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celestron nexstar 4se


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it's a decent scope for planets and moon and is fine for splitting some doubles and observing the brighter messiers. I assume portability and goto is your deciding criteria otherwise there is no point getting this one. Celestron and skywatcher do a 5" mak on a goto which is cheaper

First Light Optics - Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT but if I didn't need goto and portability this is the scope I would get

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian

As to barlows If you are going to get one get a good one Tal are highly rated as to being a good one for a budget or the celestron ultima for a fair bit more

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The 4SE has a fairly long focal length, so a Barlow will be of limited use.

What eyepieces do you have already? Something like a 7mm will give the maximum magnification you'll want with that scope.

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Hi

its my first scope and portability is a must (small car) plus i like the idea of the camera attachment as ive seen what people are doing with this setup and dslr.

Harrisons do the 4se and 12mm eypiece for £400, not a bad price ??

Paul

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To be honest the only dslr work you can get out of a mak is the moon or terrestrial work. because of the long focal length It needs very long exposures and as the mount is alt az it's no good for that.

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Thats good for me for now.

Ok looking at the 4se, tell me the alternatives with the same features (portable, no collimation needed) and price. Photography will not be a serious side only a dabble here and there but want good shots of the moon though.

Dobo's are defo not on my list as they are huge !!! :)

Thanks for the help.

Paul

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the nexstar mak link I showed is a little cheaper and has the extra inch of apparture so will give better views on everything the electronics are the same although the mechanical design of the mount is not as good. This is getting very good reviews at the moment, ok not as good apparture and you need a good alt az mount for it so it will work out more expensive but it will give great wide views and be good for photography

Starwave 80 ED Refractor Telescope :: Refractor telescopes :: Telescopes :: Altair Astro

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Hi Paul, I have the Celestron 127 Mak, the only scope I have at the moment - I've used a 12" dob and an 8" SCT for a while and the views through the Mak are really good for such a small scope - the GOTO is also good - take time to level the tripod with the little bubble level fitted to the mount switch on and away you go - your not going to see many faint fuzzies - unless you travel to a really dark site (which I think you may do), but from the outskirts of Brum where I live the light pollution is quite bad - but still enjoy searching for things.

You may want to start with the bright Messier objects - but steer clear of the faint galaxies and get used to the star clusters, M35, M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga are well placed at the mo - also the bright galaxies in Leo and Ursa major are good the M65 group in Leo and M81/82 in Ursa Major are easy even from my light polluted skies.

As I say its only a 5" scope and more suited to Lunar and planetary observations, but even on the brighter planetary nebula - there's 1 in Draco - really bright and even the Owl Nebula (with an OIII filter) is visible in the scope - also the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini - well placed at the mo - very bright, with low power it looks like a fuzzy star with the reference star close to it, increase the mag a little and the "fuzziness" around the centre is easily visible.

Just a little for you to think about - but even from light polluted skies - these small scopes show a really good amount of detail if your prepared to put a little work and patience into the hobby - trust me I've used bigger scopes, ok, the views are better - but you have to take into account the sky conditions and the smaller scopes tend to perform better under poorer conditions and the UK skies tend to be more unsteady for more of the clear nights we get and only the odd night out of many - the larger scopes will perform better - but - untill then, I'll be out with my 5" (got a long wait for my 11" SCT). Cheers and hope you get sorted Paul.

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the 127 mak the skywatcher mak and the 4se will all image the moon and planets with a webcam they will also image the moon with a dslr but none of them including the 4se will image dso's it's the wrong scope on the wrong mount. and the wrong camera for planets. I have a nexstar 5 the mount and tripod even with the wedge is no good for long exposure imaging. the 6se is better but it's a different mount internally although it looks the same.

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i'm not trying to dis the 4se within certain criteria it's a nice scope. i'm just trying to point out that if any sort of imaging is a criteria for it's use all of those scopes mentioned will do the same job as well, better and cheaper the celestron 127 or skymax 127 give better views for cheaper will image the moon with a dslr and planets with a webcam just like the 4se the 102 skywatcher will give the same views and image the moon with a dslr webcam planets and be a whole lot cheaper. the 4 and 5se are add ons to the celestron nexstar se range relying on the good name of the 6 and 8 se nexstars thse other scopes mentioned are every bit as good as the 4 se but for a lot cheaper.

the 102 skywatcher is the same scope £100 cheaper the 127 celestron and skymax 127 give a lot more light grasp cheaper than the 4se. The 127 celestron, skymax, and 4se use the old celestron gt mounts they may look different but they are essentially the same the skywatcher software isn't quite as nice but the celestron 127 is the same software as the 4se.

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Ok thanks,

Ok let's narrow this down to what I want in order,

1 small scope which will keep me happy for a few years

2 a scope that can auto scan and let me see planets, lunar and some dso.

3 burnt orange color, haha joking. Able to easily let me dabble in planet and lunar imaging with dslr to show family what I'm seeing.

4 in my budget, max £450

Ok tell me your top three with the above criteria

Paul

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You're alright boss no problems. the 4se will show the moon beautifully. you will see jupiter and it's moons (well 4 of them) the rings of saturn, brighter dso's and it will be good for double star hunting I forgot to mention mars and venus as well for a portable scope a mak is not a bad choice, have fun with it.

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My understanding is that the SE range is the premium quality offering, but the additional cost over the equivalent Celestron Nexstar (or Skywatcher) models probably isn't justifiable for the marginally higher quality that an SE offers. If you bought a Celestron Nexstar 127 then you'll be getting something very similar (optically and functionaly) to a 5SE, but at a cheaper price than a 4SE.

The extra inch in aperture with the 127 will open up more subtle detail in planets, as well as offering a brighter and higher contrast view. An extra inch aperture equates to around a 60% increase in light gathering area. The money you save can be put towards a webcam and an extra eyepiece.

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You'll want to get a low power EP and will probably want to replace the rather poor 10mm lens that comes with the 127. The 32mm Celestron Omni Plossl would be a good budget buy. To replace the 10mm you could look at the 9mm Celestron Excel LX - that range is gaining a lot of fans as you get more comfortable eye relief compared to the equivalent plossl types (not an issue with the 32mm Omni though). Can't offer any advice on the Webcam unfortunately.

If you have any spare change left after that, you can buy a tin of orange gloss and a paintbrush ;-)

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I have to agree on paper - for the money the Nexstar SLT 127 looks slightly better than the 4SE, however my experience has mainly been with the 8SE so trying to imagine only being able to see half of what I can currently... hmm. I wonder if it would be only marginally better than an ST80? In which case you could save yourself a lot of money by not having the Goto mount.

Currently I am looking for a small grab and go scope set up, on my list is the Celestron CG-4 mount:

First Light Optics - Celestron Omni CG-4 mount - £220

That leaves about £230 for an OTA (Optical Tube Assembly) in your budget...

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Startravel 102T OTA

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Evostar 120 OTA

First Light Optics - Tal 100RS Refractor Optical Tube Assembly

I think you would be pleased with the views through any of these scopes, you should be free from dew (which you will get with the 127 / 4SE, so a dew shield or dew heaters may be required), and the Tal comes with Crayford focuser and two eyepieces which should keep you happy for quite a while. Not sure if the Tal comes with star diagonal, best to check this although one is shown in the picture.

The reason I don't really want to recommend the 4SE mount is that, if it is anything like the mount that came with my 4SE, it has seen more time trying to set it up than actually using it - the Star Align is an art form which I just couldn't get the hang of, and nowhere near as fast as the basic art of putting an Equatorial mount on the ground pointing North (polar alignment is only necessary when doing DSO imaging, which I would not really attempt on a CG-4).

The CG-4 mount would allow you to use many different scopes, the 4SE / 127 mounts not so because of the limitations of weight allowance, balance, and size of scope (that may hit the base when pointing upwards); plus, the single fork design may result in much more vibration than a decent EQ mount (such as the CG-4).

The CG-4 does not come with motors as standard, but they are easily added for basic tracking and I think that is all you will really need. Goto is not something to consider when on a budget in my opinion as it will take away money that could be spent on the optics. I never truly appreciated the capabilities of my 8SE until I had an ST80 to compare it to, size really does matter!

So, for £470 you could have a Tal 100RS on a CG-4 mount, I hope others can come in and tell me if this would work (not sure if the Tal would be too long / heavy for the CG-4). Astro-baby swears by her Tal, indeed the image on First Light Optics was provided by her.

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Hi Paul. I have a Celestron 4SE, and have had it about 4 years now. I previously had a Meade ETX90 which I had to sell a few years before, and always had a liking for small GOTOs.

To be honest, I've been amazed by what I can see on a good night. Cloud bands and moons of Jupiter, phases of Venus, rings of Saturn, slight colour on Uranus (Mars is always disappointing - I can never make out any detail), double stars, open clusters, some globular clusters, even the ring nebula. Galaxies are tricky - only really the brighter ones and they just look like a small smudge of light.

But as well as being able to see all this, the scope finds it for me. I'm well acquainted with the star-hopper versus GOTO debate, and have nothing but admiration for those who have time to learn the skies in such detail. But with a busy life - work, family and (dare I say it) other hobbies, it's great to just pop outside, align the 'scope in about 5 minutes and get observing.

I say go for it. It's a great little 'scope that has never let me down. Sure, I'd like a bigger aperture if I could afford it, but the GOTO convenience makes up for that for me.

And the burnt orange does, indeed, look great!

Good luck, and clear skies.

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