Celestron 11049 NexStar 4SE Computerised Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope with Advanced GPS, Astroimaging and AutoAlign Features, Black/Orange

Product Information

In the tradition of Celestron's famous orange optical tubes, the new NexStar SE Family combines the classic heritage of the original orange tube telescopes with state-of-the-art features including a fully computerized operating system, upgradeable hand control, our superior StarBright XLT coatings, our revolutionary SkyAlign™ telescope alignment software and much more. Depending on what you’ve read so far, you’re either ready to take the plunge and buy a NexStar 4SE, or you’re thinking it’s not quite the right model for you. There are multiple modes for using the SkyAlign system, but we will go only over the two most important ones as you will be using those two most of the time. The NexStar 4SE is highly portable. Its weight is only around 3kg or 6 lbs. And the weight of the mount is around 7 kg or 17 lbs in total. This makes it very easy to carry.

Includes a camera control feature and shutter release cable that allows you to remotely take a series of exposures using your digital SLR camera This remote is what controls the motorized movement of the mount that allows the OTA to automatically slew to objects in the sky. As with everything in this world, this telescope has its pros and cons too. But the Nexstar 4SE doesn’t really have any major issues that may lead you to regret buying it.You’ll see all of the planets with this NexStar. It will readily reveal both Uranus and Neptune when they are available.

Place the new CR-2032 battery, positive (+) side up, under the two copper battery clips at the front of the battery compartment. Expect to need a larger eyepiece to get the best of wide views like the Pleiades, for example. You may have to invest in a wide-angle 32mm or even 40mm eyepiece to enjoy them. Align the red dot: Move the finder’s knobs until the red dot centers on the target object in your field of view. Once aligned with the same object, your finderscope is correctly aligned. Because of the Maksutov Cassegrain design, the 4SE can provide high magnifications. Magnification is calculated by dividing the telescope’s focal length by the eyepiece’s focal length. Therefore the long focal length of the 4SE is a significant advantage if you are looking for a high-magnification telescope to observe planets.

To conclude…

The Apertura AD8/Zhumell Z8/Orion SkyLine 8 offers double the resolving power, quadruple the light gathering area, and a significantly easier to use and more stable mount than that of the NexStar 4SE. You also get a pile of decent accessories included and features like a built-in cooling fan and 2” dual-speed Crayford focuser. The Celestron NexStar 4SE is very easy to set up. In just a few steps, you can get the telescope up and running. Here is how to set up the telescope: Four decades later, we’ve improved upon this design by adding cutting-edge features, while staying true to our founder’s intent. This makes the scope great for bright, narrow-field work, such as viewing planets and double stars, but less so for dimmer, wide-field objects such as nebulae and star clusters. Mount the telescope: Align the telescope base with the mount, ensuring the rubber feet align with the mounting screws. Tighten the mounting bolts.

You’ll want to add to the single eyepiece that comes in the box – more on that shortly – but the included 25mm ExCel Plössl is good quality, as we found in our ExCel eyepieces review. Set-up & General Use The long focal length and slow focal ratio, as we mentioned in the introduction, means that you’ll have higher magnifications and narrower fields of view for any given eyepiece when compared to a scope with a much shorter focal length.The 4SE performs very well with double stars, as we’d expect for the given specifications. Don’t be afraid to use shorter focal length eyepieces here to tease out tight separations with high magnification. The 4SE is well constructed and tightly put together. It feels heavier than it looks which adds to the sense of professional construction. Optical Performance

Insert batteries: Open the telescope cover, insert 8 AA batteries ensuring correct polarity, and replace the cover. SkyAlign, 1-Star Align, 2-Star Align, Auto 2-Star Align, Solar System Align, EQ North / EQ South Alignment (EQ align requires an equatorial wedge) Setting up the Celestron 4SE is a cinch, but despite the small tube, transporting it was cumbersome when on foot. (Image credit: Jonathan Lansley-Gordon)The Celestron NexStar 4SE computerised telescope comes with a single 25mm Plossl eyepiece, yielding 55x. This is good as a low-power or “finder” eyepiece for viewing deep-sky objects and initially aligning the telescope. But for optimal usage of the telescope, you’ll want something for higher magnifications, such as a 9mm or 6mm “goldline” or some other good eyepieces, and perhaps a 32mm Plossl for the widest field of view possible. The only other accessory included with the 4SE is its StarPointer red-dot finder, which is used for aligning the telescope’s GoTo system. The NexStar 4SE Mount