Celestron Nexstar

[Saturn%5]

Hi All
I have just got a Celestron Nexstar 6se scope and am just wondering if anyone on the forums has one or has had and and what your thoughts were about them good or bad.

cheers

Graeme.

[raymo]

Hi Graeme,
I have used a friend's Nexstar 8 quite a lot, and was very
impressed with it. It doesn't track well enough for serious astro imaging,
but it wasn't designed for that. I imagine the same would apply to the smaller 6. The 8 is nice and stable; I don't know if the same goes for the 6. Tell us how you go with it,
raymo

[Saturn%5]

Hi raymo
thanks for the reply, I must say that I'm very happy with the setup so far its good just carry outside with no setup and just let it cool down and start viewing, and your are right its not meant for long astro imaging but the first and only time i have had it out you know clouds and all that stuff. i let it track Jupiter and it stayed in the center of the mirror for 45 minutes till the bats went flat,I find it very stable since its the same mount as the 8"

1st lesson buy a better power source :lol:

cheers

Graeme.

[Robert9]

Hi Graeme. I have a 6SE and am very happy with it. It tracks very well as an AltAz. Alignments are easy and as you say, its a good portable unit. I have taken mine in the back of the car over many Km and it holds its collimation well. (Still haven't had to collimate) Make sure you adjust backlash if you want to get good GOTO results. Also try and balance the OTa on the mount. You can easily locate the balance point of the OTA with attachments (Diagonal, e.p. etc) by balancing it over a pencil on a table.

This is a dedicated site full of useful info. Highly recommend a visit.
http://www.nexstarsite.com/

For astrophotography I mount the OTA on an HEQ5Pro. But the AltAz is OK for short exposures where rotation is not an issue - eg. moon shots.

Robert

[Stardrifter_WA]

I disagree Raymo. I have an 8" Nexstar and it does track well if correctly setup. Although, I do agree that in the altaz mode it isn't good enough, however, I have mine on an equatorial wedge. Mounted on a wedge this setup provides excellent tracking. I have this setup in my observatory with an 80ED mounted on top and I am very happy with this setup. Although I wouldn't get rid of this scope, I must admit I now wish I had gone the 11".

Cheers Peter

[raymo]

Hi Peter, I was referring to the standard scope without a wedge;
whatever, they're a very good scope.
raymo

[Saturn%5]

Hi Robert
thanks for the info just had a look at the nexstar site lots of good info there, Just waiting on some eyepieces to show up and looking for a new diagonal as well overall so far im very happy with the scope.

cheers

Graeme.