Telescope information

[BexSmyth]

I currently have a zennox 70 telescope as I am a beginner in terms of stargazing. I have loved using this telescope for lunar viewing however I want to upgrade to a more capable telescope.

I have been researching and I have found celestron's nexstar 4se, 5se and 6se scopes with go-to technology however I was interested in having a tracker to keep up to date with the alignments of sky objects.

I was hoping if someone could tell me do these nexstar telescopes have automatic tracking systems or is this an extra, also if anyone had some advise as to other telescopes that I could look at as there is too many to know what's what. As I say I am relatively new to this however I would love to increase my knowledge very quickly and advance to a larger scope to see a greater range.

Thanks in advance!

[cantab]

Virtually all GoTo scopes will, once they've navigated to an object, automatically track it.

[Cornelius Varley]

Like the man said. Goto mounts will, after the initial alignment, slew to your chosen target and continue to track it. The accuracy of the tracking will depend on the initial alignment and mount set up.

[Mr Q]

   The two other replies are correct but having a list of objects to try for at each observing session is also valuable. As the sky's nighttime objects, along with the stars, change their location slightly from hour to hour, so the night sky changes slightly each night and more so from month to month. A valuable guide to what constellation (and its objects within) can be downloaded and printed out for each month at the below link. These charts also offer easy objects to find and observe (when no "go to" option is available) including the planets and come with directions on how to use them. They are a valuable tool in learning the mechanics of the ever changing night sky.

http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

    When selecting the right version map for your part of the world, click on the "northern hemisphere" map.

[Charic]

BexSmyth.............Hi. If you just want to  upgrade your telescope  to observe the heavens, for Planets, Lunar and for Deep Space Objects (DSO's ) like M31 Andromeda, save yourself a huge headache  and money, and look into getting your self an 8" Newtonian reflector telescope  on  a  Dobsonian mount.  Great value and extremely easy to use, and use straight away, with no fiddly set-up or alignment issues?  Have a good look around this site, and just see how many people are having issues with the sort  of set up that's on your mind at present..  Don't get me wrong, the set-up you are looking at can be mastered, and for some folk, its the only way to go. I've still got an EQ mount, and their just not for me, powered, GoTo or not! however, certain aspects of astronomy require nothing less.  Take a good look at both options. remembering Christmas is 11 Months away, so plenty time to save for the GoTo's  if that's your choice.