Celestron Nexstar 4SE

[jason32]

Hi guys,

Is NexStar 4SE a good scope for photography? I just want something that is not so expensive yet easy to move around. This one does auto aligning so that makes it an easy setup and go type of thing plus they mention its good for long exposure photography too?

Is it any good?

[Mansnake]

You could use it for lunar and planetary imaging using a webcam but you will not be able to achieve long exposures as its an Alt/Az mount.

For long exposures you'll need an Equatorial mount.

Im sure someone will give you a more detailed response

[tjr]

As Lewis says, it depends what you want to image. People get decent lunar & planetary images with Maks, but ideally you want to use a fast scope on a sturdy mount. This is certainly the case with DSO imaging where the mount becomes the most important part. This seems to be a popular starting place:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-pro-heq5-pro.html

[jason32]

Yes you are right but thats an expensive setup and not easy to move around.

Celestron website says nexstar series is good for long exposure? Are they misleading people? or are they talking about using a webcam and not a dSLR?

[Mansnake]

It seem's that long exposure astro-photography does tend to make a dent in the wallet !

im not sure about Celestrons summary but i think the only long exposure would be with a SPC900 webcam with the long exposure mod ? i maybe wrong

[tjr]

The SE mount has a wedge (I think) that allows it to mimic a GEM and avoid feild rotation. This would certainly make long exposures with any camera better than a 'traditional' alt-az mount. Perhaps this is what they mean?

[jason32]

Is there any other similar solution? maybe something from Meade?

[Hugechris]

I had similar questions when looking for a starters scope, the advice I recieved at the time was that the nexstar 127 SLT was for a similar price better value, greater light gathering power and good functionality, though without a wedge on the mount. Again it comes down to the length of time for the exposures and the amount of kit you would like to add to the telescope.

Eventually I went for the 6SE as the mount would be strong enough to take a bit of extra kit in the future, this is however the next level up in terms of cost.

[jason32]

Yeah I would want to go for 6SE but thats expensive I dont want to spend everything on a telescope...have to improve my photography gear too.

[Mansnake]

i thought wedges were quite expensive £200 + ? might as well just go straight for an EQ mount.

[jason32]

Yes but 4Se has a wedge built-in as people are saying?

[Hugechris]

Yeah I would want to go for 6SE but thats expensive I dont want to spend everything on a telescope...have to improve my photography gear too.

Indeed starting off and not wanting to make the wrong decision to get the most out a sizeable investment can be agonising.

There seems to be a great deal one can do with freeware such as registax & gimp to get a lot out of relatively short exposures < 30s with an inexpensive DSLR (movie/still) / webcam.

From much trawling through the internet, the consensus seems to point getting a genuine EQ mount to get the best out these things ... at a cost.

Personally I took the view as a starter there is a lot one can get a lot out of a good, as wide an aperture as you can get for you budget telescope (with some margin future proofing in terms of astronomy ambitions as well as other constraints) with already owned DSLR. Then enjoying the learning process as one develops your skills as an observer.

[mikehab]

I regularly see responses from people who say that the 4SE only has an Alt-Az mount and doesn't have an EQ mount. These people have obviosuly never owned a 4SE - since anyone who has owned one will tell you that it does come with a wedge mount which allows EQ setup / polar alignment. Theoretically therefore the mount is capable of EQ tracking and avoiding field rotation.

I say theoretically - because despite my best efforts having followed the instruction manual diligently, I have never actually fathomed out how to set up the wedge polar align successfully. [ If anyone else has managed to do this and can provide step-by-step instructions that are better / clearer than those provided by Celestron then I would be hugely grateful! ]

The real problem with the 4SE though is that it s very slow focal ratio - f/13 - and therefore the length of exposures requried for DSO imaging are likely to be too long for the mount to track accurately. I get the feeling that might be the real probem, rather than the mount (which as per above isn't a problem).

I will be travelling to a very dark sky site later in the year and plan on taking the 4SE to try out some DSO imaging there.... that's why I bought the 4SE - it's s small, compact, light, GoTo tracking scope with an EQ wedge mount - so I'll see how things pan out. Just need to work out how to successfully wedge-align first! ;-)

Mike

[rowan46]

If you want to do planetary imaging the 4se will work however the 127 slt will work better. it will work for lunar imaging but it doesn't work for dso's. It's almost impossible to get the wedge aligned and when you do the tracking in eq mode it isn't accurate enough for the length of exposure needed. If you are very skilled and lucky you may get 20-30 secs accurate tracking be prepared for lots of frustration to get you to that level however, The wedge on the 4 and 5se are a gimmick not a serious astro-photography tool if they were any good they would have put them on the 6 and 8se.

[knobby]

Any luck with the wedge / EQ tracking ?

[glowjet]

Jason, I applaud your enthusiasm to want to get into photography with your intended scope purchase, I would, therefore, recommend that you obtain a copy of Every Photon Counts, available through FLO. Explanations to a lot of your questions will be answered and in the long run it could save you from spending money on a scope which will not be up to your expectations. As far as I am aware the 4SE does have a screw wedge mechanism to enable the scope, after Polar alignment, to achieve sidereal tracking, but for long exposure, that is a very debatable question, If you bought one and found that you could only achieve up to say 30 seconds, without the stars becoming misshapen, you may feel a little disappointed, but on the other a lot can be done with a web cam with short exposures and you may feel this is the way you want to go, but read the book first, your worth it as they say

John.

[gustavo_sanchez]

On my opinion, a 4SE is not the right tool for the job if you want to do long exposure astrophotography. It can work well on planetary and lunar, where the exposures are short enough to prevent field rotation. I'm not saying you should not buy it, but realize that your are spending your money on gear that from the outset will not perform the job you want the way you will want in the future.

You need to decide what you want to do. Planetary? Then go ahead. Deep space (long exposure)? Then think twice before committing. If you are not sure, buy an EQ mount by itself and take pictures with your camera lens only. In the long run, it's the best path possible for astrophotography.

[ollypenrice]

Whatever Celestron say this is a useless deep sky imaging telescope. I would never touch anything slower than F8 and that would be pushing it. Wedges are a pain and are hard to polar align and balance.

Quite honestly I think scopes like this offer too much electronics and not enough optics. If you are dead set on DS photography buy a german equatorial and use a camera on it. If you are not up for the big spend needed to get into AP then I would strongly recommend a telescope where the optics outweigh the gimmicks. That way you'll get a decent view of what's out there. It's often pointed out that little scopes with big databases specialize in going to things which cannot be seen once gone to! Meade and Celestron, I have to say, strike me as straying very close to the limits of the Trade Descriptions Act. Indeed I think they transgress.

Olly

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=1793644788&k=r8HTK72

[brantuk]

An alt/az mount with goto is great for grab and go visual observing. The 4SE falls nicely into this category and will facilitate short exposure photography on solar system objects but the small aperture will restrict views of dso's. Your requirements sound a little more specific. All the advice above is good.

The point to bear in mind is that with a good equatorial mount you can image anything - all you need to do is change the ota to suit the type of object you are going for. It's all in the mount which forms the basis of your setup - so prime consideration to this should be given from the outset - especially for imaging. The only restriction is budget.

I'd suggest you look at the following mounts: Celestron CG5 GT, HEQ5, and NEQ6 Pro. All are fine for any type of imaging, are in price brackets from circa £350 to £930, and take progressively greater weight loadings. Then pick an ota to suit. You may go for a short tube wide field refractor with a fast f-ratio for dso imaging, or a slow f-ratio long focal length Mak/Sct for imaging planets, or you may want a good observing scope with a larger aperture for looking deeper into space.

The thing is - once you have the mount you'll be able to concentrate more on the appropriate properties of your ota. You'll consider stuff like weight, f-ratio, optical quality, type of object, camera type, price, etc. Bear in mind you can make great savings buying second hand under 2yrs old. Hope that helps

[jonathan]

I followed the maxim 'Buy the best mount you can afford'. I now use my 8SE exclusively on an NEQ6 Pro, it is many times better than the original 8SE goto mount.

Now that I have the NEQ6 Pro, I know that I can put any reasonable scope on it and expect stable results for visual and photography. It has taken me a couple of years and lots of saving to get to this point, but it has increased my enjoyment of the hobby by eliminating most of the problems I was experiencing, and enjoying the hobby is what it's all about after all. So my advice would be to buy the best mount you can afford (and comfortably handle / store), then think about what you want to put on it and go from there.

[knobby]

Slightly off topic ... but does anyone know if the 4se car charger adaptor drops the voltage to 12v or just passes it through at the usual car socket 13.8 ish volts?

[JimRibble]

On ‎16‎/‎05‎/‎2012 at 04:51, jason32 said:

Hi guys,

Is NexStar 4SE a good scope for photography? I just want something that is not so expensive yet easy to move around. This one does auto aligning so that makes it an easy setup and go type of thing plus they mention its good for long exposure photography too?

Is it any good?

Alt/Az mounts like is standard on the Nexstar 4 are NOT good for long time exposures.  However, I suspect Celestron is talking about when an equatorial wedge is used.  They are available for your scope, if one wasn't included.  The wedge is a little harder to set up but it allows true equatorial alignment of the scope which permits much longer exposures to be made.

[Cosmic Geoff]

Nobody has yet mentioned that the 4SE has a built-in flip mirror assembly. This would be useful for various photographic exploits, particularly for imaging fainter objects which can not readily be re-acquired in the finder.

I have the 4SE's big brother, the C8 SE, and can confirm that the series is good for visual, and usable for planetary imaging.  However using the 8SE for deep space imaging, with or without an equatorial wedge, is hopeless, a bad joke - the mount is just not stiff enough or tracking accurately enough for that.  With planetary imaging, the stacking software compensates for the deficiencies of the mount.  The 4SE has a more solid tripod than the SLT series.  (The SLT tripod is really too wobbly for imaging).

For the scope nerds - the 4SE is a Maksutov, while its bigger brothers are SCTs.

My verdict on the 4SE: a good small scope for visual and entry level planetary imaging if you aren't put off by the price.  GoTo is well worth having if you want to find anything faint.  The Satnav of the skies. 

[Hallingskies]

I have a 4SE but would not try and use it for astrophotography.  At F15 it is too slow and the mount is not up for long exposures.  And it doesn’t really have the aperture to give good resolution for planetary photography.  It’s fine for visual but for photo work, no.

[Cosmic Geoff]

On ‎06‎/‎08‎/‎2012 at 11:04, knobby said:

Slightly off topic ... but does anyone know if the 4se car charger adaptor drops the voltage to 12v or just passes it through at the usual car socket 13.8 ish volts?

If you mean the power cable that plugs into a car cigar lighter type socket, it's just a plain cable. The mount will work on 12v or 13.8 volts.