Celestron Nexstar 6SE Advice / Help Please

[Vinnyvent84]

Hey all! Today is my first day in this forum. I recently purchased a Nexstar 6SE for myself and the family. My 3 year olds obsession with the moon and planets pushed me to get my first telescope and I’m super excited to assemble it soon!

That being said my concern is I live in Brooklyn, NY and plan to do the bulk of my observing in the yard the with the wife and son. Doing some reading recently and I see I have a Bortle Scale of 8-9 which I always knew NYC had bad light pollution but what I didn’t realize was all these other factors involving “seeing” & “transparency”. I am now afraid I possibly purchased the wrong telescope as an introductory one or maybe it’s possible any telescope will stink where I am using it. 
 

I never expected to get National Geographic level views but I am wondering am I doomed to seeing smudges and blurs only (with maybe exception to the moon). No clear views of stars, clusters, nebulae or galaxies and other DSO’s?

If anyone can give real feedback (I prefer the hard truth even if it’s something I rather not hear!) that would great. 
 

For reference I purchased as accessories: the aluminum dew shield, the StarSense auto aligner, a Televue 32mm Plossl, a Baader Mark IV Zoom 8-24mm, a Celestron X-Cel 7mm, and Explore Scientific 2x Focal Extender.  Any response to my concerns, advice or suggestions for my scope / situation would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

Bortle 8-9 is bad, and the local seeing and transparency will not be great either, but the C6 SE is as good a choice as any for these conditions.   You should concentrate on observing the Moon, planets, double stars, star clusters, and the brighter planetary nebulae (i.e. objects of high surface brightness).   Attempts to observe galactic nebulae and galaxies will be unrewarding under your conditions.

You appear to have accessorised the scope well.  What do you intend to do with the ES 2x focal extender?  It will give excessive magnification if used with the 7mm eyepiece.  You do not mention an external power pack, but you should get one rather than relying on the internal primary cells.

Good news: if you are able to take your outfit out of the city to darker skies, with the Starsense it will make a fine quick-setup package. 

[Elp]

Sound advice above.

I have the same scope in bortle 7 and yep, you will struggle to see the "desirable" deep sky objects with any kind of definition, may also need to use averted vision to spot them when sweeping by. The long focal length is also troublesome as your angle of view of the sky is restricted so you'll have to have good alignment with the goto system to find things easier. The Starsense will help a lot. I found a Rigel Quikfinder is also more useful than any finder scope if you wish to star hop. With the C6 it can sit flush and square against the upstanding front corrector plate housing and you can velcro it down to the OTA tube.

The dew shield should be sufficient, but I found my corrector plate did dew up at times, try it first with the dew shield but the Celestron dew heater ring is a good upgrade, but note you'll need a 12v power pack to power it, so definitely try without first. Your eyepieces are also good, the ES 2x will work okay with lower mag eyepieces on planets but note it will also dim the light transmission, considering the 1500mm native focal length of the C6 there's enough magnification provided by the scope already and the 7mm will likely be the most power you need by an individual eyepiece for seeing not to excessively affect the views.

Regarding using it at home, you could possibly look at a UHC filter or similar to help with some LP block and contrast definition, it's not something I've tried yet, visual O3 filters may also help with those nebulae rich in oxygen.

Dark skies will transform your viewing, as will adding a camera to take 10s or so images via your mount alt az movement limitations (images might need to be even quicker due to the focal length) but that's a completely different avenue and bottomless money pit.

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Bortle 8-9 is bad, and the local seeing and transparency will not be great either, but the C6 SE is as good a choice as any for these conditions.   You should concentrate on observing the Moon, planets, double stars, star clusters, and the brighter planetary nebulae (i.e. objects of high surface brightness).   Attempts to observe galactic nebulae and galaxies will be unrewarding under your conditions.

You appear to have accessorised the scope well.  What do you intend to do with the ES 2x focal extender?  It will give excessive magnification if used with the 7mm eyepiece.  You do not mention an external power pack, but you should get one rather than relying on the internal primary cells.

Good news: if you are able to take your outfit out of the city to darker skies, with the Starsense it will make a fine quick-setup package. 

I appreciate your insight thank you very much. So truth be told on the focal extender I looked at some YouTube reviews, articles and comments and the focal extender I got seemed to come across better then 2x Barlows and a lot of what you read tends to say grab a Barlow as it doubles the inventory of your scopes. It was on sale at a local store I got it for 105$ so I said why not. I figured if I got a 36mm Plossl plus what I have at the lower magnifications it would give me access to some additional levels. 
 

As far as power banks I already have this Duracell one - so if I’m not mistaken I just need a transformer to plug directly in and should give me plenty of power. Plus for yard observation I have outlets close by. 
 

I appreciate you telling me the kind of objects I can realistically observe - I wish there was some type of guide that listed the names of the objects that fall into those categories which are observable to me so I know what to focus on….

Since you mentioned the Focal extender on 7mm being too high for me You reminded me of a concern I had. What magnification do you think I can get to before it becomes blurry for my location on lunar and planetary viewing? I know you cannot go by the max useful listed. I have seen some say no less then 10 for my scope and location. Others say 9 and 7. Noticeable differences (at least seems it to me in my amateur mind). 

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, Elp said:

Sound advice above.

I have the same scope in bortle 7 and yep, you will struggle to see the "desirable" deep sky objects with any kind of definition, may also need to use averted vision to spot them when sweeping by. The long focal length is also troublesome as your angle of view of the sky is restricted so you'll have to have good alignment with the goto system to find things easier. The Starsense will help a lot. I found a Rigel Quikfinder is also more useful than any finder scope if you wish to star hop. With the C6 it can sit flush and square against the upstanding front corrector plate housing and you can velcro it down to the OTA tube.

The dew shield should be sufficient, but I found my corrector plate did dew up at times, try it first with the dew shield but the Celestron dew heater ring is a good upgrade, but note you'll need a 12v power pack to power it, so definitely try without first. Your eyepieces are also good, the ES 2x will work okay with lower mag eyepieces on planets but note it will also dim the light transmission, considering the 1500mm native focal length of the C6 there's enough magnification provided by the scope already and the 7mm will likely be the most power you need by an individual eyepiece for seeing not to excessively affect the views.

Regarding using it at home, you could possibly look at a UHC filter or similar to help with some LP block and contrast definition, it's not something I've tried yet, visual O3 filters may also help with those nebulae rich in oxygen.

Dark skies will transform your viewing, as will adding a camera to take 10s or so images via your mount alt az movement limitations (images might need to be even quicker due to the focal length) but that's a completely different avenue and bottomless money pit.

I appreciate your feedback and info! I looked into the Astro cam’s briefly and wanted to vomit at the prices! I figure I’ll get some noticeable time in just viewing for now. I bought the Celestron cell phone mount. I know it gets so so reviews but it’s more for my 3 (almost 4) year old son. He will like to see pictures while in the house of things he saw in the scope later on even if the quality is shoddy at best. 
 

in regard to filters I forgot to mention I picked up the Baader moon and sky glow filter. I did read about the other types as mentioned in this thread like O-3. Problem is I’m still so new I don’t know what nebula I can realistically observe with good quality in order to get the appropriate filter to view it. I looked at broadband filters for LP but many seem to say they are almost rendered useless since practically everything is now LED. If you think there’s a shot it even makes a dent in quality I’m 100% open to getting one if you have a suggestion. 
 

I noticed you said 7mm is prob the max I can go, I’ve read that elsewhere too. But some go even higher and say 9 is more realistic or even 10. I wanted to get a Televue Delite eyepiece - I was looking at the 7 or the 9. I believe I read the 7 is more like a 6.5 so if I return the Celestron X-Cel 7mm and get that it would be a great investment and noticeable difference in msg from the 8mm on the Baader zoom. I’m just afraid if the 7mm is too strong and will be dim and blurry for my scope and location and would be better off with a 9mm?

[bwj]

I have the 8SE but am lucky enough to live in fairly dark skies, Bortle 4. I would  highly recommend you get a copy of "Turn Left At Orion". It will be very helpful in locating targets. A lot of people also recommend "The Urban Astronomers Guide" by Rod Mollise, part of the Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series.  Last but not least is https://www.nexstarsite.com/NUG2.htm.

It helped me a lot, and gives much more complete information than the owners manual. 

Clear Skies!

[Fraunhoffer]

+1 "Left turn at Orion"

Best guide to the night sky i ever bought. 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @Vinnyvent84 and welcome to SGL. 

One thing that seems to be missing from the above answers… How long did you leave your ‘scope to acclimatise? - Mak’s and SCT’s being a sealed tube, require between 30-60+ minutes to cool if taken from a warm environment, unless it is stored in the garage or shed prior to viewing.

Following on from the above, when packing up for the night, unpack and leave the caps off everything and leave the OTA pointing slightly downward and leave to dry naturally, even if left in the garage or shed away from direct sources of heat, (ie next to a radiator or other heat source). Then pack away after a few hours or you have had some rest/sleep. 

On to the Celestron X-Cel and TeleVue Delite dilemma, I personally would go for the Delite. Simply because they have 20mm eye relief, 62^oAFOV and the eye guard is adjustable. I have a 6 & 8mm TeleVue Radian which are 58^o AFOV and was its predecessor and now discontinued. The views are superb in my Celestron C6/SCT and my other ‘scopes.

Other visual filters I would consider are UHC, Olll and/or a Baader Neodymium.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by RT65CB-SWL

[steviebee]

Welcome to SGL. l have the 6SE (along with 3 others, can you have too many scopes?) which l bought for myself as a retirement present to me. lt's a good scope and gets more use than the other 3. Lots of good advice already given above. Enjoy your new scope and enjoy your new hobby something that both you and your son can do together. 

[Elp]

Your max mag is 50x the aperture in inches (or 2x per mm) so 300x, the eyepiece formula is mag = FL of scope / eyepiece power so the ideal max eyepiece would be 5mm, but reading many forums 5mm or less are specially used due to the seeing or if those that have them have larger aperture and hence FL scopes. Don't get too caught up in the eyepiece power hole, you have a decent set already just try them. I only changed mine later as I wanted longer eye relief due to wearing glasses but they didn't really change what I could see with the budget ones.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Elp

[LandyJon]

7 hours ago, Vinnyvent84 said:

I wish there was some type of guide that listed the names of the objects that fall into those categories which are observable to me so I know what to focus on

I started out imaging with a 6SE a few years back, it was a steep learning curve at such long focal length but I found the scope great to use from the start, I remember the stock mount being good at finding objects and the optional WiFi module allowed control from the phone app and gave some nice info on the targets. Obviously had to upgrade to an equatorial mount for the longer exposures but for visual and eyepiece snaps with a phone camera I'm sure you'll have great fun with it.

To address your wish for a guide, I use Stellarium on the laptop to point the mount, its free and has many settings, one of which is to limit the magnitude of targets it displays.  This you could use to make a list of potential targets, once you've got an idea of what magnitude targets are viewable from your skies.  There is a free mobile app version that is cut down but I think the paid app version might have the same magnitude settings, but I'd suggest trying it out on a laptop initially.

Have fun, hope your lad enjoys it. 

[happy-kat]

Welcome

The planetarium Stelarium is great to use to see what's up there in your location. Talking cameras and electronically enhanced astronomy EEA which might be an option to look into for seeing more in your back yard, the ASI585MC appears popular due to it's capacity and bit bigger chip then a straight planetary camera.

[Elp]

There's also Sky Safari which has a "tonight's best" under the search button, the Plus version (more object database than the free one, there's also another version after the plus with even more) is always on offer price too, it might be on offer right now.

[Cosmic Geoff]

7 hours ago, Vinnyvent84 said:

Problem is I’m still so new I don’t know what nebula I can realistically observe with good quality in order to get the appropriate filter to view it. I looked at broadband filters for LP but many seem to say they are almost rendered useless since practically everything is now LED. If you think there’s a shot it even makes a dent in quality I’m 100% open to getting one if you have a suggestion. 

You can forget about seeing any nebulae even with filters, except maybe M42 Orion Nebula.  If you really want to 'see' nebulae from your location, invest in a Seestar S50 which with its built-in filters is startlingly effective at imaging nebulae even from urban locations.

For visual use, light pollution filters are probaby going to be useless. The best light-pollution filter is a trip to dark countryside. 

7 hours ago, Vinnyvent84 said:

I noticed you said 7mm is prob the max I can go, I’ve read that elsewhere too. But some go even higher and say 9 is more realistic or even 10. I wanted to get a Televue Delite eyepiece - I was looking at the 7 or the 9. I believe I read the 7 is more like a 6.5 so if I return the Celestron X-Cel 7mm and get that it would be a great investment and noticeable difference in msg from the 8mm on the Baader zoom. I’m just afraid if the 7mm is too strong and will be dim and blurry for my scope and location and would be better off with a 9mm?

 

Do not fuss over eyepieces or rush to buy more till you have tried the scope for a couple of months.  You have the Zoom eyepiece, and with a focal ratio of f10 your scope will be forgiving of eyepieces so any eyepiece that isn't complete rubbish will work.  I mostly use a 25mm Plossl (came with scope) 15mm Plossl, 8-24 zoom and a choice of 8mm or 10mm eyepieces with my C8.

[Vinnyvent84]

12 hours ago, Elp said:

Sound advice above.

I have the same scope in bortle 7 and yep, you will struggle to see the "desirable" deep sky objects with any kind of definition, may also need to use averted vision to spot them when sweeping by. The long focal length is also troublesome as your angle of view of the sky is restricted so you'll have to have good alignment with the goto system to find things easier. The Starsense will help a lot. I found a Rigel Quikfinder is also more useful than any finder scope if you wish to star hop. With the C6 it can sit flush and square against the upstanding front corrector plate housing and you can velcro it down to the OTA tube.

The dew shield should be sufficient, but I found my corrector plate did dew up at times, try it first with the dew shield but the Celestron dew heater ring is a good upgrade, but note you'll need a 12v power pack to power it, so definitely try without first. Your eyepieces are also good, the ES 2x will work okay with lower mag eyepieces on planets but note it will also dim the light transmission, considering the 1500mm native focal length of the C6 there's enough magnification provided by the scope already and the 7mm will likely be the most power you need by an individual eyepiece for seeing not to excessively affect the views.

Regarding using it at home, you could possibly look at a UHC filter or similar to help with some LP block and contrast definition, it's not something I've tried yet, visual O3 filters may also help with those nebulae rich in oxygen.

Dark skies will transform your viewing, as will adding a camera to take 10s or so images via your mount alt az movement limitations (images might need to be even quicker due to the focal length) but that's a completely different avenue and bottomless money pit.

Thanks for your info! I did look at the heat ring and was thinking of buying it. Figured I would take it out a few times and see how it fairs first. If you use the heat ring does that totally negate the need for the scope to acclimate when bringing outdoors?

[Vinnyvent84]

5 hours ago, bwj said:

I have the 8SE but am lucky enough to live in fairly dark skies, Bortle 4. I would  highly recommend you get a copy of "Turn Left At Orion". It will be very helpful in locating targets. A lot of people also recommend "The Urban Astronomers Guide" by Rod Mollise, part of the Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series.  Last but not least is https://www.nexstarsite.com/NUG2.htm.

It helped me a lot, and gives much more complete information than the owners manual. 

Clear Skies!

Thanks for your help! I actually purchased the spiral copy of turn left at Orion - should be delivered today! I definitely will check out those other two resources, thank you!

[Vinnyvent84]

4 hours ago, RT65CB-SWL said:

Hi @Vinnyvent84 and welcome to SGL. 

One thing that seems to be missing from the above answers… How long did you leave your ‘scope to acclimatise? - Mak’s and SCT’s being a sealed tube, require between 30-60+ minutes to cool if taken from a warm environment, unless it is stored in the garage or shed prior to viewing.

Following on from the above, when packing up for the night, unpack and leave the caps off everything and leave the OTA pointing slightly downward and leave to dry naturally, even if left in the garage or shed away from direct sources of heat, (ie next to a radiator or other heat source). Then pack away after a few hours or you have had some rest/sleep. 

On to the Celestron X-Cel and TeleVue Delite dilemma, I personally would go for the Delite. Simply because they have 20mm eye relief, 62^oAFOV and the eye guard is adjustable. I have a 6 & 8mm TeleVue Radian which has 58^o AFOV and was its predecessor and now discontinued. The views are superb in my Celestron C6/SCT and my other ‘scopes.

Other visual filters I would consider are UHC, Olll and/or a Baader Neodymium.

 

Thanks for the helpful insight! I’m going to follow that advice and use my garage as stated. I have no even set it up yet so I’m super excited to give this a whirl. I’m hoping I get some decent views considering location. I would love to get the Televue 7mm I’m just afraid that level mag is too high for my scope in combination with my location and Bortle level. Quick question do filters only work for astrophotography or are they useful for simple visual observation as well?

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, steviebee said:

Welcome to SGL. l have the 6SE (along with 3 others, can you have too many scopes?) which l bought for myself as a retirement present to me. lt's a good scope and gets more use than the other 3. Lots of good advice already given above. Enjoy your new scope and enjoy your new hobby something that both you and your son can do together. 

Thank you! Everyone here has been great so far, looking forward to continuing this hobby for years to come!

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, Elp said:

Your max mag is 50x the aperture in inches (or 2x per mm) so 300x, the eyepiece formula is mag = FL of scope / eyepiece power so the ideal max eyepiece would be 5mm, but reading many forums 5mm or less are specially used due to the seeing or if those that have them have larger aperture and hence FL scopes. Don't get too caught up in the eyepiece power hole, you have a decent set already just try them. I only changed mine later as I wanted longer eye relief due to wearing glasses but they didn't really change what I could see with the budget ones.

Thanks. The eyepiece game I can already see easily goes down a rabbit hole!

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, LandyJon said:

I started out imaging with a 6SE a few years back, it was a steep learning curve at such long focal length but I found the scope great to use from the start, I remember the stock mount being good at finding objects and the optional WiFi module allowed control from the phone app and gave some nice info on the targets. Obviously had to upgrade to an equatorial mount for the longer exposures but for visual and eyepiece snaps with a phone camera I'm sure you'll have great fun with it.

To address your wish for a guide, I use Stellarium on the laptop to point the mount, its free and has many settings, one of which is to limit the magnitude of targets it displays.  This you could use to make a list of potential targets, once you've got an idea of what magnitude targets are viewable from your skies.  There is a free mobile app version that is cut down but I think the paid app version might have the same magnitude settings, but I'd suggest trying it out on a laptop initially.

Have fun, hope your lad enjoys it. 

Thank you! Funny story my parents and sister knew I was getting the scope and one gifted me Safari Pro 7 and the other Stellarium so I have paid versions of both. I don’t have a windows PC only Mac but it seems I can do everything on my iPad Pro 12inch if I’m not mistaken? In addition I also have the WiFi module for the scope. 

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Welcome

The planetarium Stelarium is great to use to see what's up there in your location. Talking cameras and electronically enhanced astronomy EEA which might be an option to look into for seeing more in your back yard, the ASI585MC appears popular due to it's capacity and bit bigger chip then a straight planetary camera.

Thanks for the insight! When you use that piece mentioned for Astrophotography I’m guessing you cannot visual observe at the same time? It replaces the eyepiece?

[happy-kat]

1 minute ago, Vinnyvent84 said:

Thanks for the insight! When you use that piece mentioned for Astrophotography I’m guessing you cannot visual observe at the same time? It replaces the eyepiece?

EEA is live visual observing in that you look at a screen while the image of what you are looking at dynamically builds so brings further life to the smudge and may resolve shape and colour. But yes it is either eyepiece in the focuser or camera. I was only thinking about if you find your bortle sky hard work on DSO what else might extend your hobby

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

You can forget about seeing any nebulae even with filters, except maybe M42 Orion Nebula.  If you really want to 'see' nebulae from your location, invest in a Seestar S50 which with its built-in filters is startlingly effective at imaging nebulae even from urban locations.

At the risk of sounding stupid. I believe I read (at least with filters) somewhere that even in my location I could see Nebula but only certain types? It’s possible I am wrong. I’m going to look into the scope you stated here. Is that scope primarily for DSO?

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, Elp said:

There's also Sky Safari which has a "tonight's best" under the search button, the Plus version (more object database than the free one, there's also another version after the plus with even more) is always on offer price too, it might be on offer right now.

I actually have Sky Safari Pro 7 and Stellarium paid versions for both! They where gifted to me

[Vinnyvent84]

25 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

EEA is live visual observing in that you look at a screen while the image of what you are looking at dynamically builds so brings further life to the smudge and may resolve shape and colour. But yes it is either eyepiece in the focuser or camera. I was only thinking about if you find your bortle sky hard work on DSO what else might extend your hobby

No I appreciate the insight that’s great to know and I will consider it! Do you think this is something that would be better suited if I bought a cheap windows based laptop rather then my Mac? I noticed many Astro programs aren’t Mac friendly so far other then direct iPad and iPhone apps