In astrophotography, particularly when capturing deep-sky objects over extended exposures, the orientation of the telescope needs to align with the rotation of the Earth. For starters, the Celestron NexStar SE telescopes use alt-azimuth mounts. While some may believe these telescopes are suitable for astrophotography due to their marketing and branding, this isn’t the case. You would be better served by getting a telescope of this size atop a manual mount for less money, or at least a computerized mount model that allows you to manually aim the telescope, preferably with built-in WiFi operability like the Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi or Virtuoso GTi telescopes. Small catadioptrics are ideal for a quick peek at the Moon, planets, or bright objects like double stars, but they are of course far from convenient when bundled with a heavy computerized mount that takes 10-15 minutes to set up and will require you to start over if you bump it. Their computerized mounts are therefore little more than dead weight. The Celestron Nexstar 4SE and 5SE models, despite their computerized mounts, don’t offer enough aperture or a wide enough field of view to enjoy more than a couple dozen deep-sky objects. As mentioned, there are many computerized telescopes/mounts that do not suffer from this drawback and also feature the ability to connect to your smartphone for time and location information and even software compensation for a not-level tripod. This restriction can be a significant inconvenience for those who prefer a hands-on approach or in situations where the computerized system might malfunction. Just bumping the telescope at all, of course, also throws the alignment off until you reboot the mount and start all over. The azimuth axis of the NexStar SE mount cannot be moved without the motors, while attempting to adjust the altitude (up/down) pointing could damage the gearing and ruin the tracking and pointing accuracy of the mount. Manual Aiming LimitationsĪ significant drawback of these telescopes is that you can’t aim them manually. The NexStar mounts are not particularly well-made, technologically advanced, or even that sturdy. And this elevated cost doesn’t necessarily translate to an equivalent increase in quality or functionality. Stability Issues with the NexStar 8SEĬompared to cost of other telescopes with similar capabilities, the Celestron NexStar SE series telescopes are considerably more expensive.
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