Celestron NexStar 90SLT Maksutov-Cassegrain Portable Telescope for Planets

I have use this to view the Sun (with a Bader solar filter), Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Albireo, Andromeda, and Pleiades. You get stunning views of the moon and sunspots are very distinguishable with this scope. Saturn is pretty small, but the rings are distinct and some moons can be spotted around Saturn. I was able to faintly see the bands of Jupiter and the Galilean moons are pretty bright. You would need a bigger telescope to get more detail from the planetary objects, but the views you get in this scope still makes anyone who looks pretty amazed at what they are viewing. I love the fact this has a computerized tripod mount. This takes the frustrations away of trying to keep an object in view as well as trying to locate something in the vast night sky. The setup take some practice, but it does get easier after a few attempts. My neighbor has an 8” Nexstar SL with the StarSense Automatic Alignment Accessory and I still usually beat him to having an aligned telescope by doing it with the built in SkyAlign method. The tracking is good as long as you have fresh batteries, but I highly recommend using an external power source because the batteries get drained in a few hours. I also recommend using an app to help locate objects. I am planning on getting the WiFi modules so I can use my phone to control the telescope. The included hand controller does take some time to learn, and the menu navigation can be clunky. You can use the free Celestron SkyPortal app for control your scope if you have the WiFi module. Once you have the telescope aligned it is pretty accurate on its tracking. One night I centered Saturn and went inside to watch TV for 2 hours and I was amazed that Saturn was still in the eyepiece when I came back out! You will want to make sure you have the tripod level, fresh batteries, the correct latitude/longitude, time, and date to help ensure your tracking is accurate. This Telescope has made me excited to get out on clear nights and discover the night sky and has also helped get me into trying astrophotography. I was able to use my Olympus E-PL5 the other night piggy backed on the telescope which helped me get a decent shot of Andromeda. I took an hour of exposures it was nice to have the tracking of the telescope available so Andromeda stayed centered in my camera. I also bought a T-Adapter so I could photograph objects using the telescope as a prime lens. My sun and moon shots came out very clear using this method. The sun and moon shots attached are not cropped, and you can see almost the entire frame is consumed by the sun or moon which give a great amount of detail. I highly recommend this telescope! If you can afford a larger telescope, then get the biggest one you can afford, but even though this is only a 3 1/2" scope it can give you some great views of the night sky.

My husband who has had scoping experience very easily set this telescope up and I was able to view Saturn for the first time...wow, I am going to have fun with this. I bought the filter accessories along with it. After seeing that it takes eight double A batteries, I decided to buy the power pack because then I don't have to worry about the motor running out of juice. A solar filter for a Four inch fit was ordered afterwards too. I looked at the full moon tonight with the orange-colored filter and saw all the craters and mountains super clearly. It is also small enough to sit on my unused treadmill when not in use, ready to grab and go. The only problem was that my husband decided to take the cradle for the hand control off to move to another leg of the tripod and the plastic broke. It is now taped to the leg and I will try and replace it. Best buy for such a nice telescope....and I am a true beginner knowing nothing about them. My more experienced husband says it is a fantastic scope for this price. Click and buy one to see Comet ISON this September! P.S. I emailed Celestron about the cradle and they sent a new one immediately! Awesome customer service...this company is on my "good guys" list. I will buy from them again and again.

I originally had planned to get the Celestron Nexstar 4SE for my son as a birthday present but could not get all the money I needed. I finally settled on this one and I was not disappointed. So far it has exceeded my expectations. The telescope is very easy to use and you can see a lot of exciting things. One of our first views was the recent supermoon and the rings of Saturn. Saturn came out much bigger and clearer than I expected. Another review suggested aligning the viewfinder with the scope during daylight hours and this worked very well. This is a great telescope for beginners. The optics are good and clear and everything appears to be built well for this price range. We've only been able to use it in our back yard and there are some street lights to contend with but I can see much better than I was expecting given the area our home is located. If you have an iphone, I would suggest getting the Sky Guide app (not associated with Celestron). It is a great way to help identify objects you can see with the naked eye and then go find them on the telescopes computer for a closer look.

For the money, this is the perfect choice for a beginner. I wanted something simple to start astrophotography. The assembly was extremely easy. Aligning the telescope with the NexStar is a bit more difficult. The first night we tried, it was a beautiful, star-filled night--no moon. We couldn't see Venus through the telescope, and we thought perhaps the telescope itself was broken. The next day, we used the telescope in daylight and could see trees, etc, so we decided that the stars were just not bright enough the previous night for us to align the NexStar. We are going to try and align on the next full moon. I will post a follow-up to let you know if it works. The telescope itself is heavy-duty. The stand is rugged. The whole thing weighs about 30 pounds. All in all, I think this will be a great telescope, and I'm looking forward to getting the other things in so I can take some pictures. Update: I'm downgrading my rating a bit, as I've found that after several attempts to align the NexStar, it is very difficult for a beginner. I am new to astronomy and the NexStar sold me on this telescope; I love the telescope, but I'd have better luck finding the planets, etc. on my own than with this mount. It also seems to shake a bit, even on firm ground. I'm ordering the pads for the legs of the tripod to see if I can keep the vibrations to a minimum. We saw Venus this evening, and I did take some beautiful pictures of the moon this evening with the adapter for my Canon Rebel. It isn't a bad scope, but I really don't like the Nexstar thing at all. I'm hoping by the time ISON gets here I'll have a better handle on how to work it. BE SURE TO GET THE MOON FILTERS! Even with the filter, the moon was super bright!

I have a love for Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes. Started with an 80mm x 500mm f/6.3 MTO 3M-6A. Moved up to a C90 Mak. Wanted a go-to so I traded laterally to this NexStar 90 SLT. Same 90mm x 1250mm f/13.9 as the C90. Maksutov pros: portability, planetary use, no collimation, meniscus corrector design Maksutov cons: not as "fast" and limited deep sky compared to refractors, long cooldown time 90 SLT pros: features to price ratio, easy connection for DSLR/Mirrorless with a T-Ring adapter 90 SLT cons: Sky-Align proving fussy I tried 3-star alignment on two occasions. Once from a Bortle 4 and once from a Bortle 3. Neither time would the scope "go to" Saturn after alignment. I'm sure it's operator error and I have to practice more. Went out in the field once and discovered Solar tracking not straightforward to unlock. I watched a tutorial and took notes so I'm sure the second time will be a success. (UPDATE: Solar Tracking successfully unlocked and working. YAY!) This telescope is PERFECT for APS-C cameras vs The Moon or The Sun (NEVER AIM YOUR TELESCOPE OR CAMERA AT THE SUN WITHOUT A SOLAR FILTER FOR THE PROTECTION OF YOUR EYES AND EQUIPMENT) With a level and balanced setup, Lunar tracking has been a breeze. As I said any other failures are likely on my part for planetary and solar go-to and tracking. Practice makes perfect. I'm still learning the NexStar system. I wish to expand my skills and get to Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and appropriate deep sky objects. This is a package I can definitely grow into. Attached pictures taken with the Celestron NexStar 90 SLT and a Sony a6300 APS-C Mirrorless camera. No images were stacked, these are single frame: Waxing Crescent final edit from ARW file Abstract Image final edit from ARW file (tracked the Moon and it went behind a tree - took unfocused shot to show the donut shaped bokeh of the reflex lens) 3x eyepiece projections onto a6300 sensor of Moon Details final edit from ARW file Solar image final edit from ARW file (I used a Spectrum Telescope Glass Solar Filter ST425G) (UPDATE: Solar closeup image - final edit from 12 ARW files, aligned & stacked) I also attached a chart showing how much of the sensor on APS-C is covered by the Moon. It would be the same coverage for the Sun as well. If Lunar and Solar observation/imaging is a primary focus for choosing a scope, the 90 SLT is a great choice. It is less of a "tight fit" to get the Moon or Sun onto an APS-C sensor than the 127 SLT to ensure you are imaging in the clearest part of the lens (the middle). Also, there is more weight left over to add camera/accessories onto the 90 SLT and not overburden the 8lb payload capacity of the mount vs the 127 SLT. Bonus feature for me: I plan on adding a small (perhaps 90mm x 500mm) achromatic refractor to my arsenal sometime in the future and the mount should be able to handle that well.

I hate to be the odd man out on this product but the telescope that I received is an absolute piece of junk. I had many fond childhood memories of viewing the planets with a telescope. I wanted to introduce my daughter to astronomy too so I did my research and decided on this product. Along with the power pack ( a Must!) and other accessories I spent right about $500. I should have just flushed the money down the toilet. The auto-align feature never worked. I read the instructions slowly and repeatedly over and over to try to figure out what I was doing wrong. I was doing nothing wrong. The auto align just won't function. I called customer support. They just repeated to me what was in the instructions. I tried again and again and again and again and again,,, It just won't align. so I called customer support again and was told that they would take a look at it if I sent it back. UPS told me it would cost $120 in postage for a $300 telescope that maybe Celestron could or couldn't repair. I felt that I had already wasted enough money on this thing and that I wasn't going to spend another fortune on postage with no guarantee that the issue would be resolved. But there was always moon viewing. And Jupiter. And Venus. I could always find these objects in the sky and view them with my half-functioning paper weight of telescope. Until tonight's super moon eclipse. I pulled this thing out of storage with the thought that we could use it to view the moon. But of course now the thing won't focus. You can turn the focus knob to your little heart's delight and it makes absolutely no impact on the clarity of the object you are attempting to view. This is now beyond frustrating. I am a very frugal shopper. This was a pure luxury purchase. I need this the way I need athlete's foot: I don't. And I wasted $500. This telescope was supposed to bring joy and togetherness, It was bought to introduce my daughter to the wonders of the Heavens. Instead I associate this item with frustration, regret and waste. In the end we used a $12 pair of Tesco binoculars to view the eclipse. Beautiful, crisp image. And the focus ring worked too. Caveat Empor.

Since beeing very limited with back injuries and having no fun with eq-mounts and refractors,I decided to give this one a try and it works out fine.It is small but good and solid and I can manage.I needed a telescope with a remote to make it easier and have not tried out the alignment options yet,but I'm sure they work,given I don't miss the handful of nights that you can see more than 3 stars from this place.I already had a 32mm eyepiece and got a 8-24mm zoom for it,so it turns out to be very good for planets etc.After a long research I decided on this one and don't regret it.After all a person has to be able to use it and if there is somebody else with simular problems(and I'm sure there is),you might want to take this one in consideration.Good luck to all of you,if you know something or not.

I bought this for my wife, as a birthday gift, because she always wanted a telescope and never had one before. It's really difficult to find out what telescope buy, so many reviews over the internet and very different opinions on brands and types. After some research, I take the decision on this one. We received it about a week ago, and we have really enjoyed these past days looking at the stars. I will try to describe step by step our experience: 1. The assembly was very easy, no tools needed and this process take us about 10 minutes, and it can be quicker, because we take time to review everything twice, as neither of us has experience with telescopes. 2. We bring the telescope to our backyard (just about 5-6 meters away from home, basically, because we just wanted to tasted and because we were using an Ac adapter to power the telescope. 3. Aligning was not an easy task to us, the "skyalign" process it self is very simple to follow up, but we have some difficulties centering the stars in the finder scope and in the eyepiece (due to our un-experience). 4. However, about 30 minutes later, we were able to look and some stars, constellations (sadly not the moon as we have to go to bed a little earlier that we expect because of a long work day) We're steal learning how to use it, how to get the better focus on the objects, to be able to see their "better look". However, for someone who haven't previous experience with this, the telescope is very friendly and easy to use, and the fact that you can just watch to an object looking on a catalog is very nice and simple. One of my hobbies is photography, so, I'm expecting my T-ring/adapter to try on some pics. I'll be updating this review as the time passes and have more to say. Until now, we are very happy with our new "toy"

Love what I’ve seen so far. Have not found a deep space nebulas yet but the images of the moon are great. Can’t wait until some planets are in view later in the year.

Easy to assemble and simple to align. It took a few minutes to make a solar system align. After I was able to see a Moon and make a photo shoot with smartphone. The finderscope I changed because I didn’t not like it.

Entgegen dem allgemeinen Trend bin ich ein Fan kleiner Teleskope und suchte nach einem platzsparenden Gerät, welches - wie meine Astro-Ferngläser - in kurzer Zeit aufgebaut und betriebsbereit ist, dabei ohne viel Schnickschnack auskommt und trotzdem eine ordentliche optische Leistung bietet. Argument für die Go-To-Montierung war für mich, dass es - meiner Meinung nach - im günstigen Einsteigersegment im Prinzip fast keine brauchbaren mechanischen Montierungen gibt. Eine elektronische Steuerung mittels Handcontroller ermöglicht es, das Teleskop entweder mit oder ohne Goto zu steuern ohne das Gerät selbst zu berühren. Dies steigert den Beobachtungskomfort gegenüber den meisten günstigen Montierungen erheblich und bietet den Vorteil eines nahezu verwackelungsfreien Bildes (hier unbedingt darauf achten, dass das Teleskop auf festem Untergrund steht! Schlecht sind z.B. Holzdielen auf Balkonen, diese sorgen für starke Bildvibrationen). Nach langer Recherche habe ich mich für Celestrons Nexstar SLT und gegen ein entsprechendes Modell von Meade entschieden: Die Gründe hierfür waren 1) Der Preis 2) das unkomplizierte Auf- und Abbau-Prinzip des Nexstar SLT-Systems 3) die Verfügbarkeit und Kompatibilität von Erweiterungen für das Teleskop (z.B. GPS, Wifi, Kabel, Software, etc.) 4) die Prismenschiene, auf die jeder Tubus mit Vixen-Schiene und einem maximalen Gewicht von 3kg passt. So kann man sich mit dieser Montierung durchaus auch weiterentwickeln. 5) Der unschlagbare Produkt-Support von Celestron. Das Unternehmen hat sogar eine eigene Website, auf der diverse Ersatzteile erworben werden können, falls mal etwas kaputt geht. 6) Der Handcontroller kann per Kabel an den PC angeschlossen und entsprechend upgedatet werden. Ich habe zwar ein Modell von vor 2016 erworben, d.h. mein Controller hat noch einen RS-232-Port. Nachdem Celestron jedoch gängige Standardkabel verwendet, ist der Anschluss an einen PC dennoch kein Problem. Wer USB ab Werk möchte, möge dies im Vorfeld mit seinem Händler klären. 7) ein stabiles Stativ mit Stahlbeinen 8) das Alignment-Verfahren Ich konnte den kleinen 90/1250er Maksutov hier bei amazon.de für unschlagbare 390 € erwerben. Ein kleines, aber behebbares Manko ist der wirklich hohe Stromverbrauch der Goto-Montierung (ca. 750mAh). Zur Abhilfe habe ich mir bei einem Discounter eine vielseitig einsetzbare Powerbank mit 12000mAh und integriertem 12V-Anschluss sowie das entsprechende Auto-Anschlusskabel von Celestron geholt. Damit die Optik im Winterhalbjahr keine Feuchte zieht, empfiehlt sich außerdem der Kauf oder Selbstbau einer Tauschutzkappe, diese ist leider nicht im Lieferumfang enthalten. Zum Goto: Zur Vorbereitung sollte man sich unbedingt je eine App mit Angabe der geografischen Koordinaten (im Grad-Minuten-Sekunden-Format) und eine App zur Anzeige der genauen Uhrzeit holen. Für beides gibt es einfache kostenlose Lösungen! Diese Daten müssen eingegeben werden. Und hier unbedingt beachten: Auch wenn der Handcontroller auf die deutsche Sprache eingestellt wird, das Datum MUSS im amerikanischen Format eingegeben werden (MONAT/TAG/JAHR). Dieser simple Eingabe-Fehler hat bei mir leider dazu geführt, dass mein erster Test mit dem Gerät ein Desaster wurde, weil ich Tag und Monat vertauscht hatte und somit dem System vorgaukelte, es befinde sich bereits im Folgemonat. Somit konnte das Goto-System natürlich kein erfolgreiches Alignment durchführen. Das fiel mir leider erst auf, als ich zuhause nochmals durch die Anleitung blätterte. Das zweite "MUST" ist, dass der für den Alignment-Prozess benötigte Leuchtpunktsucher unbedingt installiert und ausgerichtet werden muss. Dies geht jedoch wirklich einfach und schnell. Inzwischen habe ich mich etwas genauer eingelesen (dies sollte man unbedingt tun; die Anleitung ist jedoch nur in englischer Sprache!) und die ersten Erfolge waren wirklich motivierend. Das Alignment nutzt im Prinzip ein Triangulationsverfahren oder ein Identifikationsverfahren. Man benötigt hierfür keinen Kompass und muss das Gerät nicht ausnivellieren (wie bei anderen Herstellern), sondern kann direkt starten. Zum Alignment sollte man ausschließlich Sterne mit einer Helligkeit von 2,5 oder heller nehmen. Dazu kann man eine Planetariums-App entsprechend so einstellen, dass diese nur solche Sterne anzeigt und sich so eine geeignete Alignment-Strecke überlegen (ein bisschen Himmelskenntnis sollte meines Erachtens hierfür schon vorhanden sein). Es sollte darauf geachtet werden: a) das die gewählten Sterne nicht zu nahe beeinander liegen b) die Sterne nicht auf einer Linie liegen c) die Sterne ausschließlich mit den Tasten "oben" und "rechts" angefahren werden (siehe Anleitung) Zunächst wird jeder Stern mittels Rotpunktsucher angefahren, bestätigt und dann im Okular zentriert. Nach erfolgreichem Alignment, welches ich bei einem Test inzwischen schon aus dem beschränkten Sichtbereich eines Schlafzimmers bei geschlossenen Fenstern hinbekommen habe, ist die Nachführgenauigkeit wirklich grandios und bietet ein sehr entspanntes Beobachten. Die beiden mitgelieferten Okulare sind für den Anfang vollkommen ausreichend. Vielleicht noch als Hinweis für ambitionierte Beobachter: Beim 90/1250er Mak passen nur Okulare mit 1,25"-Anschluss. FAZIT: Wer ein vernünftiges und robustes Einsteiger-Gerät mit Entwicklungspotential sucht, ist beim Nexstar SLT gut aufgestellt. Ist man bereit, sich etwas einzulesen und mit dem Gerät zu beschäftigen, kann man sehr schnell erste Erfolge für sich verbuchen. Zur Beseitigung der angesprochenen Mankos muss man etwas Geld und/oder Arbeit investieren, es lohnt aber in jedem Falle. Absolute Empfehlung.

Conforme à l'annonce Livré parfaitement

Très satisfait!