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JerryWise
Postmaster
Reged: 12/26/03
Posts: 6880
Loc: Lexington, SC
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Finally got a clear night and tried out some new stuff tonight. I worked over an old pier and mounted a Linak bed lift on it. Then mounted the base plate for an AP-Mach 1 mount on the bed lift and installed the EQ mount. This gives me about a foot of adjustable height on the pier. Just with the flick of a switch. It worked great.
This was first light for the AP-Mach 1. What can I say. Looked through the center of the mount and placed Polaris dead center (for a rough alignment). Hooked up the cables and off she went. Dead on GOTOs and smooth as silk. Just plain quality.
Then a brand new C-6 was mounted. Looked pretty good on the Moon. Then went to M15 and couldn't pick out anything in the Moonlight. Same with M31. So I went to a star field to check collimation. Way-way off. While collimated I noticed some pretty awesome spherical aberration. Also, while adjusting collimation the head light caught something on the corrector. Looks like a large smudge or discolored coatings. Never had a problem with a Celestron scope but this is the first one of the new "mass produced" models. It will have to go back for sure.
Next up will be the Celestron 102ED. Be interesting comparing it with an old Meade 102ED. But then, we show this as the only clear night for the rest of the week.
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Jerry
LX200ACF 14", Tak FS 152 & TOA 150
AP-1200 & Mach1
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David Pavlich
Postmaster
Reged: 05/18/05
Posts: 6550
Loc: Mandeville, LA USA 30.38 X 90....
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Hey Jerry, any chance that you could post a couple of pictures of the pier mount in the down then up position? Sounds pretty neat!
David
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A few scopes and mounts.
Proud Member; PAS NOLA,
Life expectancies would go WAY up if green vegetables smelled like bacon...
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dvb
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 06/18/05
Posts: 1924
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Too bad you got a bad example of the C6 -- mine arrived with excellent collimation, and it has held it well since. The construction and optics are also excellent, to my eye.
Mine would get an A+
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Skywatcher 10" f/4.7 Newt on Matilda
Skywatcher 10" f/4.7 Collapsible Dob
Meade 8" SN f/4
Celestron C8 SCT
Celestron C6 SCT
Skywatcher ED100
Skywatcher ED80
EQ6 Pro "Matilda"
AT Voyager
Skymaster 15x70
Mallincam HyperColor Plus
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JerryWise
Postmaster
Reged: 12/26/03
Posts: 6880
Loc: Lexington, SC
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Thanks DVP. All my Celestron scopes have been great. Guess it was time for one to have a little problem.
Will do David. I'll take some pictures and put it in the Mount forum. It will be a couple days. Naturally the rain and clouds have come in.
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Jerry
LX200ACF 14", Tak FS 152 & TOA 150
AP-1200 & Mach1
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Megrez90
newbie
Reged: 11/26/07
Posts: 1
Loc: Gray Ithaca
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Jerry,
You and I seem to be the only people who have had a bad example of the C-6 OTA. I purchased mine based on the raving reviews. I found that my collimation was off, but I cannot quantify "how far." I also have a thumbprint size smudge on the corrector.
My bigger concern is the "flare" that occurs when viewing a bright object such as Jupiter. I see an elliptical abberation projected away from the object toward the center of the view. The flare lengthens as the object is moved closer to the edge of the view.
I am new at this, so I am not able to define this better. I do not have a camera, but I have attached an illustration of what I am seeing.
Would you or someone be able to tell me what I am seeing and how to correct it? Thanks for your time and assistance.
Charlie
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KerryR
sage
Reged: 12/05/07
Posts: 324
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Charlie,
That looks like it's in the eyepiece to me-- an internal refelction of jupiter on one of the curved interior elements. Jupiter is so bright that it's very common for internal reflections in the eyepiece to show up, especially when the image isn't centered in the field of view, and especially on lower end eyepieces.
Most scopes and ep's will not perform well when an object is off-center, especially as close to the edge as you show it in you're illustration.
Your biggest concern should be the centered and in-focus image. If the stars aren't twinkling when viewed naked eye, and jupiter is fairly high in the sky, and the scope has cooled a bit, and collimation is as close as possible (it should be very difficult to even tell that it's off at all), the image should be quite sharp at around 120x, maybe better (say 200x) if the scope has cooled for about an hour or so, the temperature of the air isn't dropping fairly fast, and the atmosphere is calm (kinda rare, depending on where you live/observe). 300x (50x per inch) will likely be rare, and determined more by cooling issues and the upper atmosphere than by the optics.
Learn to star-test (on-line). You don't need to take the skill very far-- it's not that hard to tell when you have a 'clinker', and that's all you really need to know. But, it's hard to get manufacturers/dealers to do anything based on your observation of the star test.
The smudge is concerning... Are you sure it's not an actual thumbprint that could be cleaned off? I wouldn't clean it off, actually, as it's unlikely it's doing anything at all to the image. If you really think the coating is flawed, send the scope back. You have the right to expect better craftsmanship.
Kerry
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Kerry
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core
super member
Reged: 02/23/08
Posts: 116
Loc: Mostly in Norman, OK
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Charlie,
I had the exact same 'flare' issue check out this thread I started
I had also thot initially that the problem was with my eyepieces, but the photos taken were directly off the back of the OTA with a dSLR, and the flare shows.
fwiw I returned the OTA for a new one, the rust spot on the inside of the baffle was enough for Astronomics to switch it out w/o needing any start test. The new OTA? no more flares, construction's good, and I'm pretty satisfied with the optics so far (haven't really had a chance to stress it out yet).
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~Peter~
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JerryWise
Postmaster
Reged: 12/26/03
Posts: 6880
Loc: Lexington, SC
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Wow. I would have thought EP too. Thanks for that info Peter. I'll check my new one out when it gets here (hope they replace it) and report back.
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Jerry
LX200ACF 14", Tak FS 152 & TOA 150
AP-1200 & Mach1
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Tanveer Gani
super member
Reged: 11/02/06
Posts: 115
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Jerry,
If you have access to a good webcam like the ToUCam pro, you could try to run the Roddier test on it (check out the Roddier Yahoo! group or the Roddier threads on the ATM/Optics/DIY forum on CN). Given that your scope apparently has spherical aberration, it would add a very interesting data point to the data on SCTs collected in that group.
Regards,
Tanveer.
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JerryWise
Postmaster
Reged: 12/26/03
Posts: 6880
Loc: Lexington, SC
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Thanks Tanveer. I'll do that when they replace the scope since this one obviously has some issue and would not be representative from what I've seen others report. I've got a TouCam Pro and a couple versions of the DSI so we are all set.
Edit: Just checked my EMail. I sent a trouble report to Celestron late last night and the EMail was full of response from Celestron. Had an RMA, shipping label and instructions. Good show Celestron.
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Jerry
LX200ACF 14", Tak FS 152 & TOA 150
AP-1200 & Mach1
Edited by JerryWise (09/17/08 11:40 AM)
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yg1968
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/26/04
Posts: 1745
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Here is another thread about the flare issue.
Other thread on flare issue
Here is an image showing it on my new C6 (Alnitak was on the left of the image on the CCD chip):
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