Celestron 11049 NexStar 4SE Computerised Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope with Fully Automated Mount, SkyAlign Technology and XLT Coating, Black/Orange

Great telescope for a full year now. I brought the 5'' because it fits my budget and is much more portable than the 6" & 8".The telescope arrived in two boxes and was packaged well. It was quite easy to assemble and was straightforward. But the first night when I tested it the red dot finder failed and would not turn on. I contacted product support and they refunded the price of the red dot finder to let me buy another. I think this is reasonable.The telescope was of good quality and was fairly portable in two pieces. I also brought it with the Nex-yz adapter and eyepiece kit. In my opinion, I would not buy the phone adapter and eyepiece kit because I don't use the adapter and eyepiece often. You will pretty much only use the moon filter, 13, 17, and 32mm eyepieces. I also brought a generic LPR filter which helps somewhat in revealing dim objects and filtering out the light pollution.The goto function was really helpful in finding objects especially DSO's. I will use the auto 2 star alignment procedure and manual location settings.This scope was fine for starting astrophotography but exposures can only be limited to 30 seconds maximum. Even though there was a polar alignment option, it was really hard to do since I am living quite close to the equator in Hong Kong and the mount twists into a really weird position when tracking.In the first few months I viewed only from the city, which was a bortle 9 scale. The planets are easy to see, you can see the belts of Jupiter and its moons, and the rings of Saturn easily. If you want a telescope for ONLY the planets, I would recommend some of the scopes without go to like a dobsonian or maktusov because you will be able to see more detail with increased aperture. You don't need go-to because planets are really bright and sometimes the mount will go off track. The Orion Nebula can be seen though only the bright parts. The andromeda galaxy can NOT be seen at all in light polluted places.Later I was able to go out to a better spot ( bortle 5 ) and it was excellent, and I was able to see the double cluster, Orion Nebula and andromeda galaxy a lot better.I would recommend this scope to beginners and people starting astronomy. You can get good results in the middle of the city, but driving to a deep sky site really makes the view impressive. I will not recommend this for astrophotography but instead will recommend scopes with German equatorial mounts.* images are taken with A6000 camera with remote control.

I've owned a 10" dob (Coulter 10" f/4.5) and an ETX-90 (the original non-computerized model). This scope is my re-entry into amateur astronomy after being away for a few years. I live right smack in the middle of a heavily light polluted metropolitan area (Toronto), and it would take at least two hours to get to a genuinely dark site. So I wound up looking for a small scope that would give me good views of solar system objects.I've been pleasantly surprised. There have been only two nights since I got thing that the sky hasn't been completely socked in by clouds, and the moon has been down for both of them. So I haven't gotten the scope on the moon yet, but Jupiter has been beautifully placed, and it looks fantastic! I get a ton more detail off the planetary disc than I ever got from either previous instrument, and it compares favourably with views I've had through an assortment of friends' scopes. (I used the supplied 25mm Plössl, and a 7mm Nagler.)It's light enough that I can grab it and take it out to the end of the driveway for a quick look at the moon or a planet. I just wish that it either got decent battery life on internal power, or could slew around in altaz mode with the power off. I added a Power Tank after reading reviews of the scope's internal battery life. The tank is awkward enough to compromise the scope's ease of deployment, but I suppose I can throw it in a backpack. I'll definitely want to invest in an adjustable chair; the eyepiece wound up at a very awkward height when Jupiter was up near the zenith. For objects closer to the horizon, the height of the tripod makes the eyepiece position much less bad.Pros:* Really sharp optics* Light weight* Low price, especially compared to what computer-controlled SCTs sold for when I owned my previous scope* Star Pointer instead of a crappy 5x24 finder* Some attempt at including a built-in wedgeCons:* Azimuth locks up when power turned off, which prevents you from using it in altazimuth mode with the drive switched off* Really needs a Power Tank for use, which degrades the value of the scope's light weight* Built-in wedge is very rudimentary* Won't take a 2" diagonal for wide-angle views without vignettingThe NexStar 6 gets all the attention, and for 36% more light gathering area for 18% more money, it's a great value. But at 45 pounds vs. the 28 of the NexStar 5, it's 50% heavier for that extra 36% light, more if you add a wedge. The 5 is a big small instrument; I scaled up to it after looking at the computerized ETX-90. The 6 is a small primary instrument; I can imagine scaling down to one after looking at an 8" SCT. For shallow-sky observing in the light-polluted city, and for an instrument that I can carry a long way from my car in one trip with the tripod, single-arm fork, and tube mated up, I think this is a winner.