Celestron nexstar 6se lenses

[nexus4]

I've just joined and looking forward to chatting with you all. i've just bought a nexstar 6se after doing a bit of research on my first scope,which came with 1x sr4 and 1x 25mm lense ,I'm wanting to cover most aspects of star and planet gazing.can anyone recommend some additional lenses/filters for me for upgrading.thanks

[Demonperformer]

Hi, Nexus, & welcome to SGL. 

The 6SE is a superb starter scope which will give you many wonderful views. The 25mm eyepiece is a standard one, which will give you a magnification of 60x. 

I think 4mm is too powerful an eyepiece for the 6SE @ 375x. The usual 2nd eyepiece for this scope is 10mm  (150x) and I would be inclined to start with something in that region.

[noah4x4]

Don't buy the cheap Celestron eyepiece kit. It's low quality and you will end up with a host of poor eyepieces you will never use. I too suggest a decent quality 10mm as that will offer excellent views of planets.

But your 25mm will be good for DSOs, lunar etc. After chasing planets for a month or so, you are far more likely in future to need less magnification rather than more. I use my Televue Plossl 32mm far more than I ever use my 10mm, 12m or 25mm Televues. Indeed, 1today, I rarely use an eyepiece as I now spend far more time on EAA using near live views from a camera, which will reveal far more than any purely optical system. So don't make the mistake I did of spending £thousands of eyepieces. A 10mm is a good addition, but then pause until you know the direction you are heading in the next phase of this hobby.

[nexus4]

Well Thank you both for the advice.what about 2x barlow lense and filters are they worth purchasing?

[Demonperformer]

I would give yourself time to get to grips with what you have UNLESS you have problems with Light Pollution, in which case a Lp filter could prove useful. 

[Demonperformer]

A question I finduseful to ask myself  when considering a purhase is why do I want it. What do I expect to be able to with it that I can't do without it. If I can't provide a decent answer to that, as often as not, I end up with something that was not worth me buying.

[nexus4]

Thanks chaps for the advice much appreciated.

[Cosmic Geoff]

You will not need a Barlow lens unless you want to do planetary astrophotography with a planetary video camera. 

[Luna-tic]

6 hours ago, nexus4 said:

Well Thank you both for the advice.what about 2x barlow lense and filters are they worth purchasing?

I think they are. It essentially doubles the number of Eyepieces (preferred term over lenses, except for barlows). I'd get a 2x shorty Barlow, and a 10mm and 18mm EP in addition to your 25mm. The Barlow will then give you 12.5mm with the 25mm in it, 9mm with the 18mm in it, and 5 with the 10mm in it; you'd then have 5mm (300x), 9mm (166x), 10mm (150x),  12.5mm (120x), 18mm (83x), and 25mm (60x) to modify your views; 5mm is about as small as is useful with the C6, you'd get 300X which is close to its max practical magnification. The 9, 10, and 12.5 are fairly close, but for only three EP's and a Barlow, you get a pretty good spread of magnification. The 6se is a good scope (C6). Later, if you want to widen the field a bit, consider the .63 reducer for it. 

For filters, a LPR/UHC is a good first one, and I like having a variable polarizer to cut the amount of light when looking at a bright Moon. You can adjust how bright you want the image, based on its phase.

[Demonperformer]

1 hour ago, Luna-tic said:

5mm is about as small as is useful with the C6, you'd get 300X which is close to its max practical magnification.

Max practical magnification is dependant upon a lot more than just the size of the scope. Most important are your sky conditions. I used to own both 5mm & 7mm Pentax XL eyepieces (an excellent, but not cheap brand) and they were barely getting used with my sky conditions in S england with the 6SE I owned at the time. And a 10mm ep + barlow will not be as good as a 5mm. But maybe your skies in Langtoft are better. In which case you already have your SR4.

I would just reiterate what I said above. I (and many others on the forum) know what it is like ... this next thing I buy will revolutionise my seeing/imaging ... usually it won't. It may seem strange to say this, but 'learning to look' is probably the best skill a visual astronomer can develop and you won't need a lot of fancy equipment to do that. Put your 25mm in the scope and look at the moon (make sure you set your tracking to 'lunar'). Find an area that looks interesting and see what you can see. Then spend the next 20-30 mins looking at the same area with the same eyepiece. You will be surprised at how many details you pick out that you didn't see at the start. When I do visual (which admittedly is not a lot under my LP-skies) I use my dictaphone (you don't need to buy one of those - most mobile phones today have a 'record' facility) and speak what I am seeing. Some people sketch (I can't draw for toffee!). All of these things are merely helping you actually look at what you are seeing - and they will cost you nothing. Over the course of a lunar month, you will be surprised at just how much detail you have 'observed' by the end of it.

I'm sorry to go on about this, but I wasted so much money in the early days, buying things that I thought (or other people told me) that I just had to have that never got the use that would have justified the purchase. Remember, it is always easy for us to spend your money and feed our 'buying habit' vicariously through you .

[Luna-tic]

10 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Max practical magnification is dependant upon a lot more than just the size of the scope. Most important are your sky conditions. 

My comment was based on Celestron's own specs (maybe I should have said "useful" instead of "practical") as well as my efforts pushing the limit with my C6. Once past 300X, whatever the EP/accessory combination, the image dims, coma expands at the FOV borders into the 'meat' of the view, and a sharp focus becomes ever harder to achieve. My scopes are well-collimated, so that is playing a minimal part. I definitely agree that seeing conditions play a big part, but how many of us get consistently good seeing, wherever we are? Mine is usually better than average, with LP being the biggest hindrance below 30* from horizon. I now rarely view in my C6 at more than 200x, generally I leave the reducer in it, and for 'stronger' views, use the Edge 8.

My choice of EPs was more mathematical, to allow a spread of magnification while minimizing duplicates with and without the Barlow, and to allow for multiple magnifications with a minimal collection of EP's. Certainly, as a hobbyist's experience and budget climbs, going to pure EP's will give better views than throwing Barlows into the mix.