Sky & Telescope - January 2025 - 66

S&T Test Report by Dennis di Cicco
Celestron's Origin Astrograph
This smart telescope promises to be easy enough for `rank` beginners and powerful enough for
seasoned astroimagers.
CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY for
amateur astronomers has revolutionized
the hobby in ways most of us couldn't
have imagined a generation ago. In the
1990s, it was Go To telescopes. A decade
later, digital cameras were relegating
emulsion-based astrophotography to the
history books. Today we're being wowed
by a proliferation of smart telescopes.
Set them down and, with the push of a
few buttons, they automatically align
themselves to the sky, find celestial
targets, and generate remarkable images
of those objects in less time than most
of us need to set up a Dobsonian for a
night of observing.
Celestron's Origin is the company's
latest entry in the genre of smart
telescopes, though it prefers to call the
product an " intelligent home observatory. "
The Origin's 6-inch f/2.2 RoweAckermann
Schmidt Astrograph optical
system (popularly
known as RASA) is
arguably the most
Celestron Origin
Intelligent Home
Observatory
U.S. Price: $3,999.00
celestron.com
What We Like
High-performance
astrograph for
deep-sky imaging
Remarkably easy to
use out of the box
Controlling app includes
powerful advanced features
What We Don't Like
Relatively slow upload
speed of internally stored
raw image data
Celestron's fully assembled
Origin weighs
just 18 kilograms (40
pounds), with the heaviest
individual piece being
7.7 kg. That and features
such as well-designed
carrying handles, captive
thumbscrews, and a notool
assembly make this
smart telescope a breeze
to transport and set up.
Launching the Celestron
Origin app brings up a
home screen displaying
the observer's real-time
sky based on SkySafari's
mobile planetarium
software as well as basic
scope controls and an
inset showing the scope's
field of view with continuously
updated short exposures
from the camera.
66 JANUARY 2025 * SKY & TELESCOPE
advanced astrograph currently available
as a smart telescope, and it joins
Celestron's impressive family of 8-, 11-,
and 14-inch RASA scopes.
It's worth noting that the Origin is
foremost a scope for deep-sky imaging.
And while there are always exceptional
imaging situations, its relatively short
335-mm focal length and 1.27°-by0.85°
field of view have limited value
for the Moon and planets.
The Origin borrowed from Celestron
for this review arrived in a large box
measuring roughly 1.3 meters (50
inches) long and weighing 28 kilograms
(63 pounds). Inside, the RASA tube
assembly, mount, and tripod were individually
packed in robust boxes. I was
momentarily startled when I unpacked
the " Quick Setup Guide. " This largeformat,
20-page booklet filled with
scores of photos suggested that getting
started with the Origin
would be anything
but " quick " - until I
realized it was printed
in five languages. Furthermore,
three and a
half of the four pages
in English covered the
assembly of the parts,
which most amateurs
will find so intuitive
that no instructions
are necessary. And
the final section on
getting the scope
operational essentially
said to download
and launch the app
on your controlling
device, turn on the
scope, and follow
the app's on-screen
instructions. Could it
really be that simple?
To find out, I made
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

http://www.celestron.com

Sky & Telescope - January 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - January 2025