This scope weighs 15 pounds, making it very portable relative to other options out there. Unlike with some of the NexStar 5SE’s competitors, this controller worked flawlessly in our tests, offering micro adjustments and responsive tracking with the attached controller system.
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. 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.
