34 replies to this topic

[frich1230]

Watch Ed Ting’s C5e review on you Tube. I can’t believe
The 6” is manufactured differently from the 5”
I added a Televue 2” visual back fir more clamping security and 2” eyepieces

[GPKodiak]

My first upgrade to my 6se was to replace the Celestron stock diagonal with the 1.25” Takahashi prism diagonal.  I believe the images are sharper and brighter.

[Sky_LO]

Ok, so I tried a 2 inch diagonal on my SE6....So I am talking from experience.

I have the SE6 stock mount.  

 

The longer diagonal did interfere with being able to reach zenith. 

I lost a few degrees toward zenith, but it was "usable" with a slew limit.

The bigger problem however was the larger diagonal combined with the larger eyepieces caused enough out of balance situation that my slews "went south" and were no longer accurate.  Never mind any discussion of vignetting or not, the lack of full degree of motion and bad slews led me to sell the 2 inch diagonal and stick with 1.25 inch eyepieces for the SE6

 

I upgraded by getting

1) plug in wi-fi dongle and running the SE6 via android tablet control in sky safari - love that. 

2) Talent cell battery pack - the AA's are unreliable and the battery pack eliminates the cord that comes with a celestron power pack or the A/C adapter.   

3) Physical dew shield - mandatory here in Oregon

4) swapped out the red dot finder for a GLP (best upgrade ever) no more neck pain

and the laser is only used for a quick alignment and you are "going to" after that.

 

-Lauren 

[JOEinCO]

Hi Lauren,

 

 

 

That is quite odd as my 2" diagonal clears the base and will go full-vertical (I am using a Tele Vue 2" visual back and a Tele Vue 2" diagonal). And I have helped three friends set up their 6SE's with various 2" diagonals and they also clear the base, no problem. Is it possible you simply did not have the OTA far enough forward in the saddle clamp??

 

Also, no problems with GoTo accuracy with the weight of the 2" accessories added - even when using heavy eyepieces like a 35 Panoptic or Astro-Tech 28mm UWA. With a 6x30 RACI in the accessory shoe, too, as I still starhop sometimes.  

[Sky_LO]

Joe,

 

I think I had a cheaper diagonal that wasn't well designed (a tad longish).

And part of the issue is the wi-fi dongle got in the way.   

I chose the wi-fi and tablet control over the 2 inch eP setup.

 

I probably could have fixed the slewing by rebalancing. 

The se 6 isn't my main scope so I wasn't really interesting in debugging it for the 2 inch setup

 

My brother uses 2 inch eyepiece setups on all of his macs and sct 's so yes it can be done! 

 

-Lauren   

[Sky_LO]

Oh I was trying to use the focal reducer too. 

So my issues with the 2 inch setup were actually with my attempting to use too many accessories at the same time.   Not with a 2 inch setup itself.

 

-Lauren 

[ngc6352]

The 2" XLT SCT diagonal will "fit" and function on the 6"SCT OTA.  It just won't buy you much in FOV.  The rear opening on my 6" 

is 30mm.  This is an effective field stop, which means the maximum FOV will be approximately 1.15 degrees at 1500mm focal length.

The 24mm Panoptic (1.25") with the f/6.3 focal reducer gives about 1.6 degrees (27mm field stop).  A 32mm Pl will give the same FOV.

If I remember correctly, the reducer with a 2" diagonal a) won't clear the base and b) wouldn't come to focus with a 2" 27mm Pan.

[JOEinCO]

While it's true the effective maximum FOV is clipped because of the rear opening, it is not a hard stop in the eyepiece and the True FOV is still 1.5° with a 35 Pan or an AT28 UWA.  I've never found the light drop-off offensive.

 

The main reason I use a 2" diagonal in my C6 is that my eyepiece kit is 2"ers above 28mm. A quality 1.25" diagonal with a reducer and a 68/24 eyepiece is certainly a fantastic way to go.  

Edited by JOEinCO, 26 January 2023 - 12:45 PM.

[Echolight]

While it's true the effective maximum FOV is clipped because of the rear opening, it is not a hard stop in the eyepiece and the True FOV is still 1.5° with a 35 Pan or an AT28 UWA.  I've never found the light drop-off offensive.

 

The main reason I use a 2" diagonal in my C6 is that my eyepiece kit is 2"ers above 28mm. A quality 1.25" diagonal with a reducer and a 68/24 eyepiece is certainly a fantastic way to go.  

Yeah, if I took the “not fully illuminated” numbers literally, I’d think my C8 with a reducer and 28 PWA would be about as bright as an ST80.

 

But this is FAR from the truth. That scope is still very very bright.

[NeroStar]

As a 6SE owner myself, I believe the most viable upgrades that are worth the investment of money and time for that scope would be a quality prism or dielectric mirror diagonal (from what I've read, mirror diagonals are better for scopes with longer focal lengths, but I haven't verified that from personal experience), and an equatorial wedge and/or better mount.  That's not to say that the diagonal, mount and tripod it comes with is all that bad, but you know, they outfit the scope with some basic gear to keep the price down.  The scope's a lot more stable when I put the 6SE's OTA on my AVX mount. -Particularly when it's saddled with telescope control, AP, dew heater and the litany of other gear that often gets heaped on it.  You're giving up some portability with a heavier mount/tripod, but the solid foundation helps the seeing immensely.