Celestron Advanced C6-N GT (GOTO)

[red dwalf]

has anyone got one of these scopes, and what do you think of them ?

Clearance / Pre-Owned - Celestron Advanced C6-N GT (GOTO)

i understand that they are the same OTA as the Skywatcher newtonians, i already have a 130p so do you think it would be much of an improvement over the 130p ?

any help please in knowing what to do.

[Doc]

For the price it looks a good bit of kit.

Slightly more aperture then yours. A much sturdier mount which is a EQ mount so long exposure photography is possible if it's drift aligned. Can be computer controlled via RS-232 port.

Has Go-to which yours hasn't.

It's fast as well, being a F5. Downside to this is you will have to be really good at collimation.

Are you going to get one?

[red dwalf]

anymore comments please on this scope

[arad85]

anymore comments please on this scope

I've just bought one, not for the scope but to get a cheap CG-5 GT mount to mount a 9.25" SCT on... I couldn't find a cheaper way of getting a pretty good mount with goto on it.

I've not used the scope at all, so don't have a view on it's optical performance. The mount is pretty solid though and the goto works well

If it's just the OTA you're interested in rather than the mount, I have it sat upstairs in it's original packaging unused (I bought it a week ago) - pm me with an offer...

[Astro_Baby]

My sister has a Sky-Watcher 150 which is very similar (in fact identical apart from color I suspect as they all come from Synta). I dont think the optical performance will be a vast improvement over the 130 though obviously it will be a bit better.

The real upside though would be a very much superior mount to the EQ2 or the Alt-Az mount depending on what your 130 came with.

The fast focal ratio will make collimation a bit more critical and eyepieces also become more of an issue but then to be fair most refelectors these days seem to be fast including the 130 unless you have the older long version.

The huge improvement in the mount will make the scope very stable, which may well improve the view and that alone might be worth the cash. If this offer had been on when I upgraded from a 130 I might well have gone for it. In the end I decided to upgrade to a substantially bigger scope ( Sky-Watcher 200 on an HEQ5 ) but if this offer had been on I might have been very torn.

I bought the HEQ5 without GoTo and upgraded later - I might well have traded aperture for GoTo if there had been a deal around at the time. Its also a pretty looking set-up and would have been a tad more portable than the 200.

I have read a review of the scope somewhere which was pretty favourable but they bitched about the finder scope which was a bit wobbly and tough to align. My sisters 150 is the same. The finder bracket was loose on delivery (mine was on my 200) but even after tightening its not helped because the 6x30 finder scope seems to wobble in its own mount and its also a bitch to align to the main optics. With a crunchy price on the whole deal though you could do a quick upgrade to a better finderscope like an 8x50 or even put a red dot finder on it instead.

Personally I think the CG5 looks a bit less elegant than the HEQ5 but then its a lot, lot cheaper in this deal - an HEQ5 Pro is about £720 versus £450 for the CG5 which includes a 6" telescope.

I think as ever it depends on what you want to do and what your needs are - ie portable, storage space, astroimaging, how much to you want to spend etc etc.

[red dwalf]

many thanks for the comments, i too thought this would be a great mount for the price, i know that the goto handsets can cost a few pounds on there own, i didn`t think that i would get much more performance with this scope compared to the 130 but was thinking about a bigger scope in the future mounted onto this set up.

would love a 200 on a heq5 but it`s costs again ! and would be twice the price of this set up.

can`t make up my mind !

[Whippy]

One thing you could do is buy this setup, and add a 8" OTA at a later date. The CG5 mount will hold it fine.

Tony..

[red dwalf]

Thanks Whippy, this was one off my thoughts either a 8" newt or a slightly bigger sct, the mount does seem very versatile.

[red dwalf]

Hello arad85,

just wondering if youd had time to use your Celestron Advanced C6-N GT (GOTO) mount over the last few days and give us a run down on what you thought of it, i`ve have been told that the motors when slewing fast can be very noisy, what have you found ? will be very interested in hearing your thoughts. or anyone else with comments of the above set up.

with thanks

[arad85]

I'll copy the PM I sent you here:

yes, I used it last night. I'd say it was a little louder than the Nexstar 6 SE - the pitch and noise is different (the 6SE is zzzZZzzZZzzZZ.. sound against the CG5's whiRrrrRrrrRrrr type sound). I'm lucky that ALL my neighbours have bedrooms at the front of their house, so I can't disturb them (I live in a new build estate that has clusters of houses, so when I'm set up,I'm reasonably equidistant from them). It isn't silent, it isn't very noisy, but you can hear it when slewing - at a guess, about the same as a conversation at a bbq... Unless you have really fussy neighbours, and a really quiet night, I think you'll be OK.

I've not tried a HEQ5/EQ6, but at 2x the price for the EQ6.........