Saturday February 22nd 2025:

My plans for this year (2025) are to use my 6-inch f/6 Newtonian almost exclusively as my primary deep-sky telescope. The 6-inch is relatively light and much easier to set up and bring back inside after a night of observing, as compared to my much heavier 10-inch solid-tube Newtonian.

Note the number of counterweights, as the 6-inch with an 80 mm f/5 refractor and required another weight to properly balance.

Vixen has an odd diameter declination shaft, which will allow only a Vixen weight. I just ordered and received the extra weight only yesterday (Friday February 21st 2025.)

Note the carbon fiber tape around the back or bottom of the optical tube: This is to prevent “bumping” into the back of another mount used with this telescope, which is a CGE-Pro, when setting in place, and removing. The optical tube has to be set in from the upper or top side, and removed by pulling up also, which puts the tube in an awkward position, as it’s above waist height.

The piggyback 80 mm refractor with an amici diagonal (correct image) serves as both a second telescope and my finder. Note: I also have a Rigel Quick Finder for quick pointing, and as another source to locate brighter deep-sky objects.

Using a Celestron CGE-Pro GoTo mount is always possible for finding “immediately” those very faint deep-sky objects without spending an excessive amount of time. This mount will be used to locate and see those objects on the threshold of the 6-inch. When I know a “very faint” object is in the center of the telescope field of view, “it’s much easier” to see.

This entry was posted on February 22, 2025 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Roger's Articles. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.