Secondhand Nexstar 5se

[sheep600fx]

Hi all, Well have just sealed the deal on a secondhand Nexstar 5se, Im going to pick it up on Tuesday evening, It was bought at christmas 2008 for the chaps daughter but has only been used 2-3 times. Im getting it for £370 which I think is a good price, Are there any things to check when I pick it up, Cant guarantee clear skies so setting up maybe be a problem. Oh and is that price reasonable?

Thanks

Sean.

[Lurker]

Try looking on eBay for prices of that Telescope. It would give you a roughly estimate of a price 2nd hand.

[John]

I bought a Nexstar 5i a few years back and paid £300 for it - I thought that was a good price so £370 is probably fine for the much more recent SE version.

They are over £600 new.

Check that the mirrors and the corrector are clean free of marks (a little dust on the corrector is OK). Check that the mount fires up and ask them to run the demo mode - it pans around all over the place then which tests it out.

[Steep]

Take some batteries along just in case they don't have any.

[russ]

Agree with John, seems a good price for a 5SE.

Get him to show you it working. Have him demonstrate the controller and drives working. Look down the front of the scope and make sure the coatings on the front corrector plate look good (it will almost certainly have some dew spots which are not a problem) and that the mirror surface has no defects. Try the focus knob and make sure it has a nice smooth action throughout the focus range.

[sheep600fx]

Thanks for the advice guys, I had a quick look around and the price I paid seems about half the price of new which seems good to me :-)

[sheep600fx]

Basically the scope was used over the christmas period 2-3 times and then put away as the daughter lost interest,She wants a laptop instead now hence the sale. But I will try my best to check everything as advised

[russ]

Chances are by the sounds of it, it will be 'as new'

[sheep600fx]

Thats what Im hoping Russ, Getting excited now :-)

[Slangers]

I have just bought a brand new Nexstar 8SE and was very disappointed to find it malfunctioned when I first went out with it on Wednesday (beautiful night with perfect seeing). I think it was just me being a noob and not fully charging the power tank before setting out. I hope that was the case at any rate, if not- I have a problem and will be scopeless until it is fixed.

[russ]

Fingers crossed for you......will be a cracking scope!

[russ]

I have just bought a brand new Nexstar 8SE and was very disappointed to find it malfunctioned when I first went out with it on Wednesday (beautiful night with perfect seeing). I think it was just me being a noob and not fully charging the power tank before setting out. I hope that was the case at any rate, if not- I have a problem and will be scopeless until it is fixed.

These mounts (and many others) are very sensitive to poorly charged or partly charged powertanks. Can give the impression something is wrong but not actually. Hopefully you'll be fine once the tank is fully charged.

[sheep600fx]

Im planning on taking a trip to Maplins to buy a 12v battery pack as Ive heard the Nexstars eat batteries

[Slangers]

I hope you are right! No idea when the next clear sky will come my way though.

[E621Keith]

I have just bought a brand new Nexstar 8SE and was very disappointed to find it malfunctioned when I first went out with it on Wednesday (beautiful night with perfect seeing). I think it was just me being a noob and not fully charging the power tank before setting out. I hope that was the case at any rate, if not- I have a problem and will be scopeless until it is fixed.

Check how you enter the date as well. Nexstar uses the American system, MM/DD/YY, rather than the usual DD/MM/YY. I've been caught out many times.

[russ]

They do eat batteries, so a better power source is desirable.

Slangers, why not test the scope asap? You don't need a clear sky or even a night sky. Just do a dummy skyalign and then punch in a few targets.

[Slangers]

Yes, have already done that. That's why I think it was a power thing. I could run a dummy align and have it working beautifully tracking a dummy Saturn inside my house, but in the garden at 0°C it tripped out. I guess the cold reduced the power output on the tank. Hopefully fully charged it will be OK... A scope that only works inside is no good to me!

[russ]

Fingers crossed for your next run outside.

[Slangers]

Took it outside tonight, despite almost no clear sky. It ran normally for 5 minutes and then died again. Can't be a power problem and must be something more significant. It will have to go back to Celestron. I am so disappointed... and without a scope until it is replaced.

[red dwalf]

shame as these are usually very good reliable mounts, the scopes are fantastic when you get the chance to see Jupiter and Saturn.

just one thing the power tank chargers take ages to charge the tank, my charger charged at 1/2 amp per hour so you can imagine how long a 17 amp power pack took, so i used the car charger instead and it worked a treat

[Slangers]

Thanks for the tip. I charged it 15 hours overnight- will be a pain to do that regularly.

[sheep600fx]

Got some clear skies here at the moment......Typical lol.

[red dwalf]

check your charger if it`s the same as mine at 1/2 amp per hour then 15 hours is less than 1/2 a charge, if you have a car charger stick it on that, mine used to play up all the time when i thought it was full until someone from this site who knew what he was doing told me what the problem was with these units

[rowan46]

I bought a new mains power supply for my nexstar as I had intended using it in my back garden put the adaptor in and it worked fine when I took it out it periodically crashed. Eventually I tracked the problem down to the fact I was using the wrong size piece in the power socket. is it possible your plug into the power jack is the wrong size or perhaps badly fitting

[Slangers]

No- I checked that as I had read this was a regular problem. It didn't run on batteries either, which kind of rules out a power problem. It's going back to Celestron on Monday, so hopefully I will get a nice shiny new one later in the week. I am really disappointed, but at least I will have that amazing thrill of unpacking a brand new scope twice in the space of a week.