Celestron NexStar 4SE Computerized Telescope

Cercavo un telescopietto leggero, facile da trasportare e montare, soprattutto preciso nel puntamento automatico: ho trovato tutto quel che cercavo in questo piccolo Nexstar4. Imballo accurato, istruzioni in inglese ma comprensibili, lingua italiana sulla pulsantiera. Facile da montare, basta avere un pò di dimestichezza coi telescopi ed essere astrofili alle prime armi. Per chi è già più esperto poi, nessun problema: operativo in 5-7 minuti. Cercatore a punto rosso: funzionale; va spento dopo l’allineamento col cielo, poiché non ingrandisce nulla ma serve solo a puntare le due o tre stelle scelte per l’allineamento stesso. Poi il telescopio punta in automatico (go-to) quel che si vuole. L’allineamento è anche guidato sulla pulsantiera, step by step, per qualsiasi tipo si scelga di fare (ne sono disponibili più tipi). Unico neo: montatura instabile se c’è vento, dato che il tubo ottico in tal caso vibra. Possibile alimentazione con batteria scooter 12 V, che dà maggior durata rispetto alle pile. Se l’allineamento è fatto bene, il puntamento è preciso, non ha sbagliato un colpo finora e centra tutto nell’oculare (in dotazione ne danno uno da focale 25 mm). Coi suoi 100 mm di diametro, non ha grosse pretese sul deep sky, ma da un cielo decente gli oggetti Messier sono garantiti, con delle difficoltà per alcune galassie. Luna e pianeti ok. Per avere visione raddrizzata (lo strumento non la dà) occorre un prisma raddrizzatore suo, da avvitare al tubo, di difficile reperibilità… io Io l’ho trovato usato su sito inglese…. Per fare foto al fuoco diretto, vuole un suo adattatore da avvitare al fondo del tubo, nella stessa sede del prisma raddrizzatore (bisogna in ogni caso avere T-ring). Anche questo non si trova facilmente. Nel complesso comunque sono soddisfatto e lo ricomprerei.

Received item early exactly as expected. Well packed did take sometime to work out how to use it but it is great. Now going to get the lenses for it as well

This is a good product. But it came with 25mm eye piece and you have to purchase alot of additional stuff to view or gaze. It should have at least two eye pieces like 25 and atleast 9mm with it. And there is no tutorial to teach you how to do it. It may become frustrating for customer company should provide easy installation help one time to customer or easy guide video which shows what a each thing is doing like allignment process is very kinda of seems hard. But it’s a overall good product not to mention the seller is amazing I would suggest go for 6se or 8se is best of right budget 127slt is better than 4se

First, let me say that this telescope is great. It has a lot of really cool features. Once it is aligned (more on that later) you can zip to any spot in the sky to look at a lot of cool stuff. As far as I can tell, as a novice, the optics are great.

All that being said, I want to give a little warning: expect to spend more money, a lot more money. I haven’t marked it down for this, but I want to make it clear for anyone considering it. An experienced user may think this is silly to mention, but, as a total novice, I had no idea what I was getting myself in to.

I got this for my dad. He always wanted a telescope. When I saw that I could get this fairly nice one for only $450, I thought it looked like a great deal. I ordered it and it arrived very quickly. When I went to set it up, it was like I hit a wall.

When you first start the telescope, it needs to be aligned. There are several available methods for aligning it. The most accurate, I believe, is the three-star align. It seemed easy enough… You find a star and center in the finderscope using a little red LED pointer. Once it is centered in the finderscope, then you center it in the eyepiece and move on to the next star. Easy, right? Here is the first problem: the included finderscope is junk. You have to crouch down to use it and the position of the star changes depending on your angle. I would think the star was centered, then I would move to the telescope eyepiece and all the stars just looked alike. I tried aligning the finderscope using instructions I found on the internet, but it was no good. There was only really one viable solution, a better finderscope. after looking at reviews, I ordered the 

Orion 9×50 Illuminated Right-Angle CI Finder Scope

 ($130). After the new finderscope arrived, it quickly became clear that I needed a special bracket so that it would fit the telescope. So, of course, more money spent ($15).

The new finderscope made it easier to find the stars and was a lot easier to align, but it didn’t eliminate all of the alignment problems. The next issue was getting the star (or planet) aligned in the eyepiece. The only eyepiece included with this scope is the 25mm E-Lux plossl eyepiece. For me, at least, it was impossible to get the object right in the center. My alignments would either fail or when they didn’t fail, the alignment would be a bit off. I figured it had to do with not being able to center it properly. To solve this issue, I ordered the 

Celestron Crossaim Reticle Eyepiece

 ($68). This is a 20mm eyepiece, I believe, with illuminated crosshairs to make it easier to get it in the center.

The new finderscope and eyepiece helped a lot, but my alignments were still failing, a lot. Like probably 75% of the time. The other issue with alignment is the need for accurate time and location information. The handset didn’t have any cities particularly close to me. To solve this problem, I ordered the 

Celestron SkySync GPS

 ($170).

The SkySync definitely made setting the time and location a lot easier, though I am not sure it was worth the money.

So, now I am able to get it to align a little easier, though it still fails a lot, which gets frustrating, but at least it is aligning.

Getting it to align was only one issue. The other issue is that you don’t really see much with the included 25 mm eyepiece. You can get a nice view of the moon, but that’s about it. To really explore the sky, more eyepieces are needed. Yay, more money to spend! I ordered the 

Celestron Accessory Kit

 ($125). This is actually a pretty good deal. it includes five eyepieces, a 2x barlow magnifier thing and several filters for looking at different planets. I’ve been able to get some really cool views of Saturn and Jupiter, so far.

Everything is almost done. I can align it. I can look at some planets. It’s working pretty good. Just one more problem. As I mentioned, I bought this for my dad. He’s 75 and can’t stand for long periods, which means he can’t actually look through the eyepieces. So, another purchase had to be made in order to get the image from the telescope onto the computer for him. I bought a 

Celestron NexImage 5 MP 5 Solar System Imager with Micron Digital Clarity Technology, Black (93711)

 ($200). The camera works relatively well to get the image on the screen. It’s not great, definitely not as good as looking with the naked eye, but my dad is happy with it, when I can actually get something aligned and in focus. So far, we have gotten some great pictures of the moon and Saturn.

So, the telescope was $450. All the stuff I had to buy to actually make it usable was over $700. So, my $450 bargain turned into an $1100 headache. It all works now, but I don’t think I would have bought it in the first place if I had realized how much more money I would end up spending.