upgrade 6" newtonian event horrizon reflector

could any one advise me about changing the small diagonal mirror in my telescope as ive heard bad things about the set up on these types of scopes but can be changed.I am not having much joy with anything more than a faint image of saturn.Listening to others a 6" scopes should produce more??

[Darryl]

Originally Posted by Thomas Clarke

could any one advise me about changing the small diagonal mirror in my telescope as ive heard bad things about the set up on these types of scopes but can be changed.I am not having much joy with anything more than a faint image of saturn.Listening to others a 6" scopes should produce more??

Hi Thomas,

My first real telescope was a 6" Newtonian. If your observing site doesn't have too much light pollution, your 6" scope should allow you to see plenty. What make is your telescope? Can you supply a few more details about it? What makes you think you need to change the diagonal? It may just be that your telescope needs collimating.

hi Darryl yes its a newtonian 6" event horizon it has two lenses pl25mm and pl6.5mm a 1.5 erecting and a 2* barlow(cant find a times button strange)and a moon filter i can see saturn and its rings but id really love to see detail on jupiter.I visited a site that said that they need collaminating somtimes and also that if u could not see all of the main mirror in the diagonal it did not work as well.i also read that the eye pieces were not up to much.Any help u can give me id be chuffed ta.

[Darryl]

Originally Posted by Thomas Clarke

hi Darryl yes its a newtonian 6" event horizon it has two lenses pl25mm and pl6.5mm a 1.5 erecting and a 2* barlow(cant find a times button strange)and a moon filter i can see saturn and its rings but id really love to see detail on jupiter.I visited a site that said that they need collaminating sometimes and also that if u could not see all of the main mirror in the diagonal it did not work as well.i also read that the eye pieces were not up to much.Any help u can give me id be chuffed ta.

If you have a local astronomy club near you and you want a good source of information and help that would be one recommendation. The other would be to confirm that your telescope is actually collimated properly. There are lots of links on the net about collimating a telescope, some better than others.

[dpab]

I had the 5 inch Newt by Celestron and after I bought a laser collimation tool (50-60 bucks) and set up the optics it had a nice view of Saturn.
The 6 inch should be good too.

[dmill1220]

Hi Thomas!
Before you replace anything, here is a link for you that may find useful, from what you have explained it does sound as though your secondary and primary are off! http://www.atmsite.org/contrib/Carlin/collimation/
I hope this helps, if not get back to me, I just taught a class on just this subject about a month ago.
Dennis

[ozzmoziz]

hi thomas

i have a 8 inch and 4 inch mak , and seeing detail on jupiter is hard even at 8 inches, let me tell you why it all depands on how high jupiter is in the sky below 30 dec your not gona see much detail on it, the tempature you have to get the perfect conditions meaning no humidety , no winds and termpature must be right, ALL THOSE AFFECT YOUR SEEING , also on a 6 inch your max maginfication is about 300x so using your 6.5 mm would give you about 115x so using your 1.5 zoom or eyepiece would give you 173x at this point you would need a perfect sky conditions for seeing any detail or close to it , on my 8in at 200x am pushing it , using my 12.5mm and my televue barlow i get a wooping 240x and i tell you the conditions must be right for jupiter , if am lucky ill be able to tell if the red spot is there but will be able to see the shadows of the moons in transit. at 6.5mm .. 750/6.5= 115x you should see very well with out puhing it, if you had a 5mm would be even better like cel celeston 5mm with 20mm eye relief would give you 5/750=150x .
an other facter too is ambient temepature have the time to cool down your telescope to the ambient tempature, i have seen jupiter in my scope when just been outside for a few mins and can t see very well and then 1 hr later seeing as improved 80%.
and last factor collimation very importent if your gona do it your self id buy a lasercollimater for rough collimation , and then use a Cheshire for accurate centering , don t ferget the lower the f ratio the lower the tolerance for centering on a f5 is f/5 0.45 mm 1.1 mm and thats a small error, the link that above is probebly the best one on the internet by nils olof carlin
you can do some reading here too i find this webpage very helpfull.,,

http://legault.club.fr/collim.html
well good luck...

[dmill1220]

HI Ozz!
I saw a Orion Laser mate Collimator brought out to the Observatory about a year ago, I also Own one myself.
Since I have a F/4.9 12 inch reflector, its Very touchy indeed!
BUt I had started out with the Chessire eyepiece with which you need light to be able to align Everything up, like youre supposed to do.
So I only resort to the Laser when I get out to the Site after dark.
One of the guys was having trouble with his Orion Laser Collimator, he was complaining that no matter what he did he still could not confirm a good star test.

We tried his Laser On my 12 inch Dob which I had collimated with the Chesire, his Laser was way off! we even compared it to mine on my scope.
His when you rotated it in my Holder it made a perfect circle around the Center Spot of my Primary!
I had to lend him Mine before He finally got his right.
he had mentioned that he had only dropped it once but I guess thats all it took to throw it way off. Now I try to get to the site before dark just to use my chesire Eyepiece, just in case, But my Laser is really close I havent dropped mine yet!
They do work good but they do seem to need checking from time to time!
PS: It wasn't that his Focuser was out of square either!
Dennis

[dpab]

Well since I was here last , Ive gone and acquired another Newt...its a 6 inch Sky Watcher on a motorized German equatorial mount , I got it for a steal from a customer that comes to the store I work at and he knows Im into scopes. 200 bucks, and I also scooped on a store floor/demo model Celestron Refractor scope with tripod, not motorized, hand knobs with eyepieces ,its a 3 -1/2 inch refractor.
Now Ive got a

Celestron 8i on a GOTO mount/GPS
6 inch Newtonian
3-1/2 inch Celestron refractor
Im told no more until the Hardwood floors are in......lol.

Ive always had a 2" refractor and Binocs, but for a period of 16 to 18 yrs , after my little boys "fixed" the 2", I was without just leaving me binocs.
Now that they are in their 20's ,Im trouble free with telescope tampering.

[ozzmoziz]

thats kewl dpad i myself have 2 scopes and probly will be getting one more soon before summer anyway, i want to get a refractor maybe not a ed couse thats alot of money but something decent 3 inches maybe 4 if i get a good price
was looking at parks telescopes
http://www.parksoptical.com/
very intresting stuff seems like very high end gear...

will see