Battery of Telescopes

Battery of Telescopes

In this experiment, a battery of telescopes will attach to the Celestron Nexstar 6SE and mount.

The primary concern is not to overrun the mount's payload capacity which is quoted as 12 pounds.

https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/what-are-the-payload-capacities

The larger telescopes attached to the 6-inch f/10 Celestron OTA will be the Acuter 60mm Maksutov-Cassegrain OTA weighing in at one pound at 8-inches long, and the Orion Optics 80mm f/5 CT-80 refractor achromat doublet OTA at 2.25 lbs and 14.75-inches long. Attaching the telescopes to the Nexstar 6SE will use the Celestron camera mount and another mount

incorporating a Dovetail shoe.

The weight total is 3.25lbs and this leaves some extra load capacity for a finderscope and the add on weight of the extra mountings and accessories like eyepieces and a 90-degree star diagonal. Extra telescopes can take advantage of this extra sturdy mounting and utilize the tracking drive and possibly the goto features and database.

Singularity Observatory Weather Trends

Handheld Apple iPhone XS Max smartphone 6mm f/2.4 ISO16 1/905 second exposure 4032x3024. Zoomed and enlarged. No telescope. Taken through heavy air pollution at index 70%. Towers at the mountain top are almost invisible.

Singularity Observatory Weather Trends

Even with the sky clear and when the Sun is blocked on the other side of the skyscraper, the light pollution is not a contender and projects can divert to the mountains and conservation observations.

— the degree of blue and gray in the sky during the daytime determines the amount of air pollution and upper atmospheric haze —

Left: this Celestron Nexstar (new revised edition) has proved to be splendid optically and a fantastic performer, even through window glass.

The successful telescopic mountain conservation project at Singularity Observatory (HSO) has proven to be spectacular, showing the wide varieties of plant and animal life in the vicinity. The new Celestron Nexstar 6 SE telescope is a spectacular performer with extreme resolution, able to shoot excellent images from indoors through window glass for the ultimate observatory convenience.

Compare the camera view at the top of the page to the view taken through the telescope seen at left with a handheld iPhone shooting at f/10 with the supplied 25mm fl Celestron Plossl eyepiece and eyepiece projection. The image is so spectacular, shot from indoors through window glass, it even shows changes in FOV distances throughout the variable vegetation distances.

The wiring detail on the power pole is remarkable. The photo is taken with the iPhone 10 XS Max smartphone, handheld, 4.25mm ISO25, f/1.8 3024x4032 and a 1/279 second exposure focused on the projected telescope image at 25mm f/10 eyepiece projection. For additional resolution and 2x potentially up to 5x image scale, a negative lens barlow will become the primary optics train giving f20 through f50. This will likely pull in individual vegetation leaves and possible small animals, amphibians, reptiles and birds, provided the good weather trends hold up.

New Solar Observatory with the Celestron Nexstar 6-inch SE

Current view of sunspots but without any solar flares - log on Saturday, April 9th, 2022. Enhanced to exhibit sunspot groupings and solar disk granulation.

New Solar Observatory with the Celestron Nexstar 6-inch SE

New Solar Observatory Forthcoming
The Celestron new solar filter #94243 EclipSmart $54.95 + $15.02 shipping for 15-day delivery time, is on the order list for the Celestron Nexstar f/10 6-inch SE. Made of a proprietary Mylar film, the filter is ISO 12312-2 compliant for safe solar viewing, blocking 99.999% of intense light across the entire visible spectrum and 100% of harmful ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) radiation; resulting in high-contrast views of the sun in a neutral color. At just 2.6 ounces, the filter will provide the safety required to observe the sun and all phases of solar eclipses without adding significant weight to the front of the OTA. This replaces the smaller solar observatory with the 4.5-inch RFT f/4 telescope at 1.02 arc second resolution. The larger f/10 6-inch aperture of the Celestron Nexstar will pull in sunspots with a resolution up to 0.93 arcsec (Rayleigh); 0.77 arcsec (Dawes). The resolution is compliant with obtaining high res images showing limb darkening, sunspot groupings, and the extent of solar granulation.

Celestron Nexstar 6SE Log Thursday April 7 2022

Reflections off and through the Celestron Nexstar 6SE corrector plate

Celestron Nexstar 6SE Log Thursday April 7 2022

Flying Saucers

This we have not seen. All sky activities appear normal from the new location. Through haze, one brighter star and a very bright satellite were viewed to nights ago. The mountain contains some homes and temples and one place of worship had an open smoke fire during the day to burn money to send it to Heaven for the benefit of deceased loved ones.

Weather Trend
The weather trend is good. After several relatively clear nights, last night pocket clouds moved in until the sky was obliterated. No rain is in the forecast. As seasonal temperatures rise, more sky conditions will change to clearing. Currently in the daytime there is a mix of smoke, fog, haze, mist, air pollution, and smog. This can rapidly clear out due to changing oceanic tradewinds.

The following morning the sky had all clouds and it took 2 to 3 hours for a small space in between clouds to occur. It happened exactly at the position of Venus around 4 am and lasted for 20 minutes. During this time period, good observations of Venus were possible.

Solar Observatory

Singularity Observatory is working towards setting up the new Celestron Nexstar 6SE with a Celestron Solar Filter. The order needs to go in to the optics company. The larger aperture and focal length supersedes the 4.5-inch RFT used previously to show more solar detail. Solar cartography of sunspots will be expanded and researched. Solar observing opens up more observing time on the telescope during the day when the sky clears. The solar observatory will use the same sky area to the East in the morning.

Telescope Diagonal
Work continues upgrading the Celestron Nexstar 6SE telescope. Research shows that although the reflectivity of the diagonal may not be at 99%, its size is perfect for the telescope and it permits better viewing closer to the zenith. So called replacement star diagonals are very large and would obstruct observing even remotely close to the zenith. Therefore a large replacement diagonal will not be forthcoming.

Diagonal Solution

The solution perhaps is to use a flip mirror and divert the optical stream back and forth from the eyepiece to the camera, therefore no diagonal is used and the full amount of light reaches the camera (but not the eyepiece). It needs a determination to see if the flip mirror size fits the back of the telescope for minimal obstruction and to see if focus is dynamically kept in range.

Accessories Reviewed

The vote is in to keep accessories in the review section. Numerous more accessories are on the review list.

Astroimaging Web Presence

Ever since the purchase of the Celestron Nexstar 6SE telescope, the astroimaging Web Presence Popularity has shot up wildly like a rocket. https://otisastro.blogspot.com/