Celestron NexStar 8SE Computerized Telescope – 8-Inch Schmidt-Cassegrain Optical Tube – Fully Automated GoTo Mount with SkyAlign – Ideal for Beginners and Advanced Users – 40,000+ Object Database

When I was a kid in the late 60's, my folks got me a Tasco telescope, had a lot of fun with it. In 2007 I got a Bushnell reflector telescope as a gift. Both telescopes were the lower end of the quality window but still enjoyed using them. I finally decided to upgrade for several reasons. Neither telescope would track an object through the night, after about a minute in the eyepiece, the object would be out of view and a readjustment was necessary. Finding anything in the sky was a pain as I had to rely on my knowledge of where to point the telescopes. The Bushnell came with a sort of 'guide' to help, and it did, but it was just mainly in the general direction to point the scope. And then the lenses that came with both the telescopes were cheap and hard to focus. These telescopes were very beginner based models. After looking around on the web, the Celestron telescope was often mentioned in the top 10 or so of quality scopes to purchase for the price, and the Nexstar SE series was getting very good reviews. After much deliberation and a cut in price of over $200 one day, I ordered the Celestron NexStar 8 SE. I also ordered the X-Cel LX 25mm, 9mm, and 5mm eyepieces to go with it, it comes with a lower quality 25mm Plossl lens. I also got an X-Cel 2x Barlow lens and a zoom lens from Celestron, the zoom works okay but is not in the same league as an X-Cel, and a Celestron StarSense Automatic Alignment device to help in locating celestial bodies. Also got the AC Adapter as the reviewers everywhere said don't rely on the 8 AA batteries to run the device as they die quickly. Of course the day it arrived it was cloudy for three nights, which gave me a chance to really review and read the instructions. It was delivered safely and fast, the telescope was in a box, in another box, and then another box in foam, so no problems there. If I had any issues, it was with the assembly instructions, they never actually show you how to put the orange tube on the fork, which IMO was the most important part. After looking at the pictures in the manual and checking Youtube vids, I was able to figure it out (I had it on upside down and backwards). Otherwise no problems. Once I had a clear sky I took it outside at dusk and set it up, just lined up the index points and aimed the scope at the horizon, leveled it by eye and took off. I did use the StarSense Auto Alignment unit to calculate the position and within about 7 minutes was enjoying the sights of Jupiter and the Moon like I had never seen them before. Saturn is still below the horizon, but I can imagine it will be a sight to see also. The telescope is definitely worth it, the X-Cel lenses are a must, so clear and great views and focus ability. The zoom lens was actually used the most as I could capture an object in the sky and then zoom in and out easily, and the zoom lens has a rubber eyepiece so you can still wear glasses if you want. The absolute best part was being able to use the handheld remote and tell it to find something, a star, galaxy, planet and then it slews right to it. The first time it was a little off because of user inexperience, so I doubled down and researched it, actually called Celestron and talked to a live person and then the second time was ready. You do need to keep a few things in mind. Try to insert the EXACT time into the controller ( I used my iPhone, I just set it for the next minute at 00 seconds, and then wait for the second hand to hit the 12 and then hit enter on the controller, perfect), be sure to set the time correctly, UTC 24 hour time (i.e. 9PM is 2100), make sure you have the correct time zone and daylight savings time set correctly. Also try to set the correct location as close to where you are setting up, again I used an app on my iPhone to give the correct longitude and latitude coordinates. You have to enter the degrees and not the decimal coordinates, also make sure to get the north/south and east/west location right. Then you have to align the scope to find out your best calibration, take your time, it is definitely worth it. I used the StarSense Auto Alignment method, so your calibrations may be a different set of instructions. After the final alignment (which took all of about 5 minutes), I told the hand controller to find a star and it slewed right to it, in the absolute center of the eyepiece and then tracked it for as long as I had it on there. Fantastic, it was doing everything it was advertised, I am very happy with this purchase. It is a heavy telescope, I have to have help to move it safely in and out of the house, you may be able to move it by yourself, or take the tube and fork off the tripod and reassemble in your viewing location. Only con I can see is the hand controller is a bit hard to see at night, just a little dim, I remedied that with a small flashlight with a red lens to keep down the light pollution, but I found you can control brightness and contrast on the controller so problem solved. Very glad I finally have an almost pro (IMO) telescope. After I see an object I can tell my wife to look at it and she was amazed at the improvement over the Bushnell scope, and since it tracks the object, no need for a readjustment every 45 seconds... Great value for the money, great construction, I called Celestron for help and was talking to an expert in two minutes who knew exactly what I was talking about, would recommend this telescope to anyone who wants to experience astronomy.

This is a GREAT telescope. Don't let other reviews or Youtube videos try to convince you that you should go with the 5" or 6" since they are smaller and more portable...light gathering ability is EVERYTHING in a telescope, and the 8" gathers ~78% more light than the 6SE model. Out of the box, however, so you are not disappointed, there is a bare minimum of two accessories that you MUST have: 1) Either an AC adapter to power the scope or a Celestron "PowerTank" or a car or motorcycle battery with a car adapter cord to plug in to your telescope. I have the Celestron Power Tank 17. The power tank uses cigarette lighter style power cords which you can also plug into your car's dashboard if observing remotely next to your vehicle and you buy the car adapter. Although the scope can run on AA batteries, it will eat them up in less than an hour, rendering the scope slow and eventually unusable. 2) Buy a dew shield (Celestron #940009 for 8" scopes) , which is only $23.00 or so...that will keep the night dew from forming on the front of the telescope's "corrector" (the front of the telescope) as the temperature drops at night. The above is the bare minimum I would order if buying this telescope. Anything less will adversely impact the enjoyment of it. Expectation management: With the above, yes, in the summer in the Northern hemisphere, you can see the rings of Saturn and you can clearly make out Jupiter. It will blow your mind if you've never seen those planets with your own eyes. However, don't expect to see great detail and have the image fill up the view as some of the pictures in these reviews indicate. The human eye cannot see the color and detail that a long exposure (30 seconds or so) can reveal when you hook a camera up to this telescope. You will immediately want some eyepieces that allow you to zoom in further, so let me help you with that process. I strongly recommend that you buy a 2" diagonal and eyepiece setup. Again, the scope, out of the box, only comes with a single 25MM 1.25" eyepiece, which has a narrow field of view and not enough magnification to really enjoy your first astonishing views that get you hooked on astronomy, like looking at Saturn and seeing the gaps in the rings. Celestron sells a kit that has a diagonal, 2X Barlow Lens and three 2" eyepieces (Kit #94305 - $300.00). You can buy that for starters to get you going with 2" eyepieces at the lowest cost. If you have the financial means to "do it all right the first time" without buying the same type of things twice, I would recommend that - instead of buying the 2" starter kit - you buy the Celestron 93527 2" diagonal, which has the Starbright XLT coatings and can be used with 2" eyepieces as well as the 1.25" eyepiece that comes with the telescope, the Celestron Luminos 2.5X Barlow lens (#93436) which will allow you to more than double your magnification with any eyepiece, and some better eyepieces. Most people will tell you that you can get by with about three eyepieces initially. Here are some recommendations: If money is no object, buy TeleVue. They are the high-end in the telescope world. Around $300-$800 each depending on what you choose. If you are going to spend that kind of money, join the CloudyNights forum and get some custom-tailored recommendations from other TeleVue users. I'm going to stick to cheaper (but still good) products that are well respected and a good value. First eyepiece: Meade Instruments Ultra Wide Angle 20mm 2-Inch Waterproof Eyepiece (7743), which you can get here on Amazon for around $120. With the aforementioned Barlow adapter, that will give you 20 MM and 8MM views. Second eyepiece: Explore Scientific 82° 30MM eyepiece. In order to use it, you will have to add a longer dove-tail rail to your telescope to move the scope farther forward in the mount to balance it out.I use an ADM V Series Extra Long (VC-8XL). I had to cut the aft mount bracket to make it fit on this telescope. With the 2.5 Barlow, that gives you 30 and 15MM views. You can buy Celestron Luminos eyepieces, but they sometimes suffer from Edge Of Field Brightness (EOFB) which some astronomers find distracting. If you go with Luminos, buy the 19MM and 23MM. I own those two, but they are not as good as the other two I recommended. If you did not know it, in the telescope world, the smaller MM eyepeice means more zoom-in (greater magnification). You divide the focal length of the scope (2032MM for the Nexstar 8SE) by the eyepiece MM to get the zoom...Example: 2032/19 = 107x. You can use the diagonal and eyepieces I have recommended with larger Celestron telescopes should you upgrade in the future to an even larger telescope (I have a Celestron C11 on a CG5-ASGT mount as well). This scope is perfect for a beginner, can be set-up in about 10 minutes, and aligns easily by pointing to three bright objects in the sky. It is the ultimate "grab-n-go" telescope. It is NOT ideal for astro-photography, as it is an Altitude/Azimuth (ALT/AZ) telescope and BOTH motors must run at the same time to track an object, which is not as precise as a German Equatorial Mount (GEM) where only one motor has to run to track an object. GEM's require polar alignment, which is a bit complex for the beginner. If a bigger easy-to-use ALT/AZ scope is wanted, the next step up from the 8SE would be the CPC Deluxe 925HD (9.25") or CPC 1100 series (11")...or if you get into Astronomy and astro-photography, jump to a GEM telescope. 4 Stars since it does not include an AC adapter or DC cigarette lighter cord out-of-the-box. With those items, I'd give it 5! Perfect value beginner telescope. Needs power adapter (AC, Cig lighter or powertank) and eyepiece upgrades to really be fun...

I love this scope. It deserves 5 stars, but I would knock one-half star off if I could for the following two reasons: 1. No power supply. You have to buy 8 AA alkaline batteries to use it at all, and they don't last more than a few nights of viewing, depending on how much you move the scope around, and how long you have it powered up. At this price, Celestron should include a power supply, whether it is a wall wart or something like a lithium power pack (good units that they do sell separately), even if doing so adds another $20-80 to the sale price. The scope moves more slowly (but not terribly slow), and the hand control backlight is dimmer, when running on the internal batteries. You'll likely be back on Amazon again soon after you take delivery, looking for something better than the internal battery setup. My advice is to avoid buying a wall wart unless you have long extension cords or AC outlets very near your intended viewing spot. Instead, spend a few more dollars on a portable lithium battery supply from Celestron or a third party, and you'll have plenty of power and mobility, too. The scope has an external power socket-- the common 5.5mm by 2.1mm bayonet, and it does not need exactly 12 volts DC. It apparently tolerates 11-14.5 volts or maybe a bit more. You can also buy a Celestron cigarette lighter plug, so it should be compatible with standard automotive battery power. In my case, I bought this compact lithium pack and I'm very happy with it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YRZYLKV/ 2. The "Star Pointer" spotting device included with this telescope is OK-ish, but as time passes, you may want to consider an optical finder with some small level of magnification and possibly crosshairs. I'm planning to do this in the near future after my credit card cools off. I'm not a big fan of the Star Pointer. Some people like it, others have said it's not aligning with the main scope for them. I spent more time fumbling with mine than I did with the rest of the scope. Some of the fumbles were my fault, though. There are a few YouTube videos that show possible solutions if you can't get your Star Pointer and your telescope to agree with each other. The idea is to add a small shim, like thin cardboard or even a US dime, under the back of the dovetail bracket. Just loosen the two screws and slip the shim under the back, then re-tighten the screws that hold the finder dovetail in place. It gives some extra tilt inward and downward towards the telescope body. If you can't center the image and it feels like you need to move the red dot down and to the left of the end of travel, you might try this. Celestron has made a very good, solid telescope with super optics. I'm a big fan of the hand control and its built-in ability to help you find great stuff in the sky. It's first-rate. It's especially good for novice astronomers, in my opinion, and saves a lot of time that would otherwise be spent searching for things when you're new to the hobby. If you don't mind some advice: PLEASE, if this is your first telescope, don't buy a bunch of extra eyepieces, filters or Barlows just yet. Enjoy the included 25mm eyepiece first. It has plenty of magnification without being too much--and too much is what a lot of newbies (myself included) end up with. If you buy eyepieces that give you greater magnification, you'll only be frustrated until you get to know your way around. If anything, you'll get a lot of use out of an eyepiece that even widens your field of view more (lower magnification), like a 32-40mm eyepiece, or even a focal reducer. I have the Celestron f6.3 focal reducer/corrector, and I couldn't be happier with it. As a last thought, get one of Celestron's inexpensive, but surprisingly good 7 X 50 binoculars. At 7 times magnification, they are great for viewing the constellations and helping you decide what part of the sky to point your telescope at next! I'm happy I got both. The telescope and the binoculars each add their own level of joy to the night's experience. Even in a suburban environment with lights all around us, I'm still blown away by how many stars I can see with the binoculars compared to my unaided eyes. And of course, the telescope just makes everything that much closer and brighter.

First off, there is nothing easy about using the Celestron Nextar 8. It's complex, frustrating, and fails to deliver on Celestron's marketing promises. For example, the hand controller functions like it was designed and built in 1988. It has a cheap LED display and tedious, needlessly complex & un-intuitive menu operations. One must endure a labyrinth of menus just to set it up. Inconceivably, the controller loses its time setting every time you shut it off. That's just amazingly poor design. They do occasionally update the goto controller firmware, but pray that you don't have to ever do this. Celestron's process is out of the stone age. It requires an antiquated RS-232 cable (think 1970's and 80s cables) to update its firmware. Hello Celestron Engineers - USB has been the primary way to connect to computers since 1996 - it's long past time to adopt it). Celestron also gives the middle finger to Apple customers...apparently they don't want them as customers at all. If you use a Macintosh but need to update your firmware you are out of luck. Same deal for Linux users. Next issue: doing the star alignment should be easy, but it is definitely NOT. Even the customers who like the product admit that it takes a lot of very careful precision to successfully align. The tiniest errors with leveling your mount, entering the time, or lining up the stars in your eyepiece and you'll be stuck in "failed to align" hell. Be prepared to go through the alignment routine many times just to get started, then to repeat the procedure after you frustratingly lose alignment. When I realized I was spending more time aligning than looking at stars I gave up using the go-to feature. Now I just use the direction arrows to manually find objects. My own eye coupled with a handy app on my iPhone is far more effective than Celestron's ineffective go-to software. It's not that hard and kinda fun, but now I am stuck with this expensive go-to mount that is useless that taunts me every time I try to use it with how much money I wasted. The most frustrating part, though, is that once you think the telescope finally IS aligned it actually ISN'T. After alignment I've been able to get it to correctly point to a database object or two, but ask it to move to a third object and you can just forget it...unless you want to go through the 10 minutes of re-leveling and re-aligninging. In my opinion the mount, controller, and software are all junk. The optics are great...when you can get them pointed at the object you want to see. Buyer beware: This is a complex product, apparently built on an old hardware and software technology platform, that is frustrating and disappointing to use. Think about how amazing a go-to telescope would be if Apple or Google designed one. Celestron's product is the opposite of what you just imagined. They can and should do better.

Where to start...first, I am so happy with this telescope! We transitioned from the Celestron 80MM Star Sense Explorer to this scope. Quite a jump, I know but so glad we did. So...it was a bit heavier than expected but manageable. I had to do a lot of reading and I am still learning about the "utilities" and settings and it definitely took some time to get used to. The manual is okay but you will find more on You tube and on the Celestron website for tutorials. Putting the scope together was simple enough. The red dot finder is not great, definitely need to upgrade that if you choose not to purchase the Star Sense Auto Align. More on that later. The 25 mm lens that comes with the scope is actually really good and we pair it with the Barlow lens. The scope arrived in great condition and was packaged nicely. The tripod is decent and easy to adjust. So back to the Auto Align. the first few times we took the scope out we attempted to use the 3-star alignment....never could get it to work correctly....having said that...we live in a light polluted area near Nashville so we expected some issues. After attempting this alignment several times we decided to purchase the Star Sense Auto Align...I know it is fairly pricey but wow, so glad we did!!! The Star Sense aligned the first time and has worked great each time (read my review on that one as well, hopefully it will help if you decide to purchase it). I had never seen the Orion Nebula before and my first early morning viewing was breathtaking! Views of Saturn, the Moon, and Jupiter are fantastic...you can see the Cassini division in Saturn's rings. Images are clear and detailed. The one thing that I was unaware of when purchasing this scope and only found out after watching some You Tube videos is that you have to upgrade the firmware on the mount....the joy of being a newbie! So things we purchased for this scope that may be of use for someone purchasing it: 1. Celestron X-Cel 12 MM lens 2. Celestron X-Cel 3x Barlow 3. Celestron Oxygen iii Filter 4. Baader UHC-S Nebula Filter 5. Celestron Solar Filter (8" for the 8 SE) 6. Celestron Lithium Power Tank 12 V (a must have or you will be replacing batteries every 30 minutes) 7. Colored filters but mainly Red, Violet, Blue, and a Moon filter...haven't used the other colors yet. Orion has a great set, although it is expensive. 8. A carrying case- we travel a lot....Celestron has one for this tube size, otherwise use the boxes it came in- they work just as great! 9. A pelican case for your eyepieces and filters....we purchased one with pullouts and made our own...or you can buy one from Celestron. 10. And a must have for those living in the South or colder climates...a dew shield or heater! 11. A red flash light or just use the red light on the Lithium Power tank. 12. Last but not least....for newbies...there are several companion books you can purchase....The Backyard Astronomer's Guide, Night Watch, The Total Skywatcher's Manual, and National Geographic has some great books. We love locating things in the sky, then looking them up and reading about them. The books also contain great tips and suggestions from purchasing eyepieces to filters, and how to best view objects in the night sky. All of these items were purchased on Amazon and we bought them over time but each purchase has enhanced our viewing and really made our nights out so enjoyable. Pros: So many but to name a few... Great, clear images, mostly newbie friendly- just have to educate yourself on operating the telescope to get the most out of it, a lot of items available for purchase to upgrade your experience, and with the star sense auto align you can spend hours outside enjoying clear skies. Not to say most people cannot get the 3-star alignment, we just lost patience with it and purchased the auto align :-) Cons: Manual not so great...You Tube has great videos from knowledgeable enthusiasts, it seems a bit heavy but manageable for one person. My husband is always with me so portability isn't an issue but just going out alone it may be somewhat heavy. Overall, I am so happy with this purchase and would recommend it for anyone wanting to add a more advanced telescope to their collection. There are several tutorials available online at Celestron and via You Tube that I encourage you to view. The telescope can be a bit intimidating for those that are new to the hobby but with a little research you will be loving it! We take it out at least 3x per week (skies permitting). The most beautiful site seen was the other morning I went out at 5 am and viewed Venus...the moon, and Orion's Nebula...so clear and amazing...it was definitely a treasure trove that morning, spent about 90 minutes viewing the sky until the Sun started to come up...very peaceful! We are still learning this telescope and each thing we learn just enhances our experience. I was hesitant on this purchase at first...a lot of money to spend plus accessories but we are so glad we decided to buy it! Definitely do your research to determine which telescope is best for you and your goals but this is a great one for those just entering the hobby or graduating from a starter scope. Now if we could only afford to buy another one of these so my husband and I don't fight over viewing time!

There are over four hundred reviews here for this telescope, so I won't cover all of the technical details already discussed; instead, I'll hit on some of the things I still had questions about before buying the Nexstar 8SE. One of the hard things about choosing a telescope is knowing how you want to use it. Whether you want to look at planets (which are super bright) or deep space objects (which are super dim) affects your choice. A scope with tons of magnification from a long focal length may be great for Saturn but have too much zoom for things like the Andromeda Galaxy. Portability is also a factor. Can you carry the entire assembled scope out on to the deck yourself each night, or do you need to spend an hour lugging it out piecemeal, assembling, leveling, and aligning it? Once it's set up, how easy is it to find objects? If you want to look at Jupiter and the Moon - piece of cake...but what about objects too faint to see with your naked eye? Do you have the time and skill to read star charts under a red light, hunting-and-pecking across the night sky searching for dim fuzzies? Lastly, do you want to take photos of your view? If you want exposures of more than a few seconds, does your mount have a way to compensate for the Earth's rotation to prevent your stars from blurring to streaks? If you're taking pictures of big things, like a nebula, will you have to make a mosaic because your scope has too much magnification to fit it all in frame? I thought about all of these, and chose the Nexstar 8SE. It is a great scope and fairly easy to use (although not as easy as Celestron's "no knowledge of the night sky needed" slogan suggests). Here's how it fares for my selection criteria: Portability: If hours of free time are needed between setup and gazing, the scope will be relegated to weekend use only. That may not seem bad, but consider that out of those weekends, it'll further be whittled down to ones with clear nights. So, if I don't want a scope I can use only once or twice a month, I need something portable. The 8SE weighs 33 lbs fully assembled (and can easily be separated into three lighter components). So, imagine picking up a 16 lb bowling bowl in each hand and walking out onto the deck. If you think you could do that, you can carry the 8SE out. I leave mine fully assembled and just carry it out myself whenever there are clear skies. It takes two minutes. If it's too heavy, there are three thumb-tightened knobs that quickly separate the tripod from the mount and tube, splitting the weight in half. Type of Astronomy: The 8SE has a 2000 mm focal length and 8" aperture. 2000 mm is two meters (6.5 feet!) so you'd expect the tube to be at least 6.5 feet long unless it can bend space and time. Turns out, it does - well, not literally - but it's a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope so it uses both reflectors and refractors to double-up the light path, resulting in a very short, fat tube that is highly portable. It's a great "best of both worlds" solution. High focal length (which translates to magnification) for planetary and lunar views and wide aperture (which translates to brightness and detail) for views of dim objects like galaxies. For me, it's perfect. I can bounce around the night sky seeing all of the planets and everything in the Messier catalog (globular clusters, nebula, and galaxies). The 8SE comes with a diagonal and a single 1.25" 25mm Plossl eyepiece that is one of my favorite eyepieces for this scope. With it, you will clearly see a small Saturn with its rings and shadows, or the disc of Jupiter with small cloud bands and its four largest moons. Deep-sky objects will be faint, dim cotton balls. Of course, you can increase the magnification by buying additional eyepieces or increase the contrast of DSOs with filters. I have a small refractor scope that uses 1.25" eyepieces and filters, and all of them are interchangeable with the 8SE. Astrophotography: I think it surprised me that most of those awesome astrophotography pics we've seen that look like Hubble telescope photos are taken with cameras or sensors attached to small refractor scopes. They're all taken on equatorial mounts that are polar aligned, rotating like clockwork to compensate for the Earth's rotation. The default 8SE cannot do this. It has an alt-az mount, not an EQ. Although it will track an object and keep it centered, it's just not able to rotate in the direction that the sky does. As a result, the object will spin in place over time, and all the neighboring stars will orbit it, leaving streaks. You can purchase an EQ wedge that tilts the entire mount onto a polar axis but to be honest for the price and added weight of the 15 lb wedge you could just get a Sky Watcher mount and tripod and plop a DSLR with a decent lens on it, taking some nice wide-field long-exposure photos. That being said, short-exposure photography works great on the 8SE. A cheap t-adapter lets me attach my DSLR directly to the back of the scope. I can manage fifteen-second exposures without star trails. I took the attached photo of the Hercules Cluster this way (by the way - for reference - the Hercules cluster does not look like this to your eye in the scope. In the scope, it is a milky cotton ball). So, can you throw a couple of thousand dollars to convert the 8SE into a long-exposure astrophotography scope? Sure - but I would suggest instead using that money to buy a separate, dedicated mount and tripod for DSLR photography. Ease of Finding Objects: First, you can just use the keypad arrows to slew the scope wherever you want without bothering to align it. Line up a star or planet in the red dot finder and just have a look; however, if you want the telescope to find and track it, you'll have to align it. There are four ways to do this: 1) 3-object auto-align: center the scope on any three bright stars or planets and the controller will plate-solve to figure out what they are. You don't even need to know or tell it their names; however, every time I tried this, it failed. 2) 2-star auto-align: center the scope on one star and tell the controller what it is, then it picks the second star and you center it. Works sometimes, but the scope has no way of knowing if its chosen star is obstructed (by trees, neighbor's houses). 3) 2-star manual align: You pick two stars, tell the controller their names, and center them. Always works for me. 4) 1-star manual align: Same as two-star, but less accurate. 5) I know I said there were only four options, but a fifth option is to buy the somewhat-expensive Star Sense accessory, which is a camera that will do all of this for you. I find that the two-star align is accurate for the part of the sky you chose when picking alignment stars, but quickly loses accuracy when you swing to distant parts of the sky. Fortunately, you can pick new alignment stars on-the-fly, so I typically align to the southern sky, see everything I want, then realign to the northern sky. When the alignment is accurate, it's really great for finding deep space objects. I can look at a dozen DSOs in thirty minutes, where I could look at only two or three if doing it manually. The single review-star I deducted is due to the somewhat endless frustration I have with the GoTo alignment process, and that in general I haven't been able to just align the scope to the sky, but have to realign to portions of the sky as I look in different areas. One other complaint is that the 8SE's controller has been upgraded over time (to have a mini-USB connection instead of RS-232), but the telescope's manual was not updated. The manual still has photos and instructions only for the old controller, including keypad buttons which are in different locations or have different names. So, I think the 8SE hits the Venn-diagram sweet-spot intersection of portability, aperture, and focal length for me, and I'm happy with my purchase and recommend it to others searching for that same intersection. Edit: After six months of use, I'm very happy with this purchase. I've bought many accessories, including the Starsense camera (which you'll appreciate on January nights when the telescope sets itself up while you're inside drinking tea), a 2" Luminos eyepiece and diagonal, and a f/6.3 focal reducer. Out of those, the focal reducer was the cheapest but had the most impact. Believe it or not, it's possible to have too much magnification and being able to halve the scope's focal length with the twist of a lens is great. I've added a photo of the Orion Nebula and Hagrid's Dragon I took with the focal reducer. I highly recommend it as a first accessory.

I got my first telescope - a 2.4" Tasco - when I was thirteen years old (late 1960s) and it stayed with me through college. Life and work got in the way so it stayed in its case until the early 1990s when I upgraded to a 10" Meade Cassegrain with equatorial mount. Got the full package and managed to place some photographs with magazines (back in the days of print). I share this up front so you'll know I've been around and used scopes for quite a while. I received a Celestron NexStar 8se package with 14 piece accessory kit and SkyPortal Wifi Adapter for Christmas less than a month ago, and the only way to do this review justice is to provide a play by play. Day 1: It arrives. I'm not sure why delivery drivers leave 2oz packages by the garage door and place packages you need a derrick to lift blocking the front door so you can't get out to get the package. The 8se comes in a BIG, HEAVY box (SENIORS PAY ATTENTION!). Unpacking. Open the outer box, open the inner box, and you're presented with four more boxes, some of which have even smaller boxes inside. There are instructions (not completely useless, not really helpful) which provide clues regarding which box to open first. If you love mysteries, you're going to love this. Quick Set-up Guide First, have the Instruction Manual handy and refer to it often. If nothing else, the pictures in the Quick Set-up Guide and Instruction Manual provide clues as to how things are suppose to work. When in doubt with the Set-up Guide, check with the Instruction Manual and vice-versa. Neither tells the complete story and each have different errors. Steps 1-5 Good Step 6 - First thing, our tripod didn't have a bubble. Looked and looked and looked and no bubble, no bubble, no bubble. Finally used the one from the Meade. Second, The tripod bubble level's only useful if you never plan on moving the telescope-tripod assembly from wherever you do your initial assembly. Move it outside, front yard to backyard, beach to desert, field to forest, and you need to take the mounting platform off the tripod to level it all over again. Note this: If you take off the mounting platform, the telescope comes with it unless you separate the scope from the mounting platform. Steps 14-15 - Yes, we're skipping. Steps 14-15 is where you put eight AA batteries in the mounting platform. Videos indicate this is easy. (SENIORS PAY ATTENTION) It isn't. You'll need strong fingers, strong nails, or a screwdriver to pop it off. Put these batteries in now because you'll have to work under or around the telescope if you wait until Steps 14-15 is suppose to occur. Further note - a fresh pack of batteries gives good use for ~30m then fades rapidly, especially if you're using the scope in winter (15-30ºF). We planned on getting the rechargeable power supply and ended up returning the entire unit and all accessories because, personally, I don't need the headaches. Step 7 - Notice in the picture the demonstrator's holding the scope and mounting platform together? The hitch here is they didn't include the step where you attach the scope to the mounting platform. The hitch with that missing step is you can't attach the scope to the mounting platform as the platform is configured coming out of the box The hitch there is you need to turn the mounting platform part that the scope slides into so you can slide the scope into it. The hitch there is it doesn't turn easy and, if you're like me, you're leery of turning something with a relatively precision motor attached. We called tech support. Turns out the mounting platform part is on a friction clutch and can be turned by hand. Really? (SENIORS PAY ATTENTION) This doesn't turn easy for people with a good grip, and next to impossibly if you have arthritis. Not to mention turning a precision gearing mechanism with a friction clutch by hand. Nobody told the engineers that's a perfect way to ruin the clutch assembly? Steps 8-13 - Good Steps 16-18 - Only useful if you plan on terrestrial viewing or know astrogation well enough to "point-and-shoot." Now we get to "Before you can begin observing, you must setup your hand control, align your finderscope and align your telescope. Step by step instructions are included in the following Hand Control Setup section." I'd already spent 2+ hours going through the various documentation (the Instruction Manual is a must), so figuring out the Hand Control Guide is the next day's job. Day 2: Aligning the finderscope and telescope. Before anything else, remember you have to mount the finderscope to the telescope to align them. Does anybody writing documentation know how to explain something step by step and explicitly? Remember those college science texts which showed step 1 and 2 then the solution and in between had "The derivation is left as an exercise for the student"? They may as well have had "And then a miracle happened!" Anyway, the people who wrote "The derivation is left as an exercise" also wrote the Celestron documentation. Got the finderscope attached. Now I had to find something ~1/4 mile away to properly align the finderscope to the telescope. Which meant taking the telescope, the mount, and tripod somewhere where I could clearly see a steady, non-moving terrestrial object which was ~1/4 mile away. Do you live in a suburban neighborhood? I ended up using a neighbor's window casing two streets away. Fair enough, but your suppose to get your target in the center of the finderscope which has no crosshairs so you have to be looking through the finderscope dead on while you make adjustments. (SENIORS TAKE NOTE) This can be straining if you have back problems and are 6' tall or more as you have to bend over to see dead on, and the moment to touch the adjustments the entire assembly jiggles so you have to wait for it to quell before making your next adjustment. Once you've got it in the finderscope, move on to the main scope, again with the "center," which again means you have to be viewing dead on. Yeah, I wasn't having fun yet. Hand Control Guide: First, does it work? Yes. Second, could it work better? Definitely. Third, does it work as simply and as easily as the documentation and videos indicate? No way, period! The menu system is extensive. It's also ONE LINE at a time on a horizontally scrolling LED display. Really? In 2025? Okay, chock this up to not getting the flying car I was promised, too. I had to work through the menus four times before I worked it properly. Now onto finding a bright sky object, center it in your finderscope, center it in your main scope, press this, press that, lather-rinse-repeat three times. The first night out I went through that menu system and found three objects three times over and each time got an alignment failed message. Okay, enough for one night. Bring everything inside and start again tomorrow. Day 3: I downloaded two pieces of software available from Celestron, CPWI and Starry Night. I installed and uninstalled Starry Night five or so times. Each time, despite reporting a successful install, Starry Night threw errors faster than I could dismiss them during loading. CPWI installed and loaded, and that leads us to the SkyPortal WiFi adapter module. It worked fine in "direct" mode, meaning it connected to the laptop and I could communicate with the telescope provided laptop and 'scope where within 5-15' of each other. However, it never worked with in wifi network mode, meaning I couldn't sit in my backroom, indicate what I wanted to view, and have that info sent to the 'scope in my driveway about 30' away even though the distance from each point to the router was less than 15'. The CPWI software lets you align your scope. Okay, and mine didn't. It couldn't find anything it suggested as an alignment point. The suggested points where in the sky, simply not where the CPWI software indicated they should be. The Hand Control alignment needs to be repeated each time you set up the scope. Say what? I have to go through a 15-20m procedure each time I want to look at something? The CPWI lets you save an alignment setting. Trouble there is it never aligned my 'scope properly. Days 3-15: I took the 'scope out nightly for about two weeks and repeatedly failed. I contacted Celestron for guidance and was on hold long enough for the sun to go nova. I emailed with my concerns. They sent me pages from the manuals. Day 16: I packed up the 'scope and returned it. By the way, during the repacking process I found the bubble level. About the size of a dime, and stuck in some bubble wrap.

First - before you set it up, don’t strip the screws on the finder scope like I did. They go in from right to left. I did it the other way and didn’t realize I was stripping them until it was too late. Good news is a new finder scope is only 26 bucks - so cheap because it doesn’t have any lenses, just a red laser dot. Once you get used to aligning it, it’s a great scope. One other caution - be careful if you’re pointing it straight overhead. The eyepiece may catch on the base of the tripod unless you rotate it out of the way. Also - you can download the “CPWI” software on your laptop to control this scope, but I wouldn’t bother - whoever designed this forgot that you would be using it in the dark, and did not provide an option for a red night vision display. I emailed them about this, they replied that I should use the dimmer control on my laptop - NOT acceptable. Three things that are nice to have with this scope: - A power pack instead of AA batteries. - A full set of eyepieces and filters, which Celestron has for around 200 bucks. - A zoom lens eyepiece, which Amazon sells for around 85 bucks.

This is my second scope. The first was a Bushnell 4.5 inch reflector of disputable quality. The mirror was good, but I had to replace the flimzy tripod and get better eyepieces to even attempt to see anything clearly. This telescope is superior a hundred fold . The image of jupiter, for instance, is crisp and clear with the included 25mm eyepiece, Seeing hasn't been very good here, in Quebec City, these last few days, but I was able to observe the king of planets with a 10mm eyepiece and enjoy details impossible to discern with my old reflector. Allignement of the go to is relatively simple. The hand controller has a red backlight to preserve night vision. However, with the backlight on during allignement, the scrolling of instructions on the hand controller display is unreadable. Tracking is good, but I have noticed that occasionaly, the scope seems to loose track of the object, which makes it necessary to use the hand controller to bring things back on track. One of the reasons I purchased this scope was because it can be easily transported and assembled. The tube need not be removed from the mount. It can be rotated vertically to align with the mount arm into a neat compact package easily storable in my OTA bag. The tripod is also compact and light. Contrary to other comments, I find the tripod and mount well built and sturdy enough for the nexstar. A question of opinion, I suppose. I purchased the 18774 power tank with this scope, which I think is essential. The tracking motor will eat through the required AA batteries in no time. I also burchased the AC adapter. There is only one 25mm eyepiece included with the scope. The purchase of a few more of different magnification, a barlow and a few filters such as a lunar filter is a good idea. However, the nexstar is highly usable with the included accessory. There are many resources on the web which are helpful in the use of this SCT. Michael Swanson's Nexstar site, for one, has a lot of good info, although some of it seems outdated. Youtube is also a good source of valuable information. Included in the box: Scope and tripod (obviously) , tripod accessory tray, level for the tripod, 25mm eyepiece, 1.25 inch Star diagonal, Starpointer finderscope, The Sky Level 1 Astronomy Software, NexRemote telescope control software, RS232 Cable (you'll need an RS232 to USB adapter for newer computers) The good: Crisp image Easy assembly Easily transportable and storable Sturdy enough tripod Easy alignement with the hand controller The Bad: Scrolling text on the hand controller is unreadable when backlight is on. Tracking sometimes lost. To conclude, I have so far no regrets with my purchase. And although I have only a few hours of observations with the scope, I am quite satisfied. With mars and saturn soon to be in opposition, I believe the next few weeks will bring loads of astronomical fun. ***After a couple months of use, I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience with this scope. I had mentionned in my initial review that the scrolling text on the hand controller (HC) was unreadable at night, with the red backlight on. As I navigated through the numerous menus on the HC, I realized that I could set the speed of the scrolling, which pretty well solved that problem. So scratch that from the "Bad". The gears in this scope produce some backlash. This problem is well documented on the web and must be taken into consideration when attempting to do a proper star alignement and expect the scope to center on planets. Without some ajustements in the settings of the HC, planets will never align properly in your eye piece once the star alignement has been performed. I've found some very helpful astronomy forums with valuable info regarding different settings to minimize the impact of this backlash. I've added a spotting scope which makes the optical tube back heavy. I had no idea that this could have an impact on the the alignement, but it does. Call that a newb's mistake, I suppose . All in all, my experience with this telescopes has greatly improved with the knowledge collected on the web. So, the second point on my "bad" list still applies, but it can be remedied. My allignements are still not perfect. I still have to test some settings, but I'm getting very close. It's only a matter of time. But all this does not minimize the fact that this great telescope has enabled me to observe the marvels of our solar system and beyond with a clarity that truly amazes me. It's easy to set up, light and transportable. A great buy for a beginner like myself, and certainly for more experienced amateur astronomers. And worthy of its fifth star. (PS. The celestron GPS for this scope is a very helpful addition, by the way.) Celestron 93969 SkySync GPS Accessory

Very nice and easy-to-use and assemble final i saw Jupiter

Il prodotto è di buona fattura, non ho trovato difetti di sorta. Buono anche l'imballaggio che può essere usato anche per lo stoccaggio dello strumento. Il treppiede è ben fatto e solido ed è di rapido montaggio con la testa della montatura. Per i principianti come me, consiglio di scaricare il software Celestron per aiutare l'allineamento del telescopio e per l'update del computer della montatura. Sono molto soddisfatto dell' acquisto.

This is my first telescope since I was a teen. Setting up the telescope wasn’t easy. Need patience, but once set up great views. As the telescope only comes with one lens, you should include additional lenses with greater magnification.

جهاز شبه احترافي للرصد البصري وأقرب للمستوى الخبراء المتقدمين في الرصد البصري قادر على رؤية تفاصيل دقيقة جدًا من القمر تشبه رؤيته وقت النزول على سطح القمر من مركبة فضائية وللتخيل لو رصدت القمر في مرحلة التربيع او الهلال بهذا التلسكوب سترى إن التفاصيل الدقيقة تظهر أمامك مباشرة وتكون هذا هي المرة الاولى الذي ترى التفاصيل الواضحة بدقة متناهية وبوضوح الشمس، لن تبدو باهتة أو متذبذبة ، تبقى ثابتة كالصخر وكذلك كوكب المشتري الرغم أنه يبعد عن الارض تقريبا حوالي مليار كيلومتر تستطيع رؤية تفاصيل دقيقة بصريا مثل القطبين والتعرجات في السحب والعاصفة الحمراء تظهر واضحة جدا مثل وضوح الشمس كشكل بيضاوي والوردي اللون يمكنك بدقة متناهية تحديد الموقع الدقيق من العاصفة الحمراء في الكوكب كما اللون الكريمي من الكوكب يصبح واضحا وليس قرص ابيض مثل الفلاش. كل هذا بتكبير 135x وهو يعتبر منخفض نسبياً بالنسبة للتلسكوب! انصح فيه فهو يستحق كل ريال الذي دفعته،.ملاحظة إضافية، القمر في مرحلة البدر من هذا الجهاز راح يبدو ساطع جداً لدرجة مؤلمة للعين المجردة في هذا الحالة تحتاج حل نهائي للسطوع أما فلتر القمر أو مستقطاب متغير. عندما ترى القمر بدون فلاتر ستنبهر عيونك فوراً واذا تغمض بعد رؤية القمر راح تلاحظ نقطة بيضاء كبيرة بسبب شدة السطوع ما انصحكم تشوفون القمر في أوقات البدر لان راح تعمى عيونك اذا كنت تبي تشوفه وقت البدر فلتر قمر او مستقطب ضروري جدًا وتعتبر حالة مهمة جدًا لهذا الامر وبالنسبة للسماء العميقة لن تبدو باهتة بعد هذا اللحظة عندما يكون لديك مثل هذا النوع من التلسكوب فهو ممتاز جدا بل من أفضل التلسكوبات الذي رايتها بصريا ويمكنك رؤية سديم الجبار وأجنحته العميقة بإستخدام فلتر OIII يمكنك رؤية التفاصيل الداخلية مثل العروق والهياكل الحقيقية بصريا فهو فلتر قاسِ ويزيل 98% من التلوث الضوئي والخلفية تصبح سوداء فاحمة مثلما ترى الجرم وانت في الصحراء كما تستطيع إخراج الالوان الطبيعية من السدم والمجرات التي تبعد مليارات الكيلومترات ومئات ملايين السنين الضوئية بسهولة وذلك عن طريق التصوير و التكديس، يبدو الجهاز باهظ الثمن نوعا ما لكن قيمته مقابل جودة الرصد والرؤية تستحق بكثير إنه شي مذهل حقا وأدهشني جودته