got to unpack and use my Nexstar 6SE for the first time. Luckily it was a clear night last night, although the moon was so bright it was killing off being able to see most things.

I got everything set up, and aligned really easily.

A few questions that I have as a result of my first nights viewing:

1. When I did my alignment I used the right and up method for final approach to centre an object. I noticed though that when the telescope did it's final approach on goto it seems to go right and down - is this normal out of the box? do I need to change something in the settings or do my alignment differently?

2. I found that when I was viewing Jupiter with a 32mm EP (GSO Super Plossl) I could see a lot of detail albeit very small, but when viewing with my 9mm EP (Celestron X CEL LX) there was less detail to be seen but obviously bigger - is this right or am I imagining things?

3. I tried using a 2x barlow with the 9mm EP on Jupiter - I didn't manage to get it focussed though (didn't spend long enough trying to be honest as I didn't have a lot of time) - is it normal that the focus is a long way out when you change to using a barlow?

I know that viewing Jupiter was not ideal conditions for me last night as 1. it was quite low in the sky at the time I was doing this so more atmosphere to go through, and 2 it was quite early in the evening so the conditions were not great.

Thanks guys.

John.

[Stu]

Enjoy your scope John.

I can't answer question 1, but for question 2, I suspect that you were just using too much magnification for the conditions. I was observing last night, and Jupiter was quite poor with not so much detail early on, but as it got higher and the atmosphere cooled the detail was much better.

Jupiter's features are low contrast so over doing the magnification often washes out the detail. Around x150 to x180 is often a good range on a steady night.

A Barlow will change the focus position so it's just a matter of adjusting focus enough to bring it back in.

So the 32mm was giving you x46, very low for planetary work. The 9mm gives x166 which should be good with the planet higher up and steady conditions. The Barlow would take that to  x333 which will be too much for all but the steadiest of nights, or for observing the moon. You could also try barlowing the 32 which would give x93.

[JohnKW]

Thanks Stu. It was around 8 p.m. I was out there so it was quite early on.

[Putaendo Patrick]

+1 for Stu's advice - I suspect seeing conditions more than any technical problems with Jupiter.

Congratulations on the new scope, and Happy Birthday!

[PeterCPC]

Just to confirm that seeing was not good last night - I was trying to image Jupiter and the results are poor.

Peter

[ngwillym]

Useful site for owners of Nexstars:-

http://www.nexstarsite.com/

 

 

[JohnKW]

Thanks guys. It's a case of learning what is and what is not good seeing - just because there are no clouds is no guarantee of anything. I have found the bit in the manual that says how to check the direction of final approach and change it so I'll check it out later tonight when I am back home.

[andrew63]

That's a nice telescope, enjoy the views.  One thing to consider, you can't just pop it out and begin to observer - these types of telescopes need some time to cool to the ambient temperature. Perhaps 30 to 60 minutes on average before you will get 'steady' views.

andrew

[JohnKW]

Thansk Andrew. I put it out a good 45 minutes before going out to use it to cool down, so that wasn't it - I think as others have said it is just the conditions that were present last night.