Celestron NEXSTAR 6 SLT

[steve wiz]

Hi,

I cant seem to find any reviews on this scope, very little in fact, every time i put in the letters SLT, I get a ton of info on the 127 and 130 but nothing on the 6 SLT?

How does it compare with the 6SE? I found one snippet of info about the SE having a better mount but thats about it?  Also nothing on the 5 SLT???

Any info appreciated.

Edited October 18, 2020 by steve wiz

[Cosmic Geoff]

These outfits are new variants.  The OTA will be the same as the 5SE and 6 SE, and the SLT mount is the same as used on the 127 Mak and 130 Newtonian, so far as I am aware.

The SLT mount, as used with the 127mm Mak, which has weight similar to that of the  C6 OTA, is on the wobbly side. 

If you put these comments together, you should be able to find adequate reviews of the components.

The C6 SE has the same mount as the C8 SE, so it will be an adequate (visual) mount for the C6.

[jonathan]

Knowing what I know now, and if I wanted to follow the Celestron route (for an SCT), I'd probably look at this instead of any single arm design:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/advanced-vx-goto/celestron-c6sct-vx-goto.html

The 2" tubular steel legs provide excellent stability (better than the 1.75" supplied with HEQ5 Pro), the mount capacity is 30lb compared to the 10lb 6" OTA that's supplied with this bundle, leaving plenty of room to add dew shield, focuser, additional finder, heavy eyepiece or camera, etc.  Should be much easier to balance on an EQ mount too - on my original SE mount I found that I couldn't move the OTA any further forwards in the dovetail clamp so with my accessories I wasn't able to correctly balance the scope.  It should have exactly the same goto handset although the EQ mount setup will be a bit more involved than with the SE or SLT Alt/Az mounts.

So, this to me looks like the same kind of deal as 6SE vs 8SE - same mount used for both, so if C6 is what you're after then it looks like you'll be getting a very capable mount to put it on, with the possibility that you could use it with other scopes as well in the future, e.g. a large refractor (102 or 120 perhaps), or a C8.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by jonathan

[steve wiz]

I just looked, that costs a fortune! MUCH more the a 6SLT!   Way out of my budget!

[Cosmic Geoff]

33 minutes ago, steve wiz said:

I just looked, that costs a fortune! MUCH more the a 6SLT!   Way out of my budget!

You get what you pay for.  You have not said what you want it for: if visual, then the SE would be 'best buy'.

If planetary or deep-sky imaging, then you want the AVX mount or (for planetary imaging) the Evolution mount or (for deep space imaging) some different outfit altogether, but not cheap.

If you get the 6 SLT, you may be looking for a mount upgrade before long, unless you don't mind wobbly mounts.

[steve wiz]

Just visual only no Astrophotography, DSO and planets, 6 SE looks spot on. Thanks for the info

[jonathan]

On 24/10/2020 at 15:06, steve wiz said:

I just looked, that costs a fortune! MUCH more the a 6SLT!   Way out of my budget!

I wouldn't say it cost a fortune, only just over twice the price of the 6 SLT, but that is my 2p worth of hindsight having initially gone down the single fork arm route myself.

I understand budgets, especially when entering into a new hobby.  I had a figure in my mind when I first looked at scopes but had to increase it considerably to get what I wanted (based on my own aspirations and advice here), the same happened when I went to buy my first mountain bike - sure, there were bikes available at my initial budget (manufacturers make sure of that) but the components on them are cheap, they won't perform as well or last as long as the pricier options; in the end I spent about three times my initial bike budget and never regretted it.  Of course it comes down to how much you can realistically afford to throw at a hobby, how much you expect to use the equipment and what you hope to get out of it.  There is nothing wrong with testing the water with the cheaper option, just so long as you go in armed with the knowledge that the more you spend on the equipment, the more you are likely to be able to get out of it.