The Celestron NexStar 6SE is a telescope that’s an all-arounder, match for a plethora of skywatching wants: particularly since it may be utilized by novices, who’re simply venturing into astronomy, and extra seasoned observers with a superb information of the night sky.
Given its capabilities, this telescope is sort of tough to outgrow — it may be used as an observer’s fundamental instrument and even as an add-on to present equipment, offering the astronomer with the pliability of a faster, fuss-free skywatching expertise over extra complicated setups. The NexStar 6SE is straightforward to decorate with extra eyepieces, purple dot finders, filters and star diagonals, which is crucial for bettering your views of photo voltaic system and deep-sky targets.
The telescope provides the chance to dabble in astrophotography, nevertheless, you’ll require a T-ring or adapter in case you select to picture with a CCD, CMOS or DSLR or a smartphone adapter for images along with your iPhone or Android. Many novices may discover the thought of utilizing a GoTo telescope daunting, however Celestron’s complete manuals and software program will put any worries to mattress.
Associated: Best telescopes
Celestron NexStar 6SE key specs
Optical design: Schmidt-Cassegrain
Aperture: 150 mm (5.91″)
Focal size: 1499 mm (59″)
Focal ratio: f/10
Eyepiece focal size: 25 mm (60x)
Whole equipment weight: 21 lbs. (9.53 kg)
Mount sort: Single-arm fork, alt-azimuth
Celestron NexStar 6SE: Design
- Sturdy, sturdy construct
- StarBright XLT optical coating for crisp views
- Eight AA batteries drain rapidly
A single 25mm Plössl eyepiece is provided with the Celestron 6SE to offer a magnification of 60x, however a lot extra might be achieved from the optical system, so we advise buying a number of eyepieces and filters — taking into consideration that the best helpful magnification is 354x — to get the perfect out of this telescope.
Setting this Schmidt-Cassegrain up took subsequent to no time in any respect, and we had been impressed with the standard of lots of its elements, particularly its purple dot finder and durable chrome steel tripod. The sturdy construct of the NexStar 6SE guarantees to final years of observing classes, supplied it’s handled with care. Moreover, since catadioptric telescopes can succumb to moisture throughout observations, a dew protect can be a worthy funding to guard the optical system and delay the telescope’s lifetime.
Weighing in at 21 lbs. (9.53 kilograms), the Celestron 6SE is a contact on the heavy aspect because of the expertise and elements compacted into it: a minor inconvenience for individuals who may want help in transporting their ‘scope from one location to a different. Regardless of this, the NexStar 6SE boasts high quality over lighter devices, so we do not think about this to be a serious setback within the design.
What is sort of a big flaw is the requirement of eight AA batteries to function the computerized alt-azimuth fork mount. Sadly the NexStar 6SE drains batteries fairly rapidly, making utilizing it fairly irritating when the pc “clocks out” while you are engrossed in observing. Over time — and with consistently changing the batteries — utilizing the telescope has the potential to develop into fairly an costly enterprise.
Undeterred, we tried out rechargeable batteries as a method to analyze another route for powering the NexStar 6SE, however found that the telescope would act unusually with low energy and located a fast lack of cost was nonetheless an issue. We strongly suggest buying an AC energy wire from Celestron — sadly, this isn’t included with the telescope.
Celestron guarantees an amazing deal with regards to the operational talents of this instrument, so we had been delighted to find that the NexStar 6SE did precisely what it says on the tin once we took it out to check on a transparent December night.
For one, the star alignment — which employs Celestron’s SkyAlign expertise and allows calibration for precisely discovering targets — was impressively easy, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than we had been all arrange and able to tour the winter night time sky.
Celestron NexStar 6SE: First gentle and performance
- Noisy motorized mount and apparent vibration
- Precisely tracks targets
- No colour-fringing or visible defects
Our first goal was the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), which might be discovered slightly below Orion’s Belt and is well seen to the bare eye as a fuzzy patch, glowing at magnitude +four. Utilizing the management to instruct the NexStar to view this diffuse nebula, the computerized mount ran easily and the GoTo expertise was very correct in finding objects. The Trapezium Cluster, as an example, is nestled on the coronary heart of the Orion Nebula and was discovered to be aligned near the centre of the sphere of view.
Once we introduced the guts of the star-forming area into view we did discover a level of vibration whereas focusing however, as soon as completed, observations might be taken in with none hindrance. Due to the wonderful StarBright XLT optical coating our observations of the nebula and its stellar members had been very crisp, brilliant and clear, with no defects within the optics.
Whereas the telescope slews to its goal — this mannequin possesses 9 speeds — the mount does make quite a lot of noise, significantly once we used the average to quick settings. For those who discover the noise off-putting and are completely happy to look at and not using a computerized mount, it’s fairly straightforward to change over to a handbook one on condition that the tube possesses a Vixen-style dovetail. Keep in mind although, you’ll need a Vixen adapter if you wish to match the tube to a different Celestron mount.
Heading again inside to heat up with a sizzling drink, we determined to offer the NexStar’s lunar, photo voltaic and sidereal monitoring a check and left it targeted on a star. Upon returning to the telescope 30 minutes later, we discovered that our goal hadn’t drifted out of the sphere of view, highlighting the instrument’s suitability for long-exposure astrophotography.
With the nearly-full moon taking pleasure of place fairly late into the night, we took the chance to view our pure satellite tv for pc’s cratered floor. The lunar views that we noticed had been spectacular: the NexStar revealed well-defined crater partitions and lunar mare to a really excessive commonplace — the craters Copernicus and Tycho had been significantly spectacular and crystal clear utilizing the modest 5.91” aperture.
With gas giant Jupiter additionally at an excellent place within the sky and some levels away from the moon, the NexStar made quick work of finding the planet and its 4 largest satellites: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Jupiter was seen within the area of view as a brilliant disk, with Ganymede and Europa showing as sharp factors of white gentle flanking the enormous’s left limb, whereas Io and Callisto might be discovered comparatively close to to the planet’s proper. Faint brown and cream bands had been seen throughout Jupiter’s floor.
As we found when observing the Orion Nebula, views via the Schmidt-Cassegrain’s optics had been impressively clear and brilliant with no chromatic aberration — or color fringing — evident. Jupiter will solely proceed to make a superb goal by rising the telescope’s magnification, one thing we extremely suggest both by utilizing a Barlow lens in addition to extra eyepieces with a 1.25” becoming. A blue filter will present wonderful distinction, taking part in up the rills and festoons within the fuel large’s cloud layers and promote straightforward viewing of the planetary king’s well-known storm: the Great Red Spot.
Celestron NexStar 6SE: Verdict
The NexStar 6SE is a superb illustration of Celestron’s iconic telescope vary. Given its capabilities and revolutionary expertise, the worth tag is affordable, however the package deal does lack a wide selection of eyepieces that would offer a fair larger number of views. The setup provides a lifetime of observations supplied it’s handled with care and little-to-no upkeep is carried out on the optics and computerized mount.
The NexStar 6SE’s alignment expertise takes the effort out of calibrating the instrument and, as soon as accomplished, the GoTo system is exceedingly correct in finding targets on the contact of a button. The telescope’s database boasts 40,000 targets to slew to however, regardless of the helpful magnification of 354x, it is not doable to view all objects with readability even with further equipment, reminiscent of eyepieces and a Barlow Lens. In some instances although, astrophotography picks out a number of the fainter targets which are seen in telescopes with bigger apertures.
The GoTo facility does drain batteries and is a tad on the noisy aspect when in operation, however a relentless energy provide and taking the telescope to a distant location (in case you’re involved about waking the neighbors!) are straightforward fixes to an in any other case very good instrument.
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