New Observer - NexStar 6SE, Expectation Setting?

[infinitedusk (Ben)]

Hi all,

After months of talking about my fascination with the sky, my wife surprised me with a Celestron NexStar 6SE for my birthday about a month ago - which has well and truly kick-started an obsession. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from this community over the years to come, and hopefully meeting you all at some point

After lurking on these forums (and Cloudy Nights), looking for advice on essential gear to get started with, I picked up a Dew Cover, an ES 24mm 68 degree EP, and a TV 8mm Plossl EP. I also have a ZWO ASI120MC in the post (I don't have an SLR, and desperately want to get started with astrophotography!).

I'm hoping for some 'real talk' here guys - I'd like to manage my own expectations in terms of what the 6SE is capable of, as I suspect I'll be stargazing for many years to come and need to understand the limitations of my gear.

For example, I've been stalking Jupiter this last week, and have found it difficult to focus sharply with either of my EPs (the 8mm brings it up nice and close, but it's still blurry, even after playing with my focus) - I'm not sure if this is a function of my scope, the eyepiece, or the location (maybe all of the above?).

Anyway - if anyone is able to help me understand what will / will not be possible with this scope (with or without accessories), that would be amazing. Will I be able to gaze deeply into space?

Thanks all!

[raymo]

If you can focus sharply on a terrestrial object during the day, then your scope is fine, and your problem is most likely the atmosphere, which is
usually the limiting factor as far as both observing and imaging are
concerned. Only now and then is the seeing good enough to allow
gob smacking views of the planets.
As far as imaging goes, the 6SE is unfortunately mostly bad news,
being designed for observing. At f/10 it is very "slow" photographically,
meaning very long exposures for everything except the very brightest
objects. It is also an alt/azimuth mount, which means that a
phenomenon called field rotation becomes a problem, which limits you to short exposures.
The one positive thing is that the long focal length, and narrow field of view make this scope suitable for planetary and lunar imaging, using video,
and stacking a large number of frames in Registax or other stacking
freeware.
To do deep sky imaging you need an equatorial mount, not an
alt/azimuth one, and incidentally, the single support arm for the
scope is not really solid enough for imaging.
Hope this helps.
raymo

[ChrisV (Chris)]

You could give some live imaging a go
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/5...ost-eaa-setup/
Most use a goto alt/AZ.
Short subs under 10-15s and live stack in sharpcap etc
Get a cheap 1.25" x0.5 focal reducer

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Welcome to Ice in Space Ben!

The 6SE is a great little scope...it was my starter and I still have mine...and use it occasionally! The 6 have a reputation for great optics generally.

Your scope will show you plenty. Do it and yourself a favour and take it on a trip to a dark site. Don't get too caught up in other folk and their bigger scopes. There's always going to be someone with a bigger, badder scope. Focus on enjoying yours and it will give you a baseline. Nebulae, galaxies and star clusters are well within the reach of your scope.

The 8mm being blurry can be caused by several things...the stability of the atmosphere (you'll hear it called 'seeing') may not have been very good, it may be caught in the thermal plume of a nearby building, or your scope may not have been adequately cooled (unusual with a 6). Over time and experimentation you'll learn to identify the differences.

You've picked a great pair of eyepieces to go with your scope, so roll with them. Don't be rushed into buying more until you fell you want something extra.

Don't rush to start imaging with a DSLR or other attempts at long exposures with the SE mount because it's alt-azimuth and you really need an equatorial mount - one that correctly counteracts the rotation of the earth - for long exposures. That's not to say the 6 can't be used for imaging - the f/6.3 reducer works quite well and is even Hyperstar capable.

You could certainly have a decent crack at planetary imaging with your 120MC though, you'll want a Barlow lens to make the image larger (Bintel currently have some Celestron Ultima Barlow which are great value).

Above all, enjoy your new scope...it is so portable I find I grab it on nights I can't be bothered to setup my bigger scope, and it can be setup and running in minutes once you get the hang of it.

[Madanie7 (Brendan)]

Hi Ben,
I bought this scope for myself about 4-5 weeks ago.
I am loving it. Jupiter in Brisbane has been pretty good so far. It's never pin sharp but I can easily see the 4 Galilean moons as well as the equatorial belts. I can see Saturn clearly as well as some of the moons.

I have seen Sombrero Galaxy M104 albeit very faint. NGC2070 Tarantula Nebula as well as various star clusters and globular clusters.
I tried for some other faint objects but failed to see them.

I bounced around the sky initially but have stated focusing on a certain part of the sky each night and learning about what I am seeing. I also, as of last night, started an observation log.

I have bought the SLR adapters but haven't really tried them. I have stuck to just viewing for now.

I am as new as you but hope it helps.
Brendan

[sil (Steve)]

Hi Ben, thats an awesome scope and will server you well for years to come, you can certainly see all the planets with that scope even with a little star hopping. Depending on light pollution the deep sky objects will be possible with it and will appear in black and white to your eye. You won't see them as bright and colourful through an eyepiece even on bigger scopes like what you see in photos. Photos use data often taken over hours to capture enough to show the nice colours, but our eyes in the dark don't see colours very well so we see in greyscales. The longer you are outside at the eyepiece and dont turn to look at a light/torch/phone screen the better your night vision becomes and the "faint fuzzies" as galaxies and nebulae are often called, become much much clearer to the eyes. Some of them are huge in the eyepiece and their magnitude (brightness) is spread across the whole object so say the Orion nebula which is as bright as a planet and larger in the sky than the moon, can be hard to see with the naked eye because the brightness is across a large area compared to a planet which is tiny.

The blurriness is most likely your seeing condition as others mentioned. When you get down to an 8mm or 6mm eyepiece you are achieving a large magnification (really doesnt mean anything to astronomers) and the water vapour in the atmosphere (roughly 65 miles of it between your eye and the vacuuam of space) refracts photons like trying to examine a pebble at the bottom of a creek from the bank. The view dances and swims a lot. With a 10mm or 12mm eyepiece it should be fairly stable and you need extremely optimal factors and location to use a 4mm or smaller.

Cooldown could also be a factor as other suggested. Dragging a scope outside and immediately looking through the eyepiece is almost guarenteed to give you blurry views. Especially if you kept the scope in a heated room. If you kept it in say the garage (typically unheated) it will be close to the ambient temperature already and take little time to cool down further once you move it outside. Generally put your scope outside and hour before you want to use it to try to let it cool to close to the outside temperature.

Another factor could be your location and the direction you are pointing the scope. For example if you point it across your tiled roof then the heat it absorbed during the day if rising through your field of view and can blur it too (heat rises remember and its like the mirage effect on a hot road). Likewise if you are looking through the air above a nearby busy road as traffic passes the hot air swirls up causing disruptions to viewing. None of these have any reflection on the quality of your scope and happens to everyone.

Using any telescope from suburbia has a lot of inherent limitations that throwing money at better gear wont change. Finding a good dark site to take your scope to away from the heat, humidity and light pollution will show you just how good your scope is. What you see in astrophotos is not that you see through the eyepiece. You can easily see our closest planets though, and their moons, even surface details on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are easily within the reach of your scope (seeing conditions permitting). Also take note of where the moon is and its phase as it will cause light pollution limiting viewing at times for you. Of course dont forget viewing the moon with your scope is fantastic. It was a damn good choice of scope, your better half proved she's better with that choice. It may not look impressive but at that pricerange and below the impressive looking scopes would ALL be a worse choice for you. I think she got you the perfect scope.