rlh57 from United States, KS Public Profile

I have been using telescopes of various types and sizes for over 30 years when I decided to look for an easier to move around, goto telescope with enough smarts to find and track objects in the night sky and enough aperture to see the Messier objects and more. After much homework, I'm happy to say the NexStar6SE does just that.

It's easy to set up, light weight, fairly intuitive electronics and very nice optics. Plus since it uses a dovetail bar to mount to the drive arm, I can also swap out the 6SE for my 60mm Hydrogen-Alpha solar scope and the electronics allows for a solar system alignment including the sun. Just be sure you know what you're doing cause you could put an eye out with that kid... The tripod is fairly sturdy and steady, too. Just don't over tighten the plastic knobs on the tripod legs as they look like the could break fairly easily.

I have only minor complaints.

First, for a beginning astronomer it should have come with two eyepieces. The 25mm Plossel that came with the scope is a decent eyepiece, but you'll definitely want something like a 12mm to get those close-up looks at the planets and the moon.

Second, don't even think about using 8 AA batteries for an evening of viewing unless you line up on one object only for the entire evening. On a warm summer night, I got less than 2 hours before the scope drive electronics got all wonky. I pulled out the batteries and hooked up a cigarette lighter cable I have for one of my other scopes and it ran qu