Celestron EQ wedge for 6/8 SE

Topic starter

Dec 10, 2022 · Edited: Dec 10, 2022

Input on anyone using a SE type mount with the Celestron eq wedge. I’ve had one now for some months. Curious as to others who also use it and what kind of luck they have had. I’m not completely happy but I have to say it’s much better than just the alt az that my 6SE came with.
Like it yes or no??

PacoCalderon

Dec 10, 2022 · Edited: Dec 11, 2022

Hi!
I have one too. I think it is expensive, it allows to make “long exposure shots” for astrophotography but the mount itself is the problem as it doesn’t track accurately enough…
with a 6 SE and a focal reducer it might be ok but with an 8SE I don’t think so, as it is more weight than the mount can in theory support.
For visual I think it is not necessary at all.

If you have a celestron evolution it could be interesting if you don’t want to buy a more expensive equatorial mount to do astrophotography.

But it conclusion, yes, I like it

Günther Eder

Dec 11, 2022 · Edited: Dec 11, 2022

I use for some small work an Evolution equipped with wegde. It works quite good with small telescopes.

Kevin Proctor

Topic starter

Dec 11, 2022

Like I said I’ve had one for some time. Since March. It’s better than the alt az the SE comes with. I haven’t been able to get anything over 30 seconds with any consistency. If I push it to 45 seconds I end up throwing half the subs away. I agree though it’s to expensive for what it does. If it could get up over a minute consistently it may be worth it. But for 30 seconds it’s just not worth 400 dollars.

PacoCalderon

Dec 11, 2022 · Edited: Dec 11, 2022

Like I said I’ve had one for some time. Since March. It’s better than the alt az the SE comes with. I haven’t been able to get anything over 30 seconds with any consistency. If I push it to 45 seconds I end up throwing half the subs away. I agree though it’s to expensive for what it does. If it could get up over a minute consistently it may be worth it. But for 30 seconds it’s just not worth 400 dollars.

Mmm… I am able to get 3 min subs.
If I may, here are some tips:
1) Get the best polar alignment, use celestron ASPA method to get that.
2) use guiding and use an usb cable instead of ST4
3) Do not exceed the total payload capacity of the mount, if you are using an 8SE OTA this might not be possible.
4) use a focal reducer.
Hope that helps.

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Bob Rucker

Dec 11, 2022

I bought the wedge for my 6SE and ended up being underwhelmed by the performance. 30 second long exposures were about the best that I could get. Eventually, I purchased an HEQ5 Pro equatorial mount and this was the best investment I made for astrophotography. I advise anyone considering a wedge for their SE mount to save the money and put it towards the purchase of an EQ mount.

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Kevin Proctor

Topic starter

Dec 11, 2022

That’s next to for me. Either that heq 5 or the Celestron avx. I love using cpwi and the all start polar alignment. I can’t see Polaris because my house is in the way.
either way, definitely will be making that upgrade in the next couple months. I was told over and over basically what you’re saying. Don’t buy that wedge, save, get a real eq mount. I kick myself for not listening and think about it each time I have to drag that monstrosity out of my shop!!

Kevin Proctor

Topic starter

Dec 11, 2022

Hi!
I have one too. I think it is expensive, it allows to make “long exposure shots” for astrophotography but the mount itself is the problem as it doesn’t track accurately enough…
with a 6 SE and a focal reducer it might be ok but with an 8SE I don’t think so, as it is more weight than the mount can in theory support.
For visual I think it is not necessary at all.

If you have a celestron evolution it could be interesting if you don’t want to buy a more expensive equatorial mount to do astrophotography.

But it conclusion, yes, I like it

Like I said I’ve had one for some time. Since March. It’s better than the alt az the SE comes with. I haven’t been able to get anything over 30 seconds with any consistency. If I push it to 45 seconds I end up throwing half the subs away. I agree though it’s to expensive for what it does. If it could get up over a minute consistently it may be worth it. But for 30 seconds it’s just not worth 400 dollars.

Mmm… I am able to get 3 min subs.
If I may, here are some tips:
1) Get the best polar alignment, use celestron ASPA method to get that.
2) use guiding and use an usb cable instead of ST4
3) Do not exceed the total payload capacity of the mount, if you are using an 8SE OTA this might not be possible.
4) use a focal reducer.
Hope that helps.

i use aspa with cpwi. I have a 60mm guide scope and asi 120mcs I was gonna use as a guide camera. I haven’t really had a chance to set them up yet. I have the 6SE and use a .63 reducer.
Maybe the guiding would be a bigger help.
but I think at this point I’ll just wait it out and get the avx mount.
it’s December in upstate NY. We just got our first snow of the year so my imaging will be few and far between now. All though I did just buy a snowblower to make sure I can get a clear spot in the driveway. I went from December till April last year without imaging because of snow.

PacoCalderon

Dec 11, 2022

Yes, autoguide will improve the exposure time.
And yes, an AVX is better, I have one of those too, just don’t expect very long exposure time with it even with guiding.
An equatorial goto mount will really be a huge improvement, the wedge not so much.

Ethan Lincoln

Dec 28, 2022

I hope I'm not too late for the party!

I have a wedge for my Evolution 8se and it worked okay this last summer. I was able to get up to 3-4 minute exposures with it tracking well about 60% of the time since I got my polar alignment down super well. I used a combination of CPWI, N.I.N.A, and Backyard EOS for alignment with a USB 2 cable attached to the hand controller. I had a DSLR and filter/adapter train which probably threw off the weight more than it should on one side when trying to guide on objects high in the sky, but it tracked okay for the most part. I haven't been able to do much more imaging lately because of life and the fact that I live in the PNW which usually has very cloudy skies for a majority of the year.

I am currently saving up money to upgrade to the Celestron AVX equatorial mount since I want to get more into this hobby if possible. I have also bought the Optolong L-Enhance 2" filter and the Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer to get better images with my DSLR since I live in a bortle 4.5 area (moderate to low light pollution but the skyglow is visible in raw images). AND I now have the Celestron illuminated RACI finder scope because to be honest, the finder scope that comes with the 8se sucks XD.

I guess in summary the wedge is good for people who are on a budget and aren't looking to image faint deep sky objects that require long exposure times and good tracking, which the wedge seems to do. For now ill use it until I can upgrade to a better mount. I would recommend it for those that are on a budget but for those that are really looking into this hobby I would recommend looking at a good equatorial mount for those super long exposure times.

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Kevin Proctor

Topic starter

Dec 28, 2022

I’m curious to your alignment routine. I use cpwi and the all star alignment. I have never come close to 3 minute subs. I mean it will track for hours but it’s not accurate enough to stay on target for more than 30 seconds max. The target will stay on screen but it drifts so bad that I haven’t even touched 1 minute without trailing. I think my best is 41 seconds. But even then I ended up throwing out half the subs. Just last week I was out shooting m78. I thought I had a decent alignment after watching the first few subs. So I went into the house and let it go for 3 hours, checking on it every 30 minutes or so. I live in upstate NY so it’s been super cold and it’s tough to sit outside during the winter while imaging. I ended the session with 375 27 second subs. I was super excited to get to process that data. Once i loaded it all into DSS I quickly realized that most of them had trails and out of 375 I only had 100 that were usable. From 2 hours and 48 minutes to around 45 minutes of usable data. It’s so frustrating at this point. Like you I’ll be getting the AVX soon. Christmas is over and I can start putting some money away each week. I’m hoping by the end of February at the latest. I also use the .63 reducer on my 6SE. I bought the Zwo Asi 183mc pro last March. I love that camera. I can’t wait to see what it does with 3 minute long subs. I honestly don’t think I’ve come anywhere close to seeing that cameras full potential shooting less than 1 minute subs since I’ve gotten it. I’ve been extremely impressed with what it does with 30 seconds on a lot of the targets I’ve imaged so far.
Thanks for the reply. I really am curious to your alignment process if you can share it.
I’d be over the moon with anything over a minute.

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Ethan Lincoln

Dec 29, 2022

Sure! It's been several months since I've gone through my routine so I'll try to remember the best I can. I'm putting them in steps so its easier to read.
1. I align the mount and scope with true north the best I can, using a good compass (phone apps work too but I like using a real compass). Using a leg that's parallel in direction to the scope. I line up the markers on the alt-az mount so that the scope is looking near the Zenith and the wedge is pointing towards Polaris. The photo below is my scope and mount without the camera and other accessories so its super bare.

This is my full setup, my DSLR can be seen by my laptop. We'll talk about that later.

2. When its dusk and I can see Polaris and a few other bright stars ill start the first alignment. I turn on the mount and go to Menu->Tracking->Mode->EQ-North (since I have a wedge, so don't chose alt-az). This will get it tracking with Polaris for the next part.

3. I'll go back to the main menu and press Enter, then go to "Two Star Align." Ill enter the exact time and it'll probably ask if its daylight savings or standard time, so enter one of those depending on the time of year (when I did it it was daylight savings). Then enter the date.

4. It will ask to align 2 stars. A big word of advice- chose 2 stars that are on the opposite side of the sky from each other! My go-to stars for alignment are Kochab and either Altair or Deneb. Whichever 2 bright stars that are on the opposite side of the sky from each other work. For this step, I use a zoom eye piece but a low magnification eye piece will work okay. Just make sure that the stars are in the center of the eye piece the best you can get them. With the EQ-North tracking it will make sure that there isn't a ton of drifting when centering the stars.

5. Once both stars are centered and aligned it will prompt with a menu to do a whole sort of things. Press Align to go to the Polar Align menu. Press Polar Align-> Align Mount-> and center and align 2 stars again. I will center and align the same stars that I used for my Two Star Align. Now this is SUPER IMPORTANT: When centering and aligning the stars use the altitude and azimuth knobs ON THE WEDGE. Do NOT touch the hand controller whatsoever, only when pressing Enter and Align. The mount will slew to the object and you will have to center it with an eyepiece. The next part is the most fun part in my opinion.

6. Once you have completed the Polar Align, move the mount and scope back to the original position with the HAND CONTROLLER, so that each of the marks on the Altitude and Azimuth servo things line up perfectly. The mount and scope should look like my scope in the first image. Turn off the mount.

7. Here I will take out the eye piece and replace it with my DSLR train. I connect a USB 2 cable to the DSLR and to my laptop. I will also open up Backyard EOS for the DSLR. I wont use CPWI yet because were still trying to get a super precise polar alignment.

8. Repeat steps 3-6 with Backyard EOS, attempting to align stars in the crosshairs given in the program.

9. Once I'm finished with alignment on the hand controller I will open CPWI and connect to the mount via Hand Controller. I connect the hand controller to my laptop with another USB 2 cable. It takes several tries to get the hand controller to say "Boot Loader" which is the mode it uses to connect to my computer. I will select "Wedge Align" in CPWI when it asks if I want to start alignment. I re-enter my time and location. When it asks to start alignment I turn on my DSLR and go to Backyard EOS. I chose about 5 stars to center and align on CPWI. For example I'll use Kochab. I click on Kochab and the mount will slew to it. It wont be exactly centered but good enough to see with the camera in Backyard EOS. I go to Backyard EOS with the mount controls popped out in a separate window. I will attempt to align Kochab in the provided cross hairs. After aligning 5-6 stars I will stay on the last one I aligned and focus the scope with a Bahtanov Mask in Backyard EOS. And now the scope should be polar aligned! Its a super lengthy and tedious process but it works and I've been able to get long exposures with little to no streaking. I've tried going past 5 minutes and it just doesn't seem to work.

Obviously my setup has changed a lot since I first started figuring this out. For example, I've lowered the mount SIGNIFICANTLY and added a 20lb weight that hangs from the little table under the mount. This is has greatly reduced the amount of wobble and has made my mount super stable. I also have a dew ring and a dew shield. I am constantly upgrading my setup and I cant wait to get out soon to try out my equipment. I hope this helps!

Celestron also provides some blogs on polar alignment with a wedge; I'm not sure if you've read them but they helped me a ton.

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Like the Celestron eq wedge or no?