Nexstar 6se tracking - Forums

Topic starter

Dec 17, 2023

Hello,
when I first got my nexstar 6se i started out with planets and stuff which was fun, but my goal was to do deep sky astrophotography. Now I've got a camera(im upgrading to a newer one) but I have 1 problem. Everytime I find an object I want to take a photo off, is moving and I can't get longer exposure times than 2 5 seconds without trails. Even with 5 seconds everytime it refreshes it slides for a few pixels. I'm not sure why, my telescope is leveled and I try to make my alignment as accurate as possible. I've seen people upgrade to a wedge but appearantly it's not that good. I configured all my settings so it's not that. I'm not sure how I can improve the tracking without spending 700 bucks on an EQ mount. I can't even stack the images in DSS for example because the object and the stars are a few pixels off every frame. It's not the rotation at the corners but the overrall tracking. Anyone has any ideas?

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andrea tasselli

Frequent contributor

Dec 17, 2023 · Edited: Dec 17, 2023

Spend those 500 bucks on an EQ mount. That thing is hopeless without a major rework.

Kevin Proctor

Dec 17, 2023

It’s not going to work. I used it for a year and couldn’t ever come close to what I needed for exposure time. I bought the wedge and it was another miserable year. Couldn’t do anymore than 30 second exposures and that was never consistent. I wasted hundreds if not thousands of dollars and that many hours as well.
Save up get a real eq mount. I found one on cloudy nights for a fraction of the new price. It’s changed my Astro life. I had dozens and dozens of folks tell me this same thing and I didn’t listen. Trust me, don’t waste your time and money. Be patient, keep an eye out for used stuff and skip all the bullshit. The 6SE isn’t a deepsky setup. At best it does decent planetary stuff. Even with the wedge it’s a pain in the ass at best. I can’t emphasize it enough. Get a real eq mount if you want to shoot deep sky. Take it from me. I tried for years to prove everyone wrong. In the end I wish I would have listened to all the people who said get a eq mount.

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Dave Ek

Dec 17, 2023

Don’t waste more time and money trying to shoot long exposures with the NexStar 6SE mount—it has way too much backlash in the gearing. I’ve only had partial success even shooting through the 6SE OTA on an EQ mount. Off-axis guiding is challenging because of the smaller opening in the back of the scope (only 1.25’), even with a smaller camera sensor like in the ASI533MM Pro, and its native focal length makes it tough to get good guiding with a separate guide scope. Celestron didn’t build the 6SE with astrophotography in mind, but it’s a fun scope for observing.

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Norman Tajudin

Dec 17, 2023

I would agree with the above comments. I have a 5SE that I will bust out for planetary visual or photography. Great little scope. However, the mount, which is the same as the 6SE, is a different story. I sold the mount long ago when I started to try and use it for photography. It’ll never be good enough for any serious astrophotography so save the frustration and get an EQ mount. Something that small can fit on an a used iOptron CEM25. I used to own a ZEQ version and had great luck with that mount. Super cheap. After tuning it my self with the help of a few videos on YouTube, I was able to easily take 5 minute subs with tracking with perfectly round stars. There are other mount options in the $500 range used but I’ve had the best luck with iOptron in that price range so I’m just speaking from that experience. Good luck and clear skies!

Norm

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mpoh

Topic starter

Dec 17, 2023

Okay thanks for letting me know! I'll save some money and get my hands on one. Anyone got recommendations that fit the nexstar 6se?

Norman Tajudin

Dec 17, 2023

The 6SE is relatively small for an SCT so you should have plenty of options. Just make sure the total weight of your rig (camera, guide scope, camera, etc.) doesn’t push the limits of the mount. In the old days, the rule of thumb was trying to stay at around 50% of the mount’s rated capacity for astrophotography. Also, make sure you have the scope collimated. They hold it well, but you should check if you haven’t. Also, think about “Bob’s Knobs” for the colliamation screws on your secondary. It’s a cheap upgrade that makes the process 100 times easier without requiring you to put the tip of your screw driver near your collector plate in the dark! Good luck and clear skies! Norm

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Kevin Proctor

Dec 17, 2023

I bought a Celestron avx used on cloudy nights. I used my 6SE with it for a while before I got my Redcat. It seemed to handle it just fine. You’re going to need a guiding system. I put a 60mm guide scope on it and got decent results. Check cloudy nights for used gear. What’s great about this hobby is most folks take incredible care of their gear so even the used stuff works well and is in great condition. I’ve bought my AVX used, my Redcat used. My guidescope used.

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roelb

Dec 18, 2023

Before investing in a EQ mount, try first EAA: https://www.cloudynights.com/forum/73-electronically-assisted-astronomy-no-post-processing/
Using SharpCap: https://www.sharpcap.co.uk/

Gianlorenzo

Dec 18, 2023

Agree with all the comments above. The 6SE has been my 3rd setup after a Lumix FZ-200 on the iOptron Skytracker and the Celestron 130EQ on its CG-3 equatorial mount. The latter is indeed equatorial but the quality of the gears is so bad that exposures longer than ~15" have evident trailing stars. Nevertheless it is unbeatable for its price to get addicted to astrophotography, and with (a lot of) patience it can deliver interesting results.
The Nexstar mount of the 6SE is more than capable for planetary and setting it up is really quick and easy (I normally use 2-stars or planets). Even with a Barlow 3X and an ROI of 800x600 on the SV305 CMOS sensor there is little or no need to do manual re-centering during recording at 10-100ms exposure.
For deep space it is another story. Tracking quality in the tens of seconds scale depends a lot on the position of the object in the sky. Specifically when the object is close to the meridian transit tracking can be pretty good (basically only the Az motor is moving, it works equatorial-like) but as soon as both motors are involved the error becomes large and quasi-periodic (I am sure this is not mechanical PE, just tracking accuracy of the software+encoders). So I ended up taking 5" shots, mostly. As mentioned I am using the SV305 for sensor, which results in a pretty narrow FOV, good for some small planetary nebulas, but very sensitive to drift.
To be more quantitative, below an example of the image shift during a session to capture NGC1535, as reported by Siril registration, units is pixel corresponding to ~0.4 arcsec with this setup. X is ~ALT, Y is ~AZ for the way the camera is mounted. The spikes in the middle are due to an adjustment I had to manually do to avoid the object to go out of the FOV. The last oscillation on ALT is flatter since by then the object was approaching the meridian transit.
Here where I live the marine layer spoils frequently and unexpectedly an otherwise good observation night, so having something that can be quickly setup (and down...) is definitely useful, this is what I mostly like of the 6SE so far. But yes, a good GEM is definitely on the horizon as next step....

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Norman Tajudin

Dec 18, 2023

I bought a Celestron avx used on cloudy nights. I used my 6SE with it for a while before I got my Redcat. It seemed to handle it just fine. You’re going to need a guiding system. I put a 60mm guide scope on it and got decent results. Check cloudy nights for used gear. What’s great about this hobby is most folks take incredible care of their gear so even the used stuff works well and is in great condition. I’ve bought my AVX used, my Redcat used. My guidescope used.

I second the used approach. Almost all of my gear is used and it has been great. Cloudy Nights and Astromart are my two sources of great used gear. Also, they are great to sell your used gear as you upgrade and learn. I bought a lot of stuff on my journey and was able to monetize it when I either upgraded or realized that I didn’t need it based on the path I was taking. Most importantly, have fun along the way!

CS,

Norm

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