Celestron Origin Review

The Celestron Origin effortlessly initializes, quickly acquires targets, and reliably tracks to capture images efficiently.

The 6" RASA optical design and 6 MP sensor, combined with exceptionally effective image processing, return high-quality images out of the box.

The ability to crop and reframe the images is also most welcome.

This is a stunning instrument in a portable package!

The 6" f/2.2 optical system can image deep-sky objects quickly. 

The Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph, combined with the 6 MP sensor, delivers sharp images across the field.

At night, on power-up, the telescope initialization sequence automatically focuses the telescope and determines where in the sky it is pointing.

The app lets the user easily frame the final image to share.

The Origin slews to each target and acquires it without hesitation (as long as it is visible, of course).

Under clear skies, image integration usually matches elapsed time.

The images look complete and ready to share right out of the app!

One of the concerns I had was when I purchased the telescope was that it would collect dust because it would require too much time and effort to set up the telescope. My experience has been quite the opposite. I can easily carry the entire assembly outside and across the lawn. (I keep the tripod legs at the minimal height, since I do not look through the telescope, after all.) Then I just turn on the power, and we are ready to go!

Origin's support for entering right ascension and declination coordinates as a target makes it easy to image transient objects such as novae.

Origin supports execution of a target sequence.

The app lets the user customize the final image to share (details to include and cropping). Consider a feature to add tick marks or an arrow to point out an object (supernova, say, or a dwarf planet). 

Every time the user switches to another app and then returns to the Origin app, the app attempts to reconnect to the telescope. In particular, this is true every time I add image details or reframe it (which is only possible in the Origin app) and then share the resulting image to Google Photos, even during the day when the telescope is powered down. Minimally, a not-connected-to-telescope mode would be a good feature.

I have had the app interface slow down to the point where it was essentially impossible to enter text in the object search field. Exiting and restarting the app resolved the issue, so I conclude the problem is with the app and not the telescope.

Even under normal conditions, the status display seems to lag what the map view shows (still says focusing when the telescope appears to have completed this task). Perhaps this is an artifact of the display methodologies.

The app is full-screen, which is good, but that means the operating system is not available, and thus not the clock time (or device battery status, which is less of an issue to me). The app does not display the clock time on most screens.

Support for tracking comets and other targets moving at nonsidereal rates would be welcome. I'd like to see the coma of the comet stay sharp while the stars trail....

The crop feature is great. It would be even better to have a set of predefined crop sizes available, which would help setting the aspect ratio, and facilitate comprehensible size comparisons.