Download CElEstron C6 - Astronomy Magazine

equipment review
This new 6-inch telescope offers high-quality Schmidt-Cassegrain
optics in a portable package. ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ BY phil harrington
Celestron’s new
Schmidt-Cassegrain
Celestron has introduced a new model
to its Schmidt-Cassegrain line of telescopes — the C6, and
it’s Celestron’s most portable one yet. This scope offers a 6inch aperture and operates at f/10. Family resemblance is
unmistakable. The C6 has a sleek black aluminum tube with
the company’s name and logo emblazoned
in orange across its side.
Consumers may choose from four variants. For those who already own a telescope
mount, the C6 is available as an opticaltube-assembly only. The least expensive
complete C6 package, designated the C6-S,
combines the telescope with Celestron’s
Advanced Series CG-5
German equato-
rial mount. The same C6 also is sold with
the computerized version of the CG-5 as
the C6-SGT. Finally, Celestron added the
C6 to its lineup of single-support-arm NexStar Special Edition instruments. The NexStar 6SE, however, features an orange tube
rather than black.
All varieties of the C6 come with a
25mm E-Lux Plössl eyepiece (60x)
and a 11⁄4" prism star diagonal. A
THE C6
is Celestron’s
newest Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescope. Its tube measures 16 inches long and
weighs 9 pounds. Both the orange dovetail mounting bar and 6x30
finder scope are included. ALL PHOTOS: ASTRONOMY: WILLIAM ZUBACK; star chart: astronomy: richard talcott and roen kelly
76 astronomy
⁄⁄⁄
© 2009 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any form
www.Astronomy.com
march
07 from the publisher.
without permission
⁄⁄⁄
s p e c i f i ca t i o n s
Celestron C6
Type: Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope
Aperture: 6 inches (150mm)
Focal ratio: f/10
Focal length: 1,500mm
Length: 16 inches (406mm)
Weight: 9 pounds (4.1 kg)
Included: StarBright XLT coatings, 6x30 finder scope, 11⁄4" prism star diagonal, CG-5 dovetail mounting bar
Price: $588
Contact information:
Celestron, LLC
2835 Columbia Street
Torrance, CA 90503
[t] 310.328.9560
[w] www.Celestron.com
6x30 finder scope is also included with
each, except for the NexStar 6SE, which
has a one-power red-dot finder instead.
Celestron coats all C6 primary and
secondary mirrors with enhanced coatings for better reflectivity and less scattered light. Peak reflectance is 95
percent at a wavelength of 510 nanometers, with an average reflectance of 93
percent across the visible spectrum.
The corrector plate is ground from
water-white float glass and then layered
with the company’s proprietary StarBright
XLT anti-reflection optical coatings for
improved light throughput. These coatings
Phil Harrington loves telescopes of all types.
The 4th edition of his telescope-review book, Star
Ware, is now on sale.
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CELESTRON coats all optical surfaces with its StarBright XLT hightransmission, anti-reflection coatings for improved light throughput.
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The C6’s tailpiece
11/4" accessories. A rubber-coated focus
C A accepts
JO
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MA
M47
Sir
knob adjusts the telescope’s
M4 primary mirror.
PYXIS
reflect less than 0.5 percent of the light
Focus by turning a small rubber-coated
saw
ara the Great Red Spot and even the
Adh
A
N
striking them. Just as I found in a previous T Lknob that protrudes from the scope’sI Sback.
shadow of one of Jupiter’s moons transiting
IA
PUPP
test of Celestron’s C8-SGT with the same
Focus
moves the primary mirror
fore and
across the planet’s face.
coatings (Astronomy, August 2004), image
aft along a track inside the tube. All teleAfter enjoying
A Jupiter for a while, I
MB
477
LU
brightness was excellent in the C6.
scopes that focus images in this manner
moved on
to several beautiful globular clusO
NGC 2
C
Apart from being smaller (an advantage
suffer some degree of image shift caused by ters: M13 in Hercules, M22 in Sagittarius,
V E L A tilting slightly when focused.
if portability is high on your wish list), the
the mirror
and M2 in Aquarius. All three showed good
C6 looks like the C8. A gold-anodized
This makes the image “jump.” Through the
detail through the 25mm eyepiece.
dovetail bar bridges the 16-inch-long tube.
C6, however, image shift was negligible,
Next, I resolved some challenging douThe bar attaches the scope to the mount.
perhaps 10" (arcseconds) at most.
ble stars, including the Epsilon (ε) Lyrae
quartet, Delta (δ) Cygni, and Alpha (α)
Under the stars
Piscium, at magnifications up to 300x with
I selected Jupiter as my first target. Images
a 5mm eyepiece in place. Jupiter also held
through the C6 proved impressive. Jupiter’s
its own at that magnification, although,
atmosphere showed great detail. I clearly
because of sky conditions, the view was
better through a 10mm eyepiece (150x).
Star-testing showed the optics to be smooth
and well-figured; they produced nearly perfect images on either side of focus.
Celestron didn’t leave imagers behind,
either. The C6 accepts the same wide array
of accessories used by other SchmidtCassegrain telescopes, which makes the C6
perfect for astrophotography.
Overall, Celestron’s C6 struck me as the
perfect telescope for anyone who needs a
highly portable instrument yet still wants a
large enough aperture to see the sky well.
For a great little telescope at a great little
CELESTRON includes a 11/4" star diagonal and a 25mm
price, look no further.
Celestron E-Lux Plössl eyepiece (60x) with the C6.
www.astronomy.com
77
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