Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope

Sweet Scope,but read for lessons learned

This is my first serious scope. I have had the 8SE for about three weeks now and it's time to give you my two-cents. It's been a learning curve, but if you take my...Read complete review

This is my first serious scope. I have had the 8SE for about three weeks now and it's time to give you my two-cents. It's been a learning curve, but if you take my advice, you will benefit from my trial-by-errors.

(1) The arrival: The scope arrived in one box. The box was fully intact and appeared to withstand transport very well.

(2) Initial inspection and set-up: The set-up of the 8SE is very easy. There are three main components: The tripod, the optical tube assembly (OTA) and the arm that connects the OTA to the tripod. Upon inspection everything appeared scratch and blemish free. The glass in the OTA looked free from debris and in perfect condition. Overall the construction is solid.

(3) First views: With the default eyepiece that came with the scope I zoomed over to Saturn and I about wet myself! What a view! It got even better when I barlowed (add a 2x barlow lens that doubles magnification) the 23mm default eyepiece. I also purchased the Celestron accessory eye piece kit (this is where I got my Barlow lense). I enjoyed a pretty good view of Mars as well, but it only looked like a small brown ball; it must be really far away right now. I must say the scope came perfectly collimated (means the primary mirror and the secondary mirror are perfectly aligned).

(4) Alignment: After viewing Saturn and Mars I decided to formally align the 8se for its "go to" capabilities. I used the sky align procedure where I was led to believe that I could choose any three stars and that would suffice. Well, after choosing three random bright stars, the 8se told me that it was a success! So I told it to slew back to Saturn. Well it was in the neighborhood but not in the field of view (FOV). I tried again and again but couldn't get it to actually go to something and have it placed in the FOV.

Over the next few weeks I continued to struggle with getting "perfect" alignment. I turned to the net and found a great support group. The group is found on that search engine that starts with the letter "y" and ends with two "o". I finally got it right! Last night I was slewing all over the sky using the 8se's tour feature and I was viewing Messier objects and nebula all night long. So after two weeks, here's what you need to know to get perfect alignment!

A. Despite what Celstron says, how level your scope is, is the least important factor in the process. Sure your scope needs to be somewhat level, and as long as it's balanced anywhere near the middle (use the button size leveler provided with the scope) you're good to go.

B. If you happen to see your city listed in the databank and it's within 50 miles of your location, you're good to go and choose that for your site-location. If not, you can get your EXACT GPS coordinates from that huge search engine that starts with the letter "G" and has two "o" in it. I was able to use their maps and actually get exact cords for my physical address here in Vermont.

C. Time: It's critical that you enter the exact time within 10 secs. or so. You can also get the EXACT time from the internet, don't rely on your watch as seconds matter.

D. Choice in stars: You should always use Sky Align (a three star alignment process) if you want the BEST results. Here's what I found works perfect every time: Always, start with Polaris (the North Star) for your first bright object. The scope will tell you to choose and center your 1st object. So slew over to Polaris and hit ENTER, then it will tell you to use the direction buttons for final alignment. So here's where you need to listen to me. After hearing different methods from different users, here's the majority view of how to get it perfect and I can verify it does just that. NOTE: This may only work if you are in the Northern hemisphere.

Once you have placed Polaris into the FOV and you have hit ENTER, you will need to lock it in. Use the hand controller and move Polaris into the North-west Quadrant of the FOV. Then you ONLY (This is CRUCIAL) want to use the DOWN and RIGHT direction buttons to place it in the middle of the eyepiece. It helps if you de-focus the star too, this should make it look like a big glazed donut! If you overshoot or have to use any other button besides DOWN and RIGHT to place it in the middle of the FOV, start over! Move it back to the North-west quadrant and do it again. Once you have centered the big-glazed donut in the middle using only the DOWN and RIGHT buttons, hit the ALIGN button. So it's a two-step process, first you find the star, then hit enter, and then you move it to the North-west quadrant of the eyepiece and use the DOWN and RIGHT buttons each until It's in the middle of the FOV and hit ALIGN.
After Polaris, find a star somewhere in the South portion of the sky and repeat the process, next your third star should either be in the west or east part of the sky; think of making as large of a triangle as possible but avoid those stars either super-duper high in the sky, or low in the sky. If you use higher-magnification eyepieces during this process, you are sure to get better results as your room for error will be smaller.

NOTE: Both your "go-to" properties in the "scope-set-up" menu, MUST be set to "positive." Since this is the default setting, if you don't touch it, it will already be that way.

If you follow those steps above, your scope will love you and you will love your scope! I was able to finally start viewing nebula and Messier objects. Although, they have very little if any contrast, you will be able to recognize them by their shapes. I have a UHTC-LP eyepiece on the way, I hear that's supposed to help with contrast, we'll see. I live in Vermont, but kind of on the outskirts of Burlington, which is our largest city; hence some light pollution.

(5) Must have accessories. The reason I gave the scope 4 instead of 5 stars is because of what wasn't included. Running on batteries is just not going to cut it on this beast. You have to buy either the power tank or the power extension cord. Since I run my scope from my wooden deck off my balcony, I use the power supply cord. Also, I had major vibrations when I first got my scope and immediately ordered the suppression pads, they made a major difference and cut it down to half maybe more. I also have a 8-24 zoom lens that has been a constant on my scope. This basically allows you to find an object and frame it by zooming in without having to swap out eyepieces. I love this… and you may too! The other reason, I didn't give it five stars is because the provided Sky software doesn't work with Vista. Instead they (Celestron) referred me to a sight where they wanted $300+ dollars for a version of the software compatible with Vista… sigh…

(6) Conclusion: I love this scope! I wish the directions would have told me that the 8se computer can be a bit touchy when aligning. I think they would benefit in more satisfied customers if they shared in their directions what the consensus has figured out with regard to getting perfect reliable alignment everytime. Nevertheless, the optics are beautiful! The scope is incredibly well-made and affordable! I'm already beginning to save up for a 14 inch… aperture fever! Catch it!
Thanks for reading and clear skies!