Great haul with Celestron 6/8SE Goto & 4SE Mak

[Knighty2112]

With another clear night last night, after I returned back home from visiting my brother in hospital I set up my Celestron 6/8SE Goto mount, and fitted my Celestron 4SE Maksutov to it to do the observing tonight. I used my Celestron 18mm X-Cel EP for all views which gave the most pleasing and easier view. I did want to use my 14mm Morpheus EP, but found that eye position was more critical on it, so went with the 18mm EP instead. After performing a three star align once connected up via Skyportal wifi, and using my iPad Air to control and select my targets, here's the list of objects successfully seen, which includes lots of new items seen by me (the list is copied and pasted straight from Skysafari, hence all the punctuation. Quickest way to do this list  ). Location was from home, and the last two figures in each item show the seeing and transparency conditions;

"Black Eye Galaxy - Messier 64","Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices","25 Mar 2017, 23:18:46","Faint, seen with averted vision in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Messier 53","Globular Cluster in Coma Berenices","25 Mar 2017, 23:21:06","Faint, but seen quite easily with direct vision with 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Messier 3","Globular Cluster in Canes Venatici","25 Mar 2017, 23:22:59","Seen well in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Whirlpool Galaxy - Messier 51","Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici","25 Mar 2017, 23:24:50","Just visible with averted vision in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Cat's Eye Nebula - NGC 6543","Planetary Nebula in Draco","25 Mar 2017, 23:26:18","Seen well in 18mm EP. Very bright.","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Messier 92","Globular Cluster in Hercules","25 Mar 2017, 23:29:46","Great sight in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Hercules Cluster - Messier 13","Globular Cluster in Hercules","25 Mar 2017, 23:30:53","Great sight in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Double Double - Epsilon1 Lyrae","Double Star in Lyra","25 Mar 2017, 23:32:44","Seen but not able to see the other doubles with the 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Blinking Planetary Nebula - NGC 6826","Planetary Nebula in Cygnus","25 Mar 2017, 23:35:26","Seen well in 18mm EP even quite low. No averted vision required to see it.","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Messier 94","Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici","25 Mar 2017, 23:39:22","Seen OK in 18mm EP. Best seen with slight averted vision.","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Messier 106","Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici","25 Mar 2017, 23:45:03","Jusr seen with averted vision in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Markarian's Chain - Messier 86","Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo","25 Mar 2017, 23:47:45","Vey faint, but just seen with averted vision in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Virgo A - Messier 87","Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo","25 Mar 2017, 23:50:03","Very faint, but just seen with 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Messier 49","Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo","25 Mar 2017, 23:51:43","Seen with averted vision with 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Messier 60","Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo","25 Mar 2017, 23:54:43","Just visible with averted vision in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Eskimo Nebula - NGC 2392","Planetary Nebula in Gemini","26 Mar 2017, 00:01:33","Seen well in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Messier 67","Open Cluster in Cancer","26 Mar 2017, 00:02:50","Seen OK in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Bode's Nebulae - Messier 82","Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major","26 Mar 2017, 00:07:28","Seen well in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Bode's Nebulae - Messier 81","Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major","26 Mar 2017, 00:08:04","Seen well in 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

"Ring Nebula - Messier 57","Planetary Nebula in Lyra","26 Mar 2017, 00:11:16","Just visible in the murk low down with the 18mm EP","Home","4SE Mak",7,5,

 

All in all another great night with the Goto mount. A lot of the fainter galaxies etc where extremely faint and I had to look for a while to see the slight smudges of their light, but I made sure that there was something there before I ticked them off and listed them. Very nice haul which shows me that the accuracy of this mount is top notch as long as the mount is nice and level at least.  

[Size9Hex]

That's a tremendous haul! Some really nice seasonal objects there. Glad the new kit is working so well.

[Knighty2112]

23 minutes ago, Size9Hex said:

That's a tremendous haul! Some really nice seasonal objects there. Glad the new kit is working so well.

Thanks Paul. Was pleasantly surprised to be able to scoop as many galaxies as I did. And loving the new kit too yes!  

[nightfisher]

Great session, how did you rate the view of M51 with the little Mak

[Knighty2112]

8 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

Great session, how did you rate the view of M51 with the little Mak

From last nights session it was barely visible down to average transparency. I have seen M51 much better in the Mak on a better night though. 

[laudropb]

Very nice haul Gus. Looks like this set up is working very well for you.

[Chris]

That's really impressive Gus, this setup is really doing the job for you mate  

The only galaxies I've ever seen are M31/ M32 & M81/82 so you're doing better than me  

[Knighty2112]

3 hours ago, laudropb said:

Very nice haul Gus. Looks like this set up is working very well for you.

Yep, so far so good! Good!  

[Knighty2112]

1 hour ago, Chris Lock said:

That's really impressive Gus, this setup is really doing the job for you mate  

The only galaxies I've ever seen are M31/ M32 & M81/82 so you're doing better than me  

Thanks Chris. The mount holds either my Celestron 4SE Mak, or my Opticstar AR90S frac, which it copes with both extremely well. Very surprised I saw as many galaxies as I did with my location, but this is all down to the mount getting the objects in the fov repeatedly time after time.  

[LukeSkywatcher]

Thats quite a collection. Well done. Makes me feel like a complete couch potato (which i am of late). How long did you spend with (looking at) each object?.

[Knighty2112]

3 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Thats quite a collection. Well done. Makes me feel like a complete couch potato (which i am of late). How long did you spend with (looking at) each object?.

As I was really still testing the Goto mount out for accuracy I didn't spend as long looking at things like I normally would. When I get settled in and over the initial 'new' period with the mount I will hopefully be able to spend more time at the eyepiece. I am hoping to start sketching some of the views too at some point in the next few months. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

Ive just noticed something about the 4SE compared to the other scopes in the SE range. As you have mentioned........it is a MAK. The rest are SCT. I've never noticed this before. I'm not technically minded. Care to enlighten me about this difference. Maybe thats for a different thread.

[Knighty2112]

10 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Ive just noticed something about the 4SE compared to the other scopes in the SE range. As you have mentioned........it is a MAK. The rest are SCT. I've never noticed this before. I'm not technically minded. Care to enlighten me about this difference. Maybe thats for a different thread.

To be honest I'm not sure what the main difference is between a Mak and an SCT either! As long as I get a good view through it I'm not really bothered!  

[LukeSkywatcher]

2 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

To be honest I'm not sure what the main difference is between a Mak and an SCT either! As long as I get a good view through it I'm not really bothered!  

Same as myself. I tend not to worry about the how and why things work........once i enjoy the views.

[cloudsweeper]

Great stuff, Gus!  I've got to get my galaxy count up, so I'l be visiting Virgo too.

I had a 5" Mak (Nexstar 127 SLT) before the 8" SCT - I believe Maks have a simpler corrector plate at the front, so they can more easily be made to a high standard, but they get bulky and costly at larger apertures which I presume is why only the 4SE is a Mak.

Doug.

[Knighty2112]

2 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

Great stuff, Gus!  I've got to get my galaxy count up, so I'l be visiting Virgo too.

I had a 5" Mak (Nexstar 127 SLT) before the 8" SCT - I believe Maks have a simpler corrector plate at the front, so they can more easily be made to a high standard, but they get bulky and costly at larger apertures which I presume is why only the 4SE is a Mak.

Doug.

Thanks Doug!