Celestron NexStar 5SE Computerized Telescope – 5-Inch Schmidt-Cassegrain Optical Tube – Fully Automated GoTo Mount with SkyAlign – Ideal for Beginners and Advanced Users – 40,000+ Object Database

Great telescope for a full year now. I brought the 5'' because it fits my budget and is much more portable than the 6" & 8". The telescope arrived in two boxes and was packaged well. It was quite easy to assemble and was straightforward. But the first night when I tested it the red dot finder failed and would not turn on. I contacted product support and they refunded the price of the red dot finder to let me buy another. I think this is reasonable. The telescope was of good quality and was fairly portable in two pieces. I also brought it with the Nex-yz adapter and eyepiece kit. In my opinion, I would not buy the phone adapter and eyepiece kit because I don't use the adapter and eyepiece often. You will pretty much only use the moon filter, 13, 17, and 32mm eyepieces. I also brought a generic LPR filter which helps somewhat in revealing dim objects and filtering out the light pollution . The goto function was really helpful in finding objects especially DSO's. I will use the auto 2 star alignment procedure and manual location settings. This scope was fine for starting astrophotography but exposures can only be limited to 30 seconds maximum. Even though there was a polar alignment option, it was really hard to do since I am living quite close to the equator in Hong Kong and the mount twists into a really weird position when tracking. In the first few months I viewed only from the city, which was a bortle 9 scale. The planets are easy to see, you can see the belts of Jupiter and its moons, and the rings of Saturn easily. If you want a telescope for ONLY the planets, I would recommend some of the scopes without go to like a dobsonian or maktusov because you will be able to see more detail with increased aperture. You don't need go-to because planets are really bright and sometimes the mount will go off track. The Orion Nebula can be seen though only the bright parts. The andromeda galaxy can NOT be seen at all in light polluted places. Later I was able to go out to a better spot ( bortle 5 ) and it was excellent, and I was able to see the double cluster, Orion Nebula and andromeda galaxy a lot better. I would recommend this scope to beginners and people starting astronomy. You can get good results in the middle of the city, but driving to a deep sky site really makes the view impressive. I will not recommend this for astrophotography but instead will recommend scopes with German equatorial mounts. * images are taken with A6000 camera with remote control.

I have had this telescope since June 2019. I am so incredibly happy with it, great quality, amazing views and I'm able to take pictures with my phone up to the eyepiece. I went with the 5se over the 6se not just for price but because it weighs less and I'm able to transport it and carry it around easily. I am absolutely blown away that it's selling on here now in June 2021 for $989 when I only paid $599 in 2019. That's what it should cost from Celestron directly. I am able to view Saturn and Jupiter in my neighborhood that isn't even that dark. I can see the bands on Jupiter and the ring around Saturn very clearly. The pictures I posted don't even do it justice because actual viewing of Saturn and Jupiter through the eyepiece is clearer than my photos. I also recommend buying different eye pieces so you can zoom in closer

I have owned five Meade telescopes of the lX series. Three 10 inch, and two 8 inch. The Celestron 5 in with the built in equatorial wedge provides the ability to effectively use a typical DSLR camera. Albeit for short exposures with an intervalometer. Visually this is versatile scope for viewing but eyepieces upgrades are a plus. This should be your all around light weight portable scope that will last a lifetime. It will become your best all around scope. Should you get supper serious and willing to invest thousands more and incredible amounts of time stacking images I suggest you reconsider the effort in olives. This is your best scope for typical enjoyment.

I've owned a 10" dob (Coulter 10" f/4.5) and an ETX-90 (the original non-computerized model). This scope is my re-entry into amateur astronomy after being away for a few years. I live right smack in the middle of a heavily light polluted metropolitan area (Toronto), and it would take at least two hours to get to a genuinely dark site. So I wound up looking for a small scope that would give me good views of solar system objects. I've been pleasantly surprised. There have been only two nights since I got thing that the sky hasn't been completely socked in by clouds, and the moon has been down for both of them. So I haven't gotten the scope on the moon yet, but Jupiter has been beautifully placed, and it looks fantastic! I get a ton more detail off the planetary disc than I ever got from either previous instrument, and it compares favourably with views I've had through an assortment of friends' scopes. (I used the supplied 25mm Plössl, and a 7mm Nagler.) It's light enough that I can grab it and take it out to the end of the driveway for a quick look at the moon or a planet. I just wish that it either got decent battery life on internal power, or could slew around in altaz mode with the power off. I added a Power Tank after reading reviews of the scope's internal battery life. The tank is awkward enough to compromise the scope's ease of deployment, but I suppose I can throw it in a backpack. I'll definitely want to invest in an adjustable chair; the eyepiece wound up at a very awkward height when Jupiter was up near the zenith. For objects closer to the horizon, the height of the tripod makes the eyepiece position much less bad. Pros: * Really sharp optics * Light weight * Low price, especially compared to what computer-controlled SCTs sold for when I owned my previous scope * Star Pointer instead of a crappy 5x24 finder * Some attempt at including a built-in wedge Cons: * Azimuth locks up when power turned off, which prevents you from using it in altazimuth mode with the drive switched off * Really needs a Power Tank for use, which degrades the value of the scope's light weight * Built-in wedge is very rudimentary * Won't take a 2" diagonal for wide-angle views without vignetting The NexStar 6 gets all the attention, and for 36% more light gathering area for 18% more money, it's a great value. But at 45 pounds vs. the 28 of the NexStar 5, it's 50% heavier for that extra 36% light, more if you add a wedge. The 5 is a big small instrument; I scaled up to it after looking at the computerized ETX-90. The 6 is a small primary instrument; I can imagine scaling down to one after looking at an 8" SCT. For shallow-sky observing in the light-polluted city, and for an instrument that I can carry a long way from my car in one trip with the tripod, single-arm fork, and tube mated up, I think this is a winner.

Hola a todos, recibí el telescopio vendido por Amazon ,en muy buen estado, como el cuidado que han tenido de traerlo de reino Unido sin arañazos y nada que se suele encontrar en un pedido de tantos km en tan perfectas condiciones. E leído las reseñas de muchos compradores como yo, y tenía mis dudas ,pero con la confianza de devolución en caso de venir mal,pues me decidí a comprarlo y muy contento con el producto,calidad celestron!!! Básicamente viene como si lo compraras en la misma tienda celestron ( bien colimado)y si, viene con 1 ocular pero no se acaba el mundo hay muchas variedades de oculares y estos son caretes , pero es como todo en esta vida,se paga la calidad si vas a darle 1 uso frecuente,si no, hay más variedades de fabricantes. El telescopio de calidad ,la montura es perfecta para este tubo y la goto funciona perfectamente y si le sumas el módulo WiFi, mejor que mejor. Todo correcto y quien tenga duda,que no se lo piense.

The Amazon price was amazing and I'm not surprised it went up by almost $900, a day or two after I bought it. Delivery was quick in the US and slowed up a bit in Australia, but that's to be expected. We're still using camel trains to transport goods and most communication is done between two tin cans with a few hundred kilometres of string between them. The telescope was well packaged and took about 15 minutes to put together. One of the retaining screws for the Star Diagonal is missing but I'm pretty sure I can find something that will fit. I have only had a chance to test it terrestrially because of rain at night but I'm sure it will be fine. If Celestron and almost every other corporation on the planet didn't gouge Australians so badly on price I'd buy locally but it looks like Amazon is going to get more of my business.

I am a beginner to Astronomy and this is the perfect scope to get started. I found it very easy to set up with very little knowledge of Astronomy. As a suggestion to get started, use the 3 star alignment, its really simple. Within 10 minutes I was up and running with a whole queue of people wanting to have a look. Great fun! The presets work great too. Downside is that is weighs around 16kg including the tripod, but it fits nicely into my large rucksack, and I can tie the tripod onto the back of my Bike and cycle off somewhere with it. To do astro photography with it, you will need the universal T Ring adaptor and T-Ring for your dslr camera, then learn how to do a polar alignment. I've not yet worked out how to do that properly because I am a noob, and the weathers not been so great either, but I think drift align is what you need to do, and maybe interface with a laptop to get spot on accuracy. I've now gone on to buy the Eye piece and filter kit for it for better magnification and viewing pleasure.. Really happy with it all.

Fenomenal, muy manejable e intuitivo y como soy nuevo en esto te permite observar sin complicaciones de alineaciones, lo plantas y a mirar. Encantado, como se suele decir el mejor telescopio es el que usas, creo que este este es el tamaño limite, a veces lo saco para solo unos minutos, no da pereza. Solo hace falta un buen cielo.

Yes it’s a brilliant product but it needs a lot of dedication to set it up and running. Telescopy is way more complicated and expensive than I anticipated. I finally got there after 3 months. I can now control the telescope with my laptop and make it swivel to the moon and Jupiter and the Pleiades. I got beautiful haunting images. But I’m still struggling to master the camera. On top of this telescope I have spent £300 on the Celestron eyepiece camera, £300 on a padded carrying case for the telescope, £90 for a case for the tripod. Because I need to transport the telescope to a dark sky location 40 miles away. I also had to purchase various usb cables and batteries. The manual is very hard to follow and there are many YouTube tutorials to watch. On top of that we have had the cloudiest 4 months in UK history, and I can only work this on the rare clear nights. That’s why it takes me so long to learn this.