About Me

I am a lifelong amateur astronomer and “telescope nut.” I’m primarily a visual observer, and enjoy observing deep sky objects — especially globular clusters, planetary nebulae and galaxy clusters. I believe astronomy education and public outreach is vital to amateur and professional astronomy, and engage in sidewalk astronomy whenever I can.

I was married to a wonderful woman for the past several years, but it just didn’t work out and we are now divorced. We still talk occasionally and remain friends, which I know is a rarity but that’s just how things are. Our cats remain with me, and I can’t imagine not having cats in the house ever again. During the day, I am the Technology Evangelist for GSC — a company I’ve been with since 1992.

16 thoughts on “About Me”

  1. I have Celestron SP-C6 for sale, in excellent condition…Its identical to the one on your blog along with a Telrad and other access.

    Reply

    1. Hi Ken! Sorry I’ve been away from the blog lately; I very much appreciate your post! I’ve recently procured a Super Polaris mount for my C6 OTA, so I’m in good shape. However, there are others I know that may be interested. Please let me know the details if you still want to sell it.

      Reply

  2. Hi. Thanks for sharing both thoughts and information. I just recently bought a Celestron SP-C6 and I’m very happy for it. It’s a bit shabby here and there but I’m working hard to get it back to its original shape and function. I wonder if you ever have stumbled over a user manual for this scope? I found one for the mount but it seems to be difficult to find one for the telescope itself. Since the focuser is a bit odd and the secondary attached the way it is it would be nice to have one while collimating. Best regards from a sunny Sweden. Lars M.

    Reply

    1. Sorry for the late reply, Lars, but I unfortunately have never even seen a manual for the C6 Newtonian. If I ever come across one, I’ll be sure to let folks know 🙂

      Reply

  3. I have the 1980s Celestron C6. Its collecting dust but its in good shape. I would appreciate any tips on aligning the mirrors and using it for astrophotography. I have a Canon Digital Rebel XTi that I want to get T adapters for. I am not sure if they all the adapters are the same or not. and not sure if you can use lenses or barlows or both with the camera. Not sure if you would want to…etc…

    Any tips would be great

    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Sorry for the late reply, Mark, but I’m not much of an astrophotographer. I do understand that the focuser has direct threaded attachments from Vixen that you can still purchase, but I’m not really much of an expert on that. Sorry!

      Reply

      1. I to have a 1980s Celestron C6. Still in the original box with the wood tripod and a couple extra eye pieces. I set it up and it works fine but don’t know much about them. I loaned an internet satellite dish to a friend in a rural location and when he got service a year later he gave it away so he gave me this in its place. Do you know of anyone that would want this?

  4. astrosetz,
    I just purchased one of these as my first telescope, an SP-C6. However I need to acquire some good lenses for it, along with filters. Can you make any recommendations? Much appreciated. I am new to astronomy.

    Reply

    1. Hi vincentgoetz! The SP-C6 is a gem of a telescope, and will do quite well on a variety of celestial objects. I suggest the Celestron Xcel-LX line of eyepieces, as they are relatively inexpensive and have big eye lenses and long eye relief, even in the short focal lengths. I think the 5mm would be a good match for planetary viewing, which would yield 152x. The 12mm would yield 64x, and the 18mm would get about 42x — that’s a good range of powers, and I’d buy them in that order. All of these eyepieces have a 60-degree apparent field of view, and are easy to look through.

      Reply

      1. Thank you for your quick response. I discovered Starizona yesterday and am working with them. The C-6 seems to have focusing issues, stemming from the secondary mirror I think. I am looking at possibly purchasing an SCT for under $2.000. Hoping to be able to connect it o my MacBook Po and work from there…

      2. The sled-focuser on vintage Celestron Newtonians has a couple of extension tubes threaded together, but sometimes those are missing when people purchase used. If the eyepiece seems to be too close, likely one of the tubes in the “stack” is missing. You can still buy replacements from Vixen (who actually made the SP-C6 for Celestron).

Leave a reply to Ken Kura Cancel reply