Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrains

More Information  · Supplied Accessories  · Recommended Accessories  · Images of Some Features Price $999.00 List Price $1,857.95 Highest Useful Magnification 300x Visual Limiting Magnitude 13.4 Focal Length 1500mm Focal Ratio f/10 Resolution 0.77 arc seconds Aperture 6" Warranty 2 years

• 150mm f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain optics
• heavy-duty Advanced Series computerized go-to equatorial mount and tripod
• 6 x 30mm finderscope
• 25mm Plössl eyepiece (60x)
• exceptional value when compared to smaller aperture 5” catadioptric scopes from other manufacturers

    This Celestron telescope puts a new 6” Schmidt-Cassegrain optical tube on a smooth and precise computerized go-to German equatorial mount that will take you on a tour to anywhere in the night sky you might choose to go. It provides 44% greater light gathering capacity than competitive go-to 5” Maksutov-Cassegrain optics, for less money. Its faster f/10 focal ratio provides a larger exit pupil and brighter images with any given eyepiece than the Maksutov’s f/15 focal ratio, as well.
    The ASC6SCT comes standard with special Starbright XLT multicoatings that are 16% brighter than even Celestron’s industry-standard Starbright multicoatings. With a light grasp 459 times that of even the sharpest dark-adapted eye, this compact Celestron telescope can reveal to you star clusters, nebulas, planets, and galaxies in amazing detail.
    The optical tube is the latest version of the Celestron-pioneered optical system that took phenomenally expensive Schmidt-Cassegrain optics out of the hands of professional astronomers and made them available for the first time at a reasonable price to all amateur astronomers. In essence, Celestron’s innovative Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes made modern amateur astronomy possible. Today, this Celestron telescope is value-priced to make Schmidt-Cassegrain astronomy available to almost everyone. Its light weight optical tube and easily assembled go-to mount make it easy to set up and enjoy – either in your back yard or at a distant dark sky site. Superb optical quality and a very reasonable price make it a scope that virtually any beginning or advanced astronomer can afford and enjoy.

   ASC mount
   NexStar Computer
   6" Starbright XLT optics

This Telescope’s Optical System . . .

• Schmidt-Cassegrain optical tube: 6" aperture (1500mm focal length f/10). State-of-the-art Starbright XLT multicoated optics. Guaranteed diffraction-limited optical performance. For more details, click on the “optics" icon above.

• Finderscope: 6 x 30mm straight-through achromatic design, with a wide 7° field of view. Focuses by loosening the trim ring behind the objective lens cell, screwing the lens cell in or out to focus, and tightening the trim ring to lock in the correct focus.

• Visual back: Removable 1.25" visual back holds visual accessories such as star diagonal, tele-extender, etc.

• Star diagonal: 1.25" prism type.

• Eyepiece: 1.25" 25mm Plössl (60x). The eyepiece field of view is 0.83° across (two-thirds larger than the full Moon), for good lunar and deep space views.

• Software: The scope comes with a CD-ROM of TheSky Level 1 planetarium and star charting software. This Windows-based program has a database of 10,000 stars and deep space objects. It will let explore the Universe on your PC and print out custom star charts of the sky to help you find faint objects by star-hopping from object to object using your scope’s slow motion controls.

This Telescope’s Mount . . .

• Heavy duty CG-5 Advanced Series computerized go-to German equatorial mount: The mount includes dual-axis slewing/tracking motors with positioning encoders on each axis for go-to computer control. The scope is supplied with a car battery cord to operate from the cigarette lighter plug of your car or from a rechargeable 12V battery pack. The 7 amp hour capacity Celestron Power Tank #4512V is recommended. It can be recharged hundreds of times and will operate the scope all night long without danger of running out of power.
     The mount has setting circles, manual slow motion controls, a latitude scale and fine adjustment controls in both altitude and azimuth, an 11 pound counterweight, and more. For more details, click on the “mount" icon above.

• NexStar computer hand control: The supplied computerized hand control has a built-in database of more than 40,000 stars and objects it can find and track for you. These include the complete RNGC, Messier, Caldwell, IC, and Abell catalogs; selected SAO stars, including variable stars and multiple star systems; the planets, the Moon, and more.
     All of the database and telescope operation information is displayed on a double line, 16-character, liquid crystal display on the hand control. There are 19 fiber optic backlit LED buttons to make it easy for you to control the computer without affecting your dark-adapted vision. An RS-232 communication port on the hand control allows you to operate the telescope via a personal computer.
     Several different alignment methods are built into the NexStar computer, allowing you to choose a level of computer accuracy in automatically finding objects with which you are comfortable. Both two and (more accurate) three star computer-guided alignment methods are easily accomplished in only a few short minutes. You can be observing in less than 15 minutes after you first take the scope outdoors, including telescope assembly time. For more details, click on the “computer" icon above.

• Adjustable height tripod: The tripod has 2" diameter steel legs with a center leg brace for rigidity, with excellent damping characteristics. The center leg brace is drilled to form a convenient accessory tray that holds 1.25" and 2" eyepiece to keep them up out of the dew-soaked grass.

• Dovetail slide bar: An adjustable dovetail slide bar allows the optical tube to be quickly and precisely balanced fore and aft on the mount, eliminating the need for an extra counterweight to balance a camera or other accessories. Setup and takedown times are exceptionally fast, as a single large hand-tighten knob holds the optical tube in place. A second lock knob prevents the tube from sliding off the mount should the hand-tighten knob loosen.

• Two-year warranty: All Celestron go-to telescopes have a two-year warranty, double that of competitive go-to scopes.

What can you see through an 6" Celestron go-to SCT with Starbright XLT optics?

    With a light grasp 459 times that of the eye, the scope is capable of producing surprisingly bright and reasonably wide-field images of the faint fuzzies outside the solar system – nebulas, galaxies, open star clusters, and more. But those objects requiring high power and high resolution – globular clusters, close binary star pairs, lunar and planetary images, etc. – are not slighted. Using optional eyepieces and/or a Barlow to boost the magnification, you can see subtle solar system details that are often lost in telescopes of lesser optical resolution. You can study lunar craters, hairline rilles, mountain ranges, and low contrast lunar ray detail at high magnification. With reasonable seeing conditions, structural detail in Jupiter’s cloud belts and the Great Red Spot (actually closer in color to the Faint Pink Spot at this point in time) are visible, as are dusky markings on the face of Saturn and Cassini’s division in Saturn’s brilliant rings. Best of all, the scope will take you to any of these objects at the touch of a button. There’s no guesswork or hunting. You spend more time looking at celestial wonders, and less time looking for them.

    Optically very nice, and surprisingly reasonable in cost, the Celestron 6" SCT has enough light-gathering, resolution, and go-to technology to keep you busy observing for the rest of your life – without being so big and clumsy that it becomes a chore to take outside. It can be your guide to virtually the entire Universe, a guide you’ll be tempted to take you on a tour every night the skies are clear.