First Light with Hyperstar on C6

[Jim Smith]

Attaching the Hyperstar to my C6 was pretty straightforward, if slightly worrying. (I've never removed the secondary mirror before.) I screwed my Ultrastar C into the end, plugged in the USB lead and started up Starlight Live. I aligned my mount on Polaris and could see a pale white doughnut shape on the screen. I centred it and adjusted the Hyperstar collimation until I had concentric circles. I focused using a Bahtinov Mask and started viewing...

I have attached five captures of various objects as viewed on the screen and exported from Starlight Live with no further processing.

I'm very pleased so far. My goal of seeing more without a huge telescope has already been met.

[stash_old]

Hi Jim,

Question I have read ALL C6 are fastar/hyperstar ready - did you have to have an adapter or did the "normal" hyperstar lens fit without modification ?

 

P.S nice pics by the way

[Martin Meredith]

Excellent shots Jim with this super fast wide field combination! It is great to be able to capture M31 in its entirety, as is seeing NGC 7331 along with the Hickson group. Star colours look good too. I hope you have a lot of fun with this setup!

Martin 

[Jim Smith]

38 minutes ago, stash_old said:

did you have to have an adapter or did the "normal" hyperstar lens fit without modification ?

I have what I believe is a standard Hyperstar, ordered from 365astronomy. After removing the secondary from the C6 it screwed straight in without an adaptor. I did need to specify the camera type to get the right adaptor for the camera end.

[Jim Smith]

2 hours ago, Martin Meredith said:

as is seeing NGC 7331 along with the Hickson group

There are rather more galaxies visible in that shot than I first realised!

[HiloDon]

Great results, Jim!  Next time out try B72, The Snake.  We just did that in our broadcast this past week with my C6 with HS.  The density of the star field is amazing, and the image scale is just right.

Stash, 

I believe all C6 scopes are HS compatible.  The only one that's advertised as such is the Evolution, but the 6SE is, too.

Don

[Jim Smith]

24 minutes ago, HiloDon said:

Next time out try B72, The Snake.  We just did that in our broadcast this past week with my C6 with HS.

Was the broadcast recorded so I can see it somewhere?

[HiloDon]

1 hour ago, Jim Smith said:

Was the broadcast recorded so I can see it somewhere?

Jim,

I'm working with the owner of NSN to see if we can get our broadcasts recorded.  In the meantime I will upload our captures form the broadcast to my gallery so you can view them.  We showed over 20 objects that night.  Here's The Snake.  30 sec single image.

[HiloDon]

Jim,

I downloaded most of the captures I got from our broadcast the other night to my gallery.  Here's a link to the album:

Don

[Jim Smith]

Don,

Inspiring images. I think I will try some 30 second exposures.

Jim

[RobertI]

This is fantastic stuff Jim, really nice detail and colour, and a good demonstration of what can be achieved from uk skies.  I am hoping (one day!) to get a Hyperstar and Ultrastar C combination for my hyperstar ready C8, so this is very Informative. Also interesting to compare you results from UK skies to Don's single 30 seconds shots taken from "heaven's gate" on Mauna Kea   I would be interested to see your results with 30 to 40 second exposures.

[stash_old]

19 hours ago, HiloDon said:

Great results, Jim!  Next time out try B72, The Snake.  We just did that in our broadcast this past week with my C6 with HS.  The density of the star field is amazing, and the image scale is just right.

Stash, 

I believe all C6 scopes are HS compatible.  The only one that's advertised as such is the Evolution, but the 6SE is, too.

Don

Thanks Don - its confusing as I have been looking at the C6 for use with Hyperstar but talk to different "shops" and they give conflicting stories - e.g. First Light says this is compatible https://www.firstlightoptics.com/optical-tube-assemblies/celestron-c6-xlt-optical-tube-assembly.html but this site when emailed says not http://www.365astronomy.com/Celestron-C6-A-XLT-CG-5-Schmidt-Cassegrain-OTA-Optical-Tube-Assembly.html AND this shows which is by the front assembly would suggest neither are if you go by the picture http://www.hyperstarimaging.com/compatibility.php 

Frustrating !!!!!!!!!! hence the orig question to Jim - gets even worse if you look at the std C9.25(new only) some are some aren't - Only kit over here that I now is compatible is the HD edge series , the 14inch XLT and as you say the C6 Evo but I don't want the mount. 

[aparker]

15 minutes ago, stash_old said:

Thanks Don - its confusing as I have been looking at the C6 for use with Hyperstar but talk to different "shops" and they give conflicting stories - e.g. First Light says this is compatible https://www.firstlightoptics.com/optical-tube-assemblies/celestron-c6-xlt-optical-tube-assembly.html but this site when emailed says not http://www.365astronomy.com/Celestron-C6-A-XLT-CG-5-Schmidt-Cassegrain-OTA-Optical-Tube-Assembly.html AND this shows which is by the front assembly would suggest neither are if you go by the picture http://www.hyperstarimaging.com/compatibility.php 

Frustrating !!!!!!!!!! hence the orig question to Jim - gets even worse if you look at the std C9.25(new only) some are some aren't - Only kit over here that I now is compatible is the HD edge series , the 14inch XLT and as you say the C6 Evo but I don't want the mount. 

For the final word on Hyperstar, just give the guys at Starizona a call.  They are super-helpful and will be happy to make sure you get your scope set up right (they are the manufacturer so should have the correct information).

[Paul81]

On 27 August 2016 at 19:33, HiloDon said:

Jim

I'm working with the owner of NSN to see if we can get our broadcasts recorded.  In the meantime I will upload our captures form the broadcast to my gallery so you can view them.  We showed over 20 objects that night.  Here's The Snake.  30 sec single image.

I am also working on a record feature in SL. Initially it will be to uncompressed SER files with no audio, but will be expanded to include compressed video types to include audio and the ability to add in the overlays (such as histogram, image properties etc etc).

[RobertI]

28 minutes ago, Paul81 said:

I am also working on a record feature in SL. Initially it will be to uncompressed SER files with no audio, but will be expanded to include compressed video types to include audio and the ability to add in the overlays (such as histogram, image properties etc etc).

That's great news Paul, it will be a powerful additional feature. Thanks for the update and your continuing work.

[HiloDon]

On August 28, 2016 at 02:56, stash_old said:

Thanks Don - its confusing as I have been looking at the C6 for use with Hyperstar but talk to different "shops" and they give conflicting stories - e.g. First Light says this is compatible https://www.firstlightoptics.com/optical-tube-assemblies/celestron-c6-xlt-optical-tube-assembly.html but this site when emailed says not http://www.365astronomy.com/Celestron-C6-A-XLT-CG-5-Schmidt-Cassegrain-OTA-Optical-Tube-Assembly.html AND this shows which is by the front assembly would suggest neither are if you go by the picture http://www.hyperstarimaging.com/compatibility.php 

Frustrating !!!!!!!!!! hence the orig question to Jim - gets even worse if you look at the std C9.25(new only) some are some aren't - Only kit over here that I now is compatible is the HD edge series , the 14inch XLT and as you say the C6 Evo but I don't want the mount. 

Stash,

I did some research on this and found posts that indicated all C6 scopes had compatibility with the original Fastar even though Celestron never made a 6" Fastar.  They also indicated that Dean at Starizona knows about this, so Alex gave a good suggestion.  You can contact Dean by email through the Starizona website.  I think a lot of pictures used by sellers may not be showing a C6 even though the ad is for one.

Please let us know if you find anything out.

Don

[Jim Smith]

Some more images from last night. A number of these are 30 second exposures (see captions). I think 30 seconds may be the limit for alt-az tracking and my patience.

I thought M33 looked good. I need to concentrate a bit more on getting the colour balance right.

Unfortunately the Snake was hiding in the trees, so I couldn't get a shot at that.

[stash_old]

2 hours ago, Jim Smith said:

Some more images from last night. A number of these are 30 second exposures (see captions). I think 30 seconds may be the limit for alt-az tracking and my patience.

I thought M33 looked good. I need to concentrate a bit more on getting the colour balance right.

Unfortunately the Snake was hiding in the trees, so I couldn't get a shot at that.

Look Mr Smith stop posting really good pictures using short 5s stacks - I mean some of us mortals take a lot longer and don't get that detail - Nice to see your enjoyment   

[stash_old]

21 hours ago, HiloDon said:

Stash,

I did some research on this and found posts that indicated all C6 scopes had compatibility with the original Fastar even though Celestron never made a 6" Fastar.  They also indicated that Dean at Starizona knows about this, so Alex gave a good suggestion.  You can contact Dean by email through the Starizona website.  I think a lot of pictures used by sellers may not be showing a C6 even though the ad is for one.

Please let us know if you find anything out.

Don

 

Found the same info on the C6. I think the problem is the "stock" some people keep and yes you are 100% right about the pictures used but if you asked the retailer direct they give different answers - maybe lack of knowledge on there behalf. I am going to make it simple and  order one on the guarantee/contract that is Faststar/Hyperstar compatible without extra mods - that way if they some how come up with a duff one it will get returned. Probably go to one retailer who sells both the Hyperstar and C6.

The problem with contacting Dean is not that he doesn't know(joke) but he isn't the UK retailer - sorry had some bad experiences with one or two.

Thanks Don for the interest,time and Info.

Just got one reply which was quote "

I emailed Celestron UK to ask them about this as all the OTA's for the 6" are the same but different colours depending on the model that the 6" OTA is "attached" to.

 

Celestron UK have said it is an error on their part and that part of the spec is/was out of date - they inform me that ALL 6" OTA's [SCT] are Fastar/Hyperstar compatible.

 

The 6" OTA's are available usually in 24 hours - the Hyperstar units we get in to order and that takes 2-3 weeks approx. We would need to know what camera you are to use and whether the scope is on an alt-az or GEM mount.

"

[Astrojedi]

All Celestron C6 SCTs are Hyperstar compatible even though it does not say 'Fastar'.