Author Topic: My New Celestron Nexstar 6 SE (Read 44580 times)

atomic7732 · « **on:** October 08, 2011, 10:42:22 PM »

So, yesterday I went to Tucson to find a telescope, and today I assembled it and went out to see what it could do. There are no images cause my camera decided to fail, and I'm getting an eyepiece camera in a few days anyway. I first went to Jupiter, and it didn't fail to amaze me, as the clarity with the 6 SE is so much better than my Nexstar 114. I could very very clearly make out the bands on Jupiter. I also went for a quick view of Uranus and Neptune, both were fuzzy blue balls of gas. They weren't very interesting but the fact that I could see them is cool. I had gotten Uranus with my 114 before. I also checked out Luna (I'm gonna call it Luna and you can do nothing about it, deal with it), in fact I did get a few images of it... Then I decided to see if, with a bit of doubt, due to light pollution, my telescope could see any nebulae. I first tried the Helix, but it was near Luna and that may be why I couldn't see it. Next I tried the Hercules cluster, which was a nice faint ball. Then I got the Ring Nebula, which was quite clear to see as a ring. I also got the Andromeda galaxy, with a distinct bright core area. As well as the Blue Snowball, a planetary nebula. Then I decided to see if (with previous success on nebulae and a galaxy) I could see a comet, so I searched the coordinates of Garradd, but when the telescope went there, I couldn't see it.

So overall I think it's a great telescope, it's much better than my 114, for sure. I do like the focusing knob thing, it's less sensitive, so on higher magnifications it is easier to get focused.

Pictures will come in a few days.

deoxy99 · « **Reply #1 on:** October 08, 2011, 10:46:13 PM »

I'm glad you like it. (not sarcastic)

FiahOwl · « **Reply #2 on:** October 08, 2011, 10:48:53 PM »

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dhm794 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 11, 2011, 12:04:22 PM »

Sweet Jesus son! I wish I had that money to spend on a telescope.

vh · « **Reply #4 on:** October 11, 2011, 12:14:03 PM »

i have something like this kol

its like barely 2 feet long and has a 3 inch opening

(it was only like $30 it think)

atomic7732 · « **Reply #5 on:** October 11, 2011, 02:57:12 PM »

Refractors suck, Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes ftw!

deoxy99 · « **Reply #6 on:** October 11, 2011, 03:35:49 PM »

I have a telescope. I don't know what kind of telescope it is...

atomic7732 · « **Reply #7 on:** October 11, 2011, 03:46:13 PM »

Long tube small aperture, short tube big aperture, or neither? Also where is the eyepiece? Back, side, etc?

vh · « **Reply #8 on:** October 11, 2011, 03:58:42 PM »

Quote from: deoxy99 on October 11, 2011, 03:35:49 PM

I have a telescope. I don't know what kind of telescope it is...

the answer...is in your skirt-

deoxy99 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 11, 2011, 04:29:45 PM »

... I don't mean that by "kind". I mean the brand...

dhm794 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 12, 2011, 05:14:44 AM »

I just use my dad's Meade ETX 60AT. It sucks. The focusing knob is a tiny little metal screw and the gears are broken so I can't use the Autostar remote.

atomic7732 · « **Reply #11 on:** October 12, 2011, 02:46:33 PM »

Well I got my StarShoot today.

deoxy99 · « **Reply #12 on:** October 12, 2011, 02:52:05 PM »

Quote from: dhm794 on October 12, 2011, 05:14:44 AM

I just use my dad's Meade ETX 60AT. It sucks. The focusing knob is a tiny little metal screw and the gears are broken so I can't use the Autostar remote.

That's stupid.

vh · « **Reply #13 on:** October 12, 2011, 03:27:40 PM »

Quote from: deoxy99 on October 12, 2011, 02:52:05 PM

Quote from: dhm794 on October 12, 2011, 05:14:44 AM
I just use my dad's Meade ETX 60AT. It sucks. The focusing knob is a tiny little metal screw and the gears are broken so I can't use the Autostar remote.
That's stupid.

wait, what is wrong with that?

dhm794 · « **Reply #14 on:** October 13, 2011, 06:17:40 PM »

Quote from: deoxy99 on October 12, 2011, 02:52:05 PM

Quote from: dhm794 on October 12, 2011, 05:14:44 AM
I just use my dad's Meade ETX 60AT. It sucks. The focusing knob is a tiny little metal screw and the gears are broken so I can't use the Autostar remote.
That's stupid.

Sure is. Using the manual methods of finding celestial objects is extremely tedious, especially since once you try to lock the damn thing in it shifts over completely. Took me 20 minutes just to spot Jupiter. I think I'll fidget around with it this weekend and see if it can be fixed.

atomic7732 · « **Reply #15 on:** October 22, 2011, 04:27:51 PM »

Using the solar filter I purchased for my telescope... I bring you...

SUNSPOT IMAGERY!

dhm794 · « **Reply #16 on:** October 23, 2011, 08:08:06 AM »

I found some cool stuff online for enhancing images of deep sky objects:

http://www.astronomyphotos.com/PhotoshopTechniques1.htm

FiahOwl · « **Reply #17 on:** December 25, 2011, 09:27:48 AM »

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atomic7732 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 25, 2011, 10:29:08 AM »

If this is your first, then that's quite good. (That's actually larger than your first telescope should be... but with all this light pollution nowadays

)

FiahOwl · « **Reply #19 on:** December 25, 2011, 12:15:47 PM »

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atomic7732 · « **Reply #20 on:** December 25, 2011, 03:27:51 PM »

More sunspots.

FiahOwl · « **Reply #21 on:** December 25, 2011, 03:42:14 PM »

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atomic7732 · « **Reply #22 on:** December 25, 2011, 03:43:11 PM »

Nope. It's been 75 minutes since I took those images, about 50 mins since I came inside.

blotz · « **Reply #23 on:** December 25, 2011, 04:57:47 PM »

There is a camera installed in the telescope? Or did you somehow move the camera into the eye scope.

atomic7732 · « **Reply #24 on:** December 25, 2011, 05:02:59 PM »

The Orion StarShoot is made so that you can put it where the eyepiece and the eyepiece 90 degree reflection thingy goes.

vh · « **Reply #25 on:** December 28, 2011, 07:10:55 PM »

would you say the images look exactly as they do when you peer through the telescope, or is the image degraded, lacking color, and or quality?

atomic7732 · « **Reply #26 on:** December 28, 2011, 10:46:55 PM »

Well the thing is, the camera's view is probably 4x magnified from the view through a 25mm eyepiece. So what I see from the telescope can't really be compared, but I would probably say they are similar (assuming you could see the image in the eyepiece 4 times it's size)

atomic7732 · « **Reply #27 on:** December 29, 2011, 09:42:17 PM »

So I took two images from my iPhone which surprisingly got the moons of Jupiter, and an image of Jupiter (resized to scale) from my StarShoot camera, and I put them into one image. This is the result!

Edit: I messed up on the first image, uploaded new one.

vh · « **Reply #28 on:** December 30, 2011, 06:50:40 AM »

nice, whats that little ...edge near jupiter, it looks cut out, darker and brighter

Also the first split-second i saw that image, my subconcious screamed google doodle.

atomic7732 · « **Reply #29 on:** December 30, 2011, 07:17:13 AM »

The iPhone had a glary washed out white Jupiter, I placed the proper image of Jupiter from my actual astrophotography capable camera over it. I tried to make it circular like what they do with the sun sometimes, putting the two coronagraphs together and then the solar disk in the center.