Celestron Nexstar 4SE

[mikehab]

12 minutes ago, Hallingskies said:

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.

I would have to disagree - I have taken some 'half decent' planetary photos using my trusty little 4SE.  Sure, you can spend a lot more money on a scope that would be much better for imaging, but for the price I think the 4SE is an excellent little 'all-rounder'.

Mike

[Swamp Gas]

I love my computerised Celestron SCT but I have to agree with what ollypenrice (above) says. Well, mostly; I don't think I would call the wifi goto stuff gimmicks exactly but I get what he is saying about maximising optics and stability over goto for imaging. Couldn't agree more with that. I got my setup because I want no frills viewing, quick blasts round the sky looking at stuff, ticking off objects in my log and trying out some different eyepieces for fun. I have very little free time so convenience and speed was the main buying criteria and my setup has aced it for me. Quick align and I can see some fuzzies, I can look at the moon if I want, get some good views of planets (Mars and Saturn are great) and I really like the goto system and tilt-to-slew iPhone control. I'm just really happy with it. Heck I could even image planets to some extent, do a simple lunar mosaic, maybe even look at the sun if I get round to making my solar filter

However, I used to do a bit of LX stuff on an HEQ5 pro, nice fast frac, cooled cameras, auto guiding with a separate guide scope and camera etc. and I agree that Celestron marketing Nexstars as letting you do 'long exposure' imaging is a bit dubious to say the least. Mine is not the top end one but it's still more than that lovely ED80 + HEQ5 setup at FLO.

If I can see some brighter fuzzies in my EPs with my Nexstar SCT then I can probably sling a DSLR on for a 5 or 10 second shot and I will be able to make out stars and see more than with the naked eye but is it long exposure? I would say no, not at all. I'm happy with the limitations of my kit but I never expected LX from a fork arm ALT/AZ and surely it's not long exposure until you are in the many minutes of exposure times?

I guess they would say a wedge gets round field rotation (true) but I would not be convinced of the accuracy of a Nexstar yet even if polar aligned to perfection; it would be great if they gave some examples of how many seconds they can get with a typical setup and a wedge. Unrealistic expectation I s'pose, they are a business with a marketing department after all.

I would say minimum for iaging deep sky is that HEQ5/ED80 setup and if that is more than you want to spend (fair enough!) then how about a used iOptron skytracker and a DSLR, get some wide field stuff in    

Just sharing my thoughts and limited experience, all the best mate with whatever you decide to go for.

(oh man, now you've got me tempted to see what max times I can get with an alt/az. Challenge accepted! hehehe...) ?

[LukeSkywatcher]

(oh man, now you've got me tempted to see what max times I can get with an alt/az. Challenge accepted! hehehe...)

It would be very interesting to see how long of an exposure is possible on a Go-To/tracking scope such as the SE range before things start to look silly and rubbish.

I vaguely remember hearing something like 4 mins (single exposure) . Dont quote me on that.

[Ags]

I owned a 4SE for many years and it is a fine little scope for viewing the Moon, planets and some brighter deep sky objects.

I tried long-exposure photography with it using the built-in wedge but you have to realize the wedge is very coarse and it is basically impossible to get accurate polar alignment. I called my alignment methodology "trusting the force". Also the gears are coarse and tracking is not accurate for round stars. Note that I did not attempt to use the 1324 mm focal length mak for these experiments, I was using an ST80 with one third the focal length, and after failing with the ST80, I tried with camera lenses of 50-200mm and this failed too. Whatever I did the mount would wander slightly and I would get trails.

I think short-exposure planetary photogaphy would work better, but I never tried that!

[LukeSkywatcher]

"I think short-exposure planetary photogaphy would work better, but I never tried that!".

Yes, multiple short exposures and then stacked with something like DDS will work better than a single exposure.