I bought this telescope in June. The mount had some issues and had to be repaired, twice. Celestron finally got it back to me. This scope is spetacular. The optics are top notch, the focus is crisp and not fussy, and the tracking is stable even when changing it’s balance by switching an eyepiece for a CCD camera. I was able to image with my Starshooter II on my first night.
Rating: 1 / 5

We purchased the Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope in time for my son’s birthday in August. He is a serious student of Astronomy with great encouragement by his high school teacher. The Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope is a terrific investment and the perfect education outlet. The 6″ telescope is working just fine for us, but knowing what we know now, I would have purchased the 8″ Celestron NexStar, only because the viewing capabilities with the 6″ are so incredible, we can just imagine how much more we would be able to see with the 8″ telescope. My son takes the telescope with us on Boy Scout Troop expeditions now, which has proven to be great way to wind down the day.

The only trouble we have had with the telescope is achieving the initial alignment. We can find bright enough objects in three different directions, and the “on board” computer seems to work pretty quickly, but so far we only get a message saying that the alignment process failed, after several minutes of “computer contemplation.” My son is certain that this is something he can remedy. Getting the viewfinder aligned with the lens should be a first step priority.

On our first night out we had a brilliant full moon to work with, and seeing inside the impact craters was truly amazing. But on the same night we found Jupiter, and with a 2X Barlow lens we could see the planet, in color, including the cloud bands around the planet. My six-foot baby boy was doing the Happy Dance at 2 AM on a quiet gravel road. He woke up all the critters, and we had to go home!
Rating: 4 / 5

I was quite pleased when I saw Saturn through this telescope first. Watching planet is fun all the time. It is easy to use. This is good as it is for beginners. However, I wish I had bought the 8 inch one. Urban area where I live is not ideal for sky watching. Watching deep sky objects with this one is fairly limited unless you go to a rural area, which I haven’t done.
Rating: 4 / 5

This is my second nexstar scope. My first was a six years old refractor. This one is a vast improvement. Optical quality is excellent, the tripod is rock solid, and the sky align technology can’t be beat. Also, the quality of the included eyepiece is really nice.

For the reviewer who thinks it should ship with such accessories as a carry bag, etc…well, in a perfect world, yes, but none of the other major telescope vendors include such things. Until it becomes competitively necessary for them to give away for free what is now a lucrative accessory market, they won’t.

Nice scope. You won’t be disappointed. Good mix of optical quality and portability
Rating: 5 / 5

This is my first telescope. After doing quite a bit of research, went to a star party to solicit opinions, I thought this would be a good starter to get me really interested in practical astronomy (vs. watching Discovery channel and read books). I have had it for over a week now, while I am impressed with some of the stuff I saw with the scope, but I am rather disappointed with the standard package. The $1000 price should have included some additional essential accessories. I ended up spending an extra $300 on additional accessories and am expecting to spend another $300 for some of the nice-to-haves.

PROS:

1. portability – light weight (27lbs total with tripod)

2. finder scope – not sure if it’s standard, but the red dot in the finder scope, when aligned properly with the scope, works very nicely

3. clear and clean images – so far, i’ve only been able to see the moon and jupiter, and plenty of terrestrial objects and the images are very impressive.

CONS:

1. standard included accessories suck!!!

- a. low magnification eyepiece! the 25mm eyepiece gives you a total magnification of 60x. The only thing you can see clearly with any details is the moon. Jupiter, as big as it is, I can barely make out the details, although it’s very cool seeing the 4 big Jupiter moon (hey, I am new at this, it was still exciting).

DE-CON: Spent $110 on Amazon for a 13-piece accessories kit (Celestron) which includes a 2x barlow and a range of eyepieces and filters. This should really help with magnifications (I haven’t received the kit yet).

- b. NO AC adapter! Be sure to have plenty of 2AA batteries floating around. A brand new set (8 required) will last about 1hr+ with somewhat frequent slewing. I have a high balcony, with plenty of skyview, it would have been very nice to be able to plug the scope into an outlet to play around with it for a few hours before taking it to the field.

DE-CON: Spent $20 an AC adapter and $50 on a Celestron 12V PowerTank (both from Adorama). The AC adapter is HUGE!!! Good thing is that I don’t have to carry it anywhere. The 12V PowerTank does not have a detachable red flashlight, but it seems to work well providing power.

- c. Image diagonal NOT erected! While the images you see with the included diagonal is right-side up, it’s right-to-left (reverted).

DE-CON: Spent $35 on an erected diagonal. OK, given that the included diagonal and the erected diagonal are EXACTLY the same in construction with the exception of the Amici prism, I am not sure why Celestron doesn’t go an extra step for (probably) a few bucks more vs. $35+shipping. I know orientation is meaningless in space, but geez, now I have no use for the included diagonal.

- d. NO carrying case! I can’t believe that something this precious doesn’t come with even a canvas carrying case. The cheapest case I can find is the JMI case for this scope and it requires that you use the same packing foam that the scope came in – for $160!!!. I ended up just putting the foam in one of my suitcases and carry the scope that way. I’m looking for a hard-case rolling suitcase. With all of the extra equipments, I may go for a large suitcase to fit everything in one (except the tripod of course).

2. So far, it’s a dog trying to use SkyAlign in the city (Philadelphia, PA …yes, it PA Celestron, not PE). The best I have been able to do was to get SkyAlign to match the patterns of the Big Dipper, but alignment still fail (yes, I have followed instructions and tried using Jupiter, the Moon, and another “bright” star, but alignment always failed. I have yet to take it into a rural area, but I am sure alignment will work then. Point is, I need to learn more about the sky to use the other alignment methods if I do my observation in the city.

I also bought an LPR (Light Polution Reduction) filter, another $60 investment, hoping that it will help with the light polution. The filter did cut down quite a bit of city light, but leaves a greenish tint. I am not sure if it’s worth the money. Will wait and see when I try it out with the additional eyepieces.

As for the nice-to-haves, I am planning on getting a stereo binocular viewer ($200). This means I’ll have to pickup a second lens kit (another $110).

BOTTOM LINE: Expect to spend A LOT of $$$ on accessories to make the scope truly useful. I just think celestron should have included a second shorter focal length eyepiece and an AC adapter with built-in rechargeable battery for this price. I like the scope so far, but not happy that I have to spend so much more money for accessories. If you get the scope, I highly recommend purchasing the PowerTank and the lens/filter kit simultaneously. I’ll try do another review once I have and tryout all my accessories.
Rating: 3 / 5