This my first post and I would appreciate your comments. Im guessing there are countless similar posts so I apologise in advance if thats the case.
I'm looking at buying a Nexstar 6se or 8se, I need to decide between the two. Mainly backyard astronomy with my daughter. We live in Kalgoorlie WA and could go out of town 20km and get some good clear skies some nights. I want to also do a little basic beginner astrophotography using a CCD camera. I know the Nexstar mount is only good for 10-15 secs tracking but thats ok. I know Celestron used to make an equatorial wedge for the Nexstar's, but hard to come by now, I assume they enabled the scope to track longer. I would like sharp solar system images, and wouldnt mind being able to see some nice nebulae and clusters. Lenses differ between the 6 and the 8 but here's my plan:
Nexstar 6SE or 8SE (which one?)
StarGPS NX Nexstar (what do you think of this add-on?)
Celestron Neximage 5MP CCD with software
Dell Mini 10 laptop (already have)
Car power supply for the scope.
Moon filter, maybe an OIII filter (?)
Equatorial wedge if I could ever find one (?any advantage)
Table for computer and Dad Chair.
Now we plan to do mostly direct observing, but use the computer and CCD for some photos on good nights.
From stuff Ive read, Im working out the best lens/barlow setup for each (6SE and 8SE) to give me magnifications around 50-70 (galaxies and nebulae), 95-120 (clusters, small nebulae), and 200-250 (planetary).
Are apochromatic barlows better than achromatic?
Is an ED achromatic better than a non-ED apochromatic?
ED lenses are worth the money?
Will I need a focal reducer?
If you're serious about the photography side of Astronomy, an equatorial mount is a must. EQ6 or at least HEQ5 would be the minimum starting point.
Imaging with Alt Az and wedges is an exercise in frustration.
My suggestion is to start with a budget, then buy equipment that will best serve your needs within that budget. It's well worth considering second hand, for the cost of a new 6 or 8 SE you could buy everything you need second hand.
Hi Dave,
Welcome to IceInSpace
Don't be afraid to "bother" people with your questions...
Most people here are only too willing to share what experience they have.
I am surprised you did not get any responses yet.
It is obvious that you have done a bit of research.
I am guessing that your question is so specific and involved that not too many would be able to comment on all aspects you mention.
Yes, the Celestron 6SE and 8SE are good pieces of equipment.
Very compact, easy to use, good optics, good goto (depending on alignment, as are all).
However, it may not be your best bang for buck, depending on usage.
For similar cost you can get a goto, collapsible DOB.
The SE also has the downside of more glass and larger central obstruction, which further reduce light getting to the eyepiece.
Also, being a single arm SCT, can reduce the steadiness in wind, or with larger weightier eyepieces/photo equipment.
This must be weighed up against the portability issue.
The best advice is always to get yourself to an observing night and have a look through different setups and talk to different owners.
I have had Newtonians on eq mounts.
a C9.25 SCT on EQ and SE mounts
CPC1100 (dual arm SCT)
Dobsonians (SW10 and SW12 Flextubes) (the 12 is a goto)
(and quite a few others)
without hesitation I recommend the Dobsonian.
The flextube makes it pretty portable.
and the goto is an added bonus (but does make it heavier)
But I can't comment on any of the other stuff.
Except a good observing chair is highly recommended.
My astronomy experience is limited but I attended a few ASV Heathcote star-b-cues back in the day as a guest. Ill never forget the star-b-cue night I "heard" a bright meteorite enter the atmosphere and burn up. No-one believed me and I couldnt add to it until I read a New Scientist article on the phenomena a couple years later, something to do with sound waves and slight gap between enamel and fillings in teeth. Ive also seen the southern aurora from about an hour out of Melbourne up the Hume one night, sheets of red, hanging in the air. Anyway, I digress but the interest in astronomy is a longstanding one.
What happened is this, I bought a GSO 12" dob for Christmas and the missus baulked when she saw this hot water heater in the lounge Christmas morning. Admittedly, it was bigger than I thought. Anyway, beautiful scope but not very portable so it has to go..well, if there are two people and you have a wagon with fold down seats its portable. Saw Jupiter through it on the first night and thought how does anyone do anything with a dob without an RDF!
Having been educated by the Australian Geographic Shop the missus wanted a Celestron scope for the daughter, so I started looking at the 6SE and then thought about the 8SE because hey, bigger is better! By the way, the daughter loves the dob, awesome like her dad, was her response. So Im going to put it up for sale here in WA and try and get some $ back.
I was looking at the reflectors on Andrews Communications...8" or 10" f4 Newtonian with goto on a Skywatcher EQ6PRO tripod. I suppose its portable if the OTA and tripod are easy enough to seperate, but hard to estimate the size. Im guessing that setup would be reasonable for astrophotography though? f4 is better than f5 for astrophotography?
Another option would be to keep the dob, deck it out with a telrad, some extra eyepieces, maybe a ccd camera setup, and do they do a goto kit for dobs? And then ask the missus...from a distance...to accept the portability issue.
The (Skywatcher) flex tube DOB is far more portable, and when folded only looks like "half" a water heater.
And you can get these as GoTo.
Newtonians on an EQ mount are suitable for astrophotography I believe... but they can be a "pain in the neck" for visual.
The EQ6PRO is a very good tripod, but it is big and heavy.
The OTA is easily removable from it.
Portability is not a word I would generally associate with it. (It is designed to be stable and to hold steady a big Newtonian in weird angles after all.)
And at the end of the day, you still have a solid tube Newtonian plus a big mount and tripod to store.
Cut to the chase, yes the 8SE is a good scope, a lot more portable, and has goto, but you won't see half as much as you can see through your GSO 12 DOB. If you can live with that, that is your choice.
Good Luck with your decision.
In the meanwhile, keep enjoying your DOB.
(and yes, a Red Dot Finder is an essential extra (IMHO).
The 6SE and 8SE are nice little scopes when you need something easily portable and invisible to SWMBO The 6SE can literally be picked up and carried in one piece. The 8SE with the bigger tube is not so much heavier but a little bulkier to carry in one go. However, they separate neatly and tuck away somewhere easily for storage.
I've had both and the 8 is my most used scope, mostly because of the above the 8SE has almost 2x the light grasp of the 6SE because of the larger mirror and will therefore show you more detail (conditions permitting) on practically anything you point it at. The down side to the 8 is that the 8" tube is getting a little bulky for the single arm mount and if you touch the scope it can wobble a bit...this can mostly be avoided by setting up on softer ground (concrete or wooden decking is not good) and by taking care when grabbing the focuser. Also, if the difference between the day time and night time temperatures is substantial, you may not get optimal views at higher magnifications because the optical tube is captive and can experience internal turbulence! You can assist cooling with a "cat cooler", or decide this isn't suitable for you. In Sydney, the temperature difference doesn't seem to cause me significant problems (and I upgraded my tube to one with vents)
Visually, you'll see more with the bigger scopes as Allan mentioned, although personally I feel that 8" is the sweet spot between seeing good detail and portability. There's always bigger scopes, but they're never as portable and the flex tube Dobs in bigger sizes are still big and heavy. That's not to say they're not worth it for the views...the middle ground might be a 10" goto Dob, gives your the benefit of tracking and goto without losing too much mirror size...but I'd recommend you see one first as they're still not small or light, but it depends on what is most important to you.
Photography is a complicated subject... the Neximage camera is only suitable for capturing footage of solar system objects, not for the long exposure times needed to capture deep sky objects effectively. For that you'd need a DSLR camera or an astronomical CCD, together with an equatorial mount. If you want to get into deep sky photography, I'd suggest a short focal length refractor to start with, but there are many expert imagers here on IIS with quite varied equipment that can advice you better on that subject. The 6SE or 8SE are quite capable when it comes to planetary photography because of their relatively long native focal lengths.
If you aren't familiar with equatorial mounts, either go see one somewhere before you buy...there is a bit of a learning curve to get started (especially without a pole star!), but like anything becomes easier with practice. An EQ6 is a heavy beast - I use one with my larger scope - but seems to be the standard response for entry-level deep sky photography.
Regarding filters...Moon filters seem to be a personal choice thing. When you're looking at the Moon, it's bright but your eye will adapt. For nebulae, I'd recommend getting started with a UHC type filter rather than an OIII (which you can add later)...but if you observe somewhere dark you might be surprised how much can be seen without these...the Orion, Tarantula and Eta Carina nebulae are all incredible to look at without, you just need a dark enough sky
Hi Dave the welcome to IIS,
From my limited experience, everything has a trade off.
6SE is lighter, but 8SE gives you better light grasp and therefore better resolution.
Single fork arm is light and easy to use, but can't do much in terms of AP. I did however get some decent planet images using a webcam and stack the video through Regi Stax, so maybe that's a starting point?
I have since ditched my single arm fork mount in favour of a used EQ6, WAY better in my opinion.
Then there is the $$$ question. AP is a bottomless pit so be prepared to part the wallet for decent gear, you get what you pay for.
A 8" f4 newt on a EQ6 will probably set you back the same amount in dollars, but I think it's a better set up as f4 will be much more forgiving than the native f10 of the SCT. The other alternative is the good old ED80.
Food for thought.
Bo
Hi Dave .
I have been following this thread for a while now so I will now pipe in ,,,, so in 30 years of stargazing have owned many scopes all that time , Newtonions , refractors , Dall-Kirkams , and only in the last few months found out what all this fuss is about , about these 'Schmitt Cassegrain ' CAT's for short as I now own a beautiful Celestron C9.25 carbon fibre XLT ( here it is ) .
Dave no bull mate this is by far the best 'All Round' scope I have ever owned , not perfect but in most things it does ,,, it does very well .
Easy to handle , large aperture for good deep sky , 2 inch visual back so I can use my 31mm and 40mm 2 inch eyepieces ( semi wide field ) , f10 focal ratio ( 2350mm ) so high power lunar/planetary views are easy and awesome ! , great build quality , light weight for its aperture , ease of use ( mine is on an HEQ5 eq mount ) , sexy and awesome optics ! to boot .
But yes that's why these CAT's have become the VW beetle of telescopes for no other reason than this , 'they do most things very very well' , to become the best selling scope ever they must be doing something right ? .
Take a long hard look at the C6-8's as they will last you a life time and the optics and hardware are world class .
I will be keeping mine for a long time .
My 5c so for your own sake , please don't dis-count these great scopes .
Brian.
Last edited by brian nordstrom; 05-03-2014 at 10:52 PM.
The 6SE can literally be picked up and carried in one piece. The 8SE with the bigger tube is not so much heavier but a little bulkier to carry in one go. However, they separate neatly and tuck away somewhere easily for storage.
the 8SE has almost 2x the light grasp of the 6SE because of the larger mirror and will therefore show you more detail (conditions permitting) on practically anything you point it at. The down side to the 8 is that the 8" tube is getting a little bulky for the single arm mount and if you touch the scope it can wobble a bit...this can mostly be avoided by setting up on softer ground (concrete or wooden decking is not good) and by taking care when grabbing the focuser. Also, if the difference between the day time and night time temperatures is substantial, you may not get optimal views at higher magnifications because the optical tube is captive and can experience internal turbulence! You can assist cooling with a "cat cooler", or decide this isn't suitable for you. In Sydney, the temperature difference doesn't seem to cause me significant problems (and I upgraded my tube to one with vents)
so be prepared to part the wallet for decent gear, you get what you pay for. 
and awesome optics ! to boot .
.
