Instead of fumbling to read star charts and align the telescope manually, with the press of a button you can align and focus your telescope on a myriad of celestial objects. The NexStar 5SE operates on a fully computerized system and gives you a handheld controller to guide it. And it provides sufficient power to introduce you to objects in the deep sky. This telescope has a primary 5-inch mirror-big enough for a light-gathering capacity that yields crisp images of some of the best objects in our solar system, from Saturn’s rings to Jupiter’s cloud bands. Lately, I've found myself browsing listings for far larger, more powerful telescopes.The Celestron NexStar 5SE-our pick for the best amateur telescope-is a Schmidt-Cassegrain scope, which means it uses both lenses and mirrors in a relatively compact package. My only caution is that this may well serve as a gateway drug. If you've ever wanted to get into amateur astronomy but have been put off by cost or complexity, this is the setup you want. Celestron has done an amazing job of taking something that's very complex and distilling it into an experience that's approachable for anyone. None of that detracted at all from the sense of wonder you get from this setup. I won't lie, I faked it once or twice, pointing the telescope roughly along the line of their fingers and picking a star at random in the app to zero in on. The trickiest part for me was my kids pointing up at the sky and saying, "Let's find that one," and then trying to find it in the app. (It doesn't, however, work if you haven't bought the telescope.) The objects recommended in the "Tonight's Best" menu were indeed some of the best things to observe. The app is very well done and offers plenty of objects to keep you busy for months' worth of clear nights. That said, there are probably light pollution limits worth bearing in mind if you live, for example, in midtown Manhattan. I also attempted the opposite-setting up the Explorer right in front of some bright street lights with the sun just barely below the horizon-and it had no trouble locating stars I could not see with my naked eye due to light pollution. This time I was able to mix naked eye observations and telescope observations in a way that seemed to really help my kids connect the thing in the lens with the thing in the sky. A couple of weeks later, we brought the telescope down to Edisto Island, where the skies are significantly darker, and it was even more fun. That first night we managed to see the moon, Venus, Rigel, and Betelgeuse before the clouds took over. Officially, StarSense supports the iPhone 6 and up and "most newer Android phones." I used a Nokia 7.2, which is not officially supported but worked fine. Then you download the app and drop your phone in the holder. You need to calibrate it using a fixed object about a quarter-mile out (I used a stop sign). But fortunately the directions are simple and I had it up and running in just a few minutes. The package arrived in a single large box, and I was a little worried about how hard it would be to set up. All of them utilize this smartphone mechanism. There's also the Explorer DX 130AZ ($400), a 130 mm Newtonian reflector telescope the StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ ($180), a 114 mm Newtonian reflector telescope and the StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ ($180), an 80 mm refractor telescope. The model I tested is the Explorer DX 102AZ refractor telescope ($400). The app uses your phone's camera, pointed down into a mirror, to figure out where your telescope is pointed, and then directs you which way to move it to find whatever you want to look at. Yes, the magic here is a mount that sticks off the side of Celestron's telescope and holds your phone in place. The secret high tech ingredient is, in fact, wonderfully low tech and completely fitting: a mirror. The company took the power of a star map and combined it with an affordable set of telescopes and mounts. Unfortunately, motorized tripods are not cheap, and getting it all set up requires a good bit of effort.Ĭelestron saw an opportunity to simplify things considerably. My personal favorite is Stellarium, which can be used to control a telescope on a motorized mount. Software on our phones and desktops has long simplified the night skies by providing guides and mapping out planets, and even giving precise locations of objects.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |