10 replies to this topic

[Don25]

Hi everyone. I just wanted to introduce myself, and say this is a very informative site. I finally decided to get back into Astronomy after being involved with it back in my early teens. I'm now a 39 year old guy, with a wife and newborn beautiful daughter. My wife seems very supportive, and has attended a star party with me, and plans to attend another this Friday (Oct. 24th). Anyway after much research, I finally bought a Celestron C6-RGT 6 inch refractor, with goto. I decided that for primarily viewing Planets, and some deep space....that this was the scope for me. So far I am not disappointed, and am having a ball. Please let me know if you have experience with or own a Celestron c6-rgt, and any tips or critcism etc. you have for this scope, and/or praise for it. I welcome all responses; once again hello to all.

[Don25]

Thanks SF Kent and Schultze for your responses. Schultze I too looked at the 6 inch Meade when I was looking at the Celestron also,....I have been told that optically the two scopes are pretty darn close, but that the newer 2 inch Celestron mount is quite a bit steadier than the Meade. I don't know if this is true, but that is what I hear. So far I'm very happy with very clear optics and a goto that seems to stay right on track (after you re-align the polar alignment) The views of Mars have been very good, and Saturn has blown me out of the water with it's crisp eye-popping 3d look. Before I ordered the Eyepiece accessory kit and only had 120x (with Barlow and 20mm Plossl) I was still easily able to see Uranus as a blue ball ,very tiny but very distinct as a planet. The Cassini division, and shading of Saturn are easily distinguished, and I have yet to see Jupiter as it is too low in the sky so far for the times I've been observing.....I can't wait to see what Jupiter is going to look like. I read a review somewhere from an experienced astronomer who said that he was impressed with this scope and was actually pushing the magnification to about 425 to 450 with a still pretty good view. I seem to have gotten the same results with the limited time I've had the scope.The only complaints with the scope is that it is Objective end heavy and you need to keep it quite a bit rearward in it's mount for proper balance. Sometimes this has almost resulted in the eyepiece end nearly crashing into one of the tripod legs when viewing near Zenith (luckily I stopped it from slewing before it crashed into a leg) Anyway thanks for your responses, and happy viewing. Feel free to respond.

[Stacy]

Hi Don and welcome!

It's raining here and has been cloudy for over three weeks so I'm very bored. So I bought a new AR5-OTA today. A guy bought one and just wanted the mount for his APO. So now I can be bored with three scopes! I’ve been looking at that 6” for awhile. :o I have the Celestron mount that you have but mine is non GoTo. Should hold that 5” pretty well? Where are you from? Where is the star party?

I'm beginning to think that that is what I should've bought instead of an LDX55 AR-6.

Schultze, Why do you say that? The optics or the mount?

The 5” looks OK. I’ll pick it up this week sometime.

Regards,
Stacy

[Mike Sandy]

Hi Don, and welcome! Sounds like that Celestron is a gamer! Uranus as a blue ball is very cool!

As far as advice goes.......don't slip a Bino into that OTA unless you have some extra funds around the house. Talk about 3D views.........

[Stacy]

I'm beginning to think that that is what I should've bought instead of an LDX55 AR-6.

I just read about your trials with the mount. I hope they get it right for you. I have heard they work pretty well despite your experience. Good luck.

Stacy

[Don W]

Welcome to the forum. I have the same setup. I like the 6" refractor a lot. It shows color on bright objects but it's a good deepsky scope. I bought the mount and OTA seperately. The guy I bought the scope from, took the cover and attached some Baader Solar Film to the inside covering the center hole. All you have to do for solar observing is remove the center cover and you have a 114mm aperture system.

[Don25]

Thanks for all of your responses. Pretty soon my wife, myself and our 4 month old are going out to the local observatory for tonight's star party. I just saw on the news a blurb about the possibility of this area (latitude 39 North) being able to see the Aurura Borealis tonite because of a big storm on the Sun. This is pretty rare for this far south, so I hope and pray we will see it tonight. I have never personally witnessed an Aurora, and I'm looking forward to it. Again thanks for welcoming a newbie, hope to hear from you.......bye.