First telescope

[Dakuwaqa]

I’m sure this is the millionth thread about this so I’ll keep it short. Want to get into astronomy as love the stars and I need as telescope.

less than £500 computerised and as easy to work as possible. I get terribly frustrated with anything fiddly so the easier to get going the better.

A couple of years ago I had a look at the 4se but I think that’s been discontinued? The Celestron Astro FI 5 SCHMIDT has decent reviews but I’ve read there can be WiFi issues.

 

thanks for you help!

[DaveL59]

A model with the starsense guider system would probably be the easiest, since that'll use an on-board camera to plate solve the area of sky in view to determine where it is. No need then for you go have to go thru a star alignment and the need to be able to pick out alignment stars etc. Just turn it on and let it do its bit then you're good to start. I've no experience of that setup as the starsense I have if the cheaper bolt-on phone-app type on a low end scope which works pretty well, but I'm sure others will be along to advise.

 

welcome aboard by the way 🙂 

Edited December 18, 2020 by DaveL59

[Dakuwaqa]

11 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

A model with the starsense guider system would probably be the easiest, since that'll use an on-board camera to plate solve the area of sky in view to determine where it is. No need then for you go have to go thru a star alignment and the need to be able to pick out alignment stars etc. Just turn it on and let it do its bit then you're good to start. I've no experience of that setup as the starsense I have if the cheaper bolt-on phone-app type on a low end scope which works pretty well, but I'm sure others will be along to advise.

 

welcome aboard by the way 🙂 

Thanks for the reply!! I’ve never heard of starsense guider system but it sounds absolutely perfect! Just need to get some recommendations on which ones are good.

Which telescope do you have out of interest?

 

[DaveL59]

as per my signature, a few lol.

The Celestron is the LT70AZ Starsense explorer, a pretty basic scope on a wobbly mount, but purchased for the Starsense license for the app. It can be used on other scopes with a little DIY to sort a mounting method. Only thing is that the phone app has a smaller database of objects compared to the full starsense rig that has its own camera, but it makes a useful guided push-to setup to quickly find things in the sky.

[Cosmic Geoff]

See here: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html

or get my first serious and GoTo outfit, the 127mm Celestron Nexstar Mak SLT.  The Nexstar system is IMHO easier to operate than the Sky-watcher Synscan.  If you get a handset GoTo rather than a WiFi Goto, that's one less thing to set up and one less thing to go wrong.

The 4SE has not been discontinued as far as I know, but there may be supply problems.  The 4SE probably has a more stable mount than some of the other entry level GoTos.

I don't know anything about the Starsense smartphone system, but the original Starsense is affected by twilight or poor quality sky conditions; something to bear in mind.

[Dakuwaqa]

23 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

See here: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html

or get my first serious and GoTo outfit, the 127mm Celestron Nexstar Mak SLT.  The Nexstar system is IMHO easier to operate than the Sky-watcher Synscan.  If you get a handset GoTo rather than a WiFi Goto, that's one less thing to set up and one less thing to go wrong.

The 4SE has not been discontinued as far as I know, but there may be supply problems.  The 4SE probably has a more stable mount than some of the other entry level GoTos.

I don't know anything about the Starsense smartphone system, but the original Starsense is affected by twilight or poor quality sky conditions; something to bear in mind.

It looks like you’re right about the 4SE! I’ve just looked at the 127mmCelestron Nexstar Mak SLT. Its priced about the same as the 4SE which is interesting. Would no what the main differences would be ?

[Cosmic Geoff]

15 minutes ago, Dakuwaqa said:

It looks like you’re right about the 4SE! I’ve just looked at the 127mmCelestron Nexstar Mak SLT. Its priced about the same as the 4SE which is interesting. Would no what the main differences would be ?

The 4 SE is a Maksutov and has an aperture of 102mm.  Unusually, instead of having a separate diagonal it has a flip mirror for camera or eyepiece built into the back end.  The 127mm Mak obviously has  a larger aperture.  The 4 SE and 5 SE have the same mount which can be tilted up to work in a wedge or equatorial mode (not a very useful feature IMHO). My impression having seen them in a showroom was that the SE models had somewhat sturdier mounts than the SLT or the near-identical Skywatcher equivalent, but don't quote me.