Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope # 11069

4.0 Great telescope

This is a great telescope, but the tripod & mount on it is a weakness. It is poorly designed for doing any photography work as vibrations from refocusing and movement translates to the scope due to the mount only having one arm. This is NOT something that Agena AstroProducts has any control over as it is the manufacturer that has decided to cheap out in this aspect. I'm not that concerned as I plan on getting an EQ mount on down the line for this one - or actually using my EQ-35 Pro for this one and getting a better one for my other telescope.
Overall for the price it's a good package deal as long as you realize the weakness in the mount type of 1 arm and the vibrations since the scope is getting near the largest it can support.

This review was provided courtesy of AgenaAstro.com

5.0 Great telescope, great product!

I'm an amateur and Agena recommended this product. They were spot on. I know others who had it too. I'm having a great time with it and everything was perfect when I received it. Will definitely buy again from here.

This review was provided courtesy of AgenaAstro.com

5.0 Celestron Nexstar 8SE

Excellent optics, lots of aperture and magnifying power (when needed). Star images are crisp, contrasty and offer high resolution. Scope handles high(and low) power well. Versatile - you can add a F6.3 focal reducer to add almost 40% more FOV to any eyepieces you might have. You can add a 2" diagonal (and 2" eyepieces) for low power wide FOV viewing. Alignment takes less than 2 minutes once you get the hang of it. "Go-To" is accurate (always in the FOV of a low cost 32mm Plossl eyepiece). Tracking is excellent. Hand controller is intuitive and easy to use. Portable - the entire scope, mount and tripod is around 33#'s. The "VIXEN" style dovetail mounted scope is easily removed and replaced to make moving and portability even easier.

There really are none of major significance. You do need an external 12V power pack (the rechargable Celestron POWERTANK is like $50). That's the only true shortfall to me. (The 8 on-board AA batteries are only good for a hour or two of operation)...to me they are simply 'back-up' in case the power pack plug pops out or something like that.

I added a ASTROZAP dew shield (but you need to do that with any SCT). I upgraded the prism diagonal (the supplied diagonal does however work exceptionally well) with a 99% dielectric (again, that must be done with any SCT you might buy). I added a 1.25" BLUE FIREBALL "compression type" visual back. I also added a complement of "better" and "high-end" eyepieces - again, something you need to do with any new scope purchased. IMO it's well worth it to add some really good eyepieces, etc. to get the MOST out of a already great scope.

Incredible value --- offers some decent aperture and loads of capability for a very reasonable price. IMO one of the very best 'bangs for the buck' there is in intermediate amateur astronomy scopes. F10 with 2000mm focal length provides plenty of power for observing the planets and double stars. Yet has the aperture necessary to see all of the brighter "faint fuzzies" (galaxies, nebula, globular clusters, etc.). A great scope for the "intermediate" level visual observer. I have owned many scopes in my 60+ years of observing - and IMO nothing beats the Celestron 8" SCT for the $$$. NOTHING. I believe the C8 is the all-time best selling telescope - that says it all - how long have they been making and selling *" SCT's - 50 years??? Very few products in today's world have a life-span like that.

5.0 Amazing views

Strong Construction,Quality Lenses,Compact,Accurate,Easy to Use

This telescope is just an amazing piece of engineering. I have had this scope for 3 years and have enjoyed it just about every day. It has traveled on vacations to various dark sites and 3 star parties. This is all possible due to it light weight about 35 pounds fully loaded. Of course it breaks down into smaller pieces which makes transporting it a breeze. The tripod and the OTA.

The views with the supplied eyepieces are good. Purchase better eyepieces and the views are just beautiful. If you purchase a bino-viewer you WILL find yourself beside yourself with amazment. YES it is that amazing.

To date I have completed 9 of the Astronomical League observing programs. Many of them have been completed from my light polluted backyard. this is only possible due to the large 8 inch primary objective. Take the telescope to a dark site and you will see just about everything else at or near 11th magnitude.

The goto is spot on everytime. just learn where you are Longitude-Latitude type it in once and the comp will remember. find your two stars and align. its that easy. it can't be any easier to use.

If you are looking for the best bang for your buck this is the way to go. best of all should you begin to venture into deep sky imaging just replace the tripod with an eq mount and you are ready to begin imaging.

Those are my two cents worth.

Happy stargazing!

G

This review was provided courtesy of AgenaAstro.com

4.0 The Fun Has Just Begun.....

Value

Quibbles

No 8SE reviews on this site since '09....time for a fresh look.

Looks like this scope is a favorite of folks returning to the hobby.....that's my story as well. I've owned an 8SE for well over a year (or is it two?). Having up to that point in my life resisted technology, the 8SE opened the door to the world of tomorrow and now I'm on the internet writing about it.

The previous reviews cover the power and goto issues with the 8SE and the opinions expressed mirror mine.

The optics are fine.....great, well no but it is quite the package for the price. What the 8SE delivers in spades is ease-of-use in a powerful and lightweight kit. With a bit of time for cool-down issues you can be set up in 10-15 minutes.

What I've enjoyed most about the product is its ease of modification. There are so many useful and potentially inexpensive mods available for the 8SE. Motorized focusing kills the shakes on the overtaxed mount, a homemade wood tripod helps even more. A 50mm finderscope is a useful add-on. A bit of Velcro works wonders. The external power connection is troublesome but easily replaced with a bulletproof modification. Dew, always a problem, is fixed with a yoga mat and hot glue.

I'd recommend buying a few quality eyepieces, a 2 inch diagonal and a webcam for incredible planetary images. The webcam is amazing. I still don't believe the quality images you can cook up with this scope.

My 8SE has been a wonderful tool to learn and re-learn about astronomy and technology. The upside of the 8SE blows its few bad points out of the water. While I now own five (!) other scopes.......if I want an easy and fun time under the night sky the Celestron 8SE is going out the door with me.

5.0 Celestron Nexstar 8SE

Well made, easy to set up, portable, great views and excellent Go To's

None

I purchased my Nexstar 8SE approx two years ago. It is my second scope. I am very happy with my purchase. Celestron had a $200 rebate in effect when I purchased but even if they hadn't I feel the scope would still be a great value. I would consider myself slightly more skilled then a complete newbie. After having the scope out a few nights my Go To alignments have been on the money. If you read the manual and take your time you shouldn't have a problem.

As one other reviewer mentioned you will need an external power supply. I think the batteries are really only intended to be a backup in the event your external supply becomes disconnected while you are using the scope. This will prevent you from loosing your alignment. Most users go with a Celestron Power Tank and they work really well. (oops I guess that's another review) :) I think fit, finish and construction are excellent. Views are great, definite wow factor the first time you see Saturn or Jupiter.

4.0 Great value, maximizes aperture for weight/size

Very good value; aperture/weight/size/price combination can't be beat.

Cheesy finder; manual could stand improvement.

It's pretty amazing that you can get a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, diagonal, eyepiece, cheap finder, tripod, and a computerized goto mount for what they charge.

All right, so the software is clunky. (You have to hit "undo" to set time???!!). And the manual is written, not in English, but "Quasi-Engineerese." And there are odd design decisions (AA batteries not included, but even if they were, they'd last you half an evening; LCD displays sensitive to low temperature, etc.). But if you think about it, the astronomy market is a pretty small, so developing a mechanical mount + electronics + software that can point to 40,000 objects, and point to them within a few arc-minutes (21,600 arc-minutes in a circle, if you care) is pretty amazing!

And it really does work that well (I disagree with the person who gave a negative review of the goto; I don't think that person took the effort to figure the scope out). At this price point, you're not buying a turnkey observatory! Once you take the effort to figure out how it works, it works reliably. It took me a couple of evenings, an extra book (Mike Swanson's book), lots of websites (Nexstarsite, Cloudy Nights, Yahoo Groups), and some experimentation to develop a good process for the initial alignment. But now, once I've aligned the scope at the beginning of the evening, I can pick any target, and the scope will bring the target to the central third of the 25mm eyepiece (in many cases, within the central half of an 11mm eyepiece).

That said, you need to spend a few extra $ to make it useful: (a) External power supply (whether line supply with transformer, or battery pack & cable); (b) carry/travel case (homemade is fine, but the whole point of the Nexstar 8 is that it's easily transportable from home, to backyard, to trunk of car, etc.).

The included red-dot-finder is cheesy. But the quality of the optical tube assembly is fine, and the included 25mm eyepiece & star diagonal are perfectly adequate.

4.0 C8I SE Alignment

Portability and you get 8" of aperture.

Needs optical finder.

I too have purchased one of these after a long hiatus from astronomy. The optics are satisfactory, a little soft at higher powers due to the large central obstruction, but all in all, it is quite good. The system's strong point is its portability. The entire scope with the tripod weighs in at about 35 lbs. When I first tried to align the scope using the 3 star method, it was quite convoluted. So I started using 2 star and it works very easily and GOTO is very accurate. Usually the object is in center of the field of view using either my 30mm or 24.8mm eyepiece. It came with a red dot finder which is sufficient for aligning but I would prefer an optical finder which I will have to add in the future.

2.0 OK scope

Good optics

Alignment procedure for go to is lousy

This was the first scope I have had in several years. It has good optics but the 3 star alignment procedure doesn't work very well. It generally takes several tries to get it to properly align. Also the battery plug to hook up an external battery is non-standard, so it takes a special connector to hook up an external battery.