Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope

Celestron NexStar Telescope

Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope

Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope

by Celestron
See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

Technical Details

-8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, StarBright XLT high transmission coatings come standard
-StarPointer finderscope to help with alignment and accurately locating objects
-Quick-release fork arm mount, optical tube and accessory tray for no-tool setup
-SkyAlign allows you to align on any three bright celestial objects, making for a fast and easy alignment process
-Nearly 40,000-object database with 200 user-definable objects and expanded information on over 200 objects

>>> See more technical details.

Review

Excellent Telescope at a Great Price!

In brief I was thoroughly satisfied with the quality of the telescope. I havent yet used it much, but in about 2 weeks or so that I have owned the telescope, I have used it each night irrespective of the seeing conditions.

I will divide the entire review into two parts, likes and dislike/want.

Things that I dislike or would want.
Power consumption is really high... I learnt that the very first night. I had to terminate my viewing session in about two hours. I was using brand new Duracell AA battries with a lot of moving. I would have really like if Celestron was a little more direct about the fact that power comsumption is really high, but then again I could have missed it! I would really recommend buying the power tank.

Levelling the telescope is really important and Celestron has even provided with a bubble level. I would have really liked if the bubble was built into the mount.

Things that Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope I like...
In one word... everything else. The optics are really good and I get clear crisp images. The GoTo system, called SkyAlign here, is easy enough to use. I had a little trouble getting it up and running but found a good thread on Cloudynights by MarvinTheMartian and followed everything there to get a really good alignment.

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First light Report:
Saw Jupiter with the four moons and it was spectacular. I could even see the clouds of Jupiter. Moon is probably the best target to view, however dont make the mistake I made, see moon on a full moon night without any filter! Its just too bright!
I see from suburban areas, and have a lot of light pollution. Even with all that I was able to see some of the deep sky objects. I have seen M31 and am hoping for some more time and some clear skies to continue viewing.

Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope Portability: Though people may say this is portable, I would not necessarily agree with them. Its not as portable as I would call portable. If you are like me, carrying it around like me, I would recommend buying a carrying case at least for the OTA.

Final Verdict on Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope : If money is not the concern, go ahead and buy this telescope. I really loved everything about this telescope and the dislikes are trivial (and hence the 5 star rating). Big aperture will keep me occupied for quiet some time before I move to my next, a 14"!

Celestron NexStar 4 SE Telescope

Celestron Nexstar Telescope

Celestron NexStar 4 SE Telescope

Celestron NexStar 4 SE Telescope
by Celestron
See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Technical Details

* 4-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope; StarBright XLT high transmission coatings come standard
* StarPointer finderscope to help with alignment and accurately locating objects
* Quick-release fork arm mount, optical tube, and accessory tray for no-tool setup
* SkyAlign allows you to align on any three bright celestial objects, making for a fast and easy alignment process
* Nearly 40,000-bject database with 200 user-definable objects and expanded information on over 200 objects

Reviews

This is a great telescope for many reasons. First, it is very easy to use. Most telescopes out there, even if they are computerized, are still difficult to align to the night sky before beginning use. The Nexstar 4SE with the sky align makes it fool proof because you only need to point it to 3 bright objects in the sky with no need to know what they are. One of the easiest ways to align it to the night sky is using a the Solar System Align. If you don't want to choose and point it at 3 bright objects, you can choose the moon. The moon is very easy to spot and easy to point the telescope. To me, this is the easiest alignment of all. After a few minutes setting them up, I found Jupiter easily after using the moon as the alignment object.

Secondly, for the price range, it is very well made and sturdy. Most of the components are metal which appears to make them rigid and durable. A rigid telescope makes them sturdy and shake free. It's 40,000 object database gives you enough things to look at for years and years.

The 4" optics on this is superb and the overall package is well worth the money. It is great for looking at planetary objects and deep sky.
Highly recommended.

Found this easy to use. I chose this one to buy as my first telescope after reading several reviews concerning a few different telescopes and comparing prices vs features.

The NexStar 4 SE telescope set up rather quickly. Sky align worked well, though sometimes the scope seemed to become less accurate as the hours went buy, and I tried to re-align to different stars but eventually I encountered the same alignment results.

The motor does sometimes jump and looses track of objects. Approaching the objects from a certain side seemed to help, as mentioned in the instruction book.

I did have to buy the additional eyepiece/filter kit. Clarity was rather good up to 6mm eyepiece, though the 4mm was pretty blurred, even for moon views.

Although the AC adaptor is a necessity for continuous power, I found out I already had one that fit my telescope from a car seat back massage/heater cushion which also had a car cig adaptor (which I bought for $19.99).

The computer info included in the hand controller is great though some of the 40,000 objects might not be viewable. I had problems finding some nebula and galaxies, maybe that are too faint.

I have seen Andromeda Galaxy, Orion Nebula, great Moon views, a very blurred mars view (cannot see any features), and extremely blurred Uranus (basically just blue color blurred).

I would have given it a 5 out-of 5 had the motor tracking been smoother, alignment stayed accurate. Besides that it met my expectations.

Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope

Celestron NexStar Telescope

Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope

Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope
by Celestron
(10 customer reviews)

Technical Details

-6-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope; StarBright XLT high transmission coatings come standard
-StarPointer finderscope to help with alignment and accurately locating objects
-Quick-release fork arm mount, optical tube, and accessory tray for no-tool setup
-SkyAlign allows you to align on any three bright celestial objects, making for a fast and easy alignment process
-Nearly 40,000 object database with 200 user-definable objects and expanded information on over 200 objects

>>> See more details

Reviews

We used our scope for the first time recently. I had read the manual and a lot of online materials before we received our scope so I was somewhat familiar with how to use it. I input our location using our place's longiture and latitude and used the unit's "two star" alignment setting since I could only make out two bright stars in our light-polluted location (Tokyo, Japan). After this, I input "Jupiter" into the hand controller and the scope slewed to the planet and placed it right in the center of the eyepiece's field of view. My family and I spent the next hour letting the scope swing around to various stars and binary systems that I couldn't see with my unaided eyes but showed up beautifully in the eyepiece. I recommend taking a look at Albireo in the list of "named stars" on the hand controller very highly.

I knew that a telescope, much like a camera, is a device that needs accessories. Therefore, before I bought the scope I purchased (used) a 9mm ocular, a barlow lens, a better star diagonal and a battery pack to power this thing. The car battery adapter I purchased with the scope. A lot of people don't use a case so I can understand why Celestron didn't include one with this to keep the price down. One of those plastic storage boxes should work well if you use the foam that comes with the scope to keep it in place.

The optics of the telescope and the special coatings on the optics are a great improvement over what I experienced 20 years ago with my first 5" SCT scope. The images are sharp and this scope is suitable for both planetary viewing and deep space objects. However, the deep space objects will require you to find a dark site to be really visable. Our first night of viewing included a look at M13, a globular cluster. It was there but the local light pollution required me to use "averted vision" to see it.

I highly recommend this product for those who want to get into Astronomy at a reasonable price. There are bigger scopes out there but the prices and size of these telescopes make this one a great compromise on size, performance and "bang for the buck." I don't think that you will be disappointed. You will need a few accessories but buy those as you need them.

Celestron NexStar 114 SLT Computerized Telescope

Celestron NexStar

Celestron NexStar 114 SLT Computerized Telescope

 

Celestron NexStar 114 SLT Computerized Telescope

by Celestron
See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Celestron NexStar 114 SLT Technical Details

-Computerized hand control with 4,000-object database
-SkyAlign allows you to align on any three bright celestial objects
-Motorized Altazimuth mount
-f9 focal ratio
-1000mm focal length

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Review

I had always been interested in astronomy, but had never used a GOOD telescope. That all changed when I opened this up attached the tube to the tripod and headed outside! Setup takes just minutes and the alignment process is foolproof. I've used both Jupiter and the moon for alignment. The telescope gets pretty close to the objects you tell it to go to. I did find however that when it moves to certain objects it seems to take the long way most of the time and tangles the power cord and hand held cord around the base.

So far looking at Jupiter is extraordinary! I have seen the cloud bands and up to four of its moons with just the 25mm lens and a Barlow 2X. The moon? Don't get me started clear as day and all of those wonderful craters seen to pop out at you! Wonderful. Still trying to get myself out at 2:30 am to see Mars and Venus. Maybe tonight! Looking at stars with this telescope seems to make them look brighter and looking at archturus (I think that's what its called) seems to yield a wonderful array of flashing colors

I highly recommend getting Celestron's accessory kit with this telescope. With it comes lenses from 25mm to 4mm. The 4mm is great and makes Jupiter very big in the eyepiece, but the built in focusing knob in the eye piece becomes nearly impossible to use. I have yet to use any of the filters that come with the kit but I have read great things on what they do.

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There have been some complaints about the batteries going dead too fast. There is an AC adapter available from some other sellers on amazon, or if you have a lot of electronics lying around the house like I do I bet that here is a 12 volt adapter lying around just screaming USE ME! USE ME! and that will work fine.

The only con I have -if it can be considered a con ;)- is the other night when i was really putting it through its paces a horrible stink came from the lateral drive box while it was moving to a new location. It did go away after a few minutes so maybe it was the gear lube heating up? Anyway it's still working perfectly and seems to be well built.

Celestron NexStar 130 SLT Computerized Telescope

Celestron NexStar

Celestron NexStar 130 SLT Computerized Telescope

Celestron NexStar 130 SLT Computerized Telescope

by Celestron
See all reviews (27 customer reviews)

Celestron NexStar 130 SLT Technical Details

-Computerized hand control with 4,000-object database
-SkyAlign allows you to align on any 3 bright celestial objects
-Motorized Altazimuth mount
-Focal ratio: f5
-Focal length: 650mm

>>> See more Technical details

Celestron NexStar 130 SLT Review

Great Telescope.

First I bought the Celestron NexStar130 SLT ( Christmas 2009)and the 60 SLT. It was so easy; I started ordering eyepieces, filters, ccd, SkyScout, Nexstar Connect, the PowerTank (17aH) power inverter and the solar filter. I will admit I expected to take deep space pictures but the mount is really only good for planetary Pictures. My Bad...the literature says as much!

The SkyScout hooked-up to the telescope is the bomb! They say in their literature that it will not slew the scope...wrong! It is great. In one night I had a "StarParty" with some friends who have never seen a real telescope.

I looked like a pro: point the SkyScout, it orally tells what you are seeing and slews the scope to the object. We saw everything on the SkyTools III list for the night that was viewable: Moon, Saturn, Saturn's moons, Mercury, Venus, and took pictures. Someone would ask what is that, they would point with the SkyScout and away we would go.


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My friends never realized that this was the first time I had operated the SkyScout "Connected" to the SLT's. One said, this is better than that planetarium (referring to the Mark Smith Planetarium). Though they were indeed wrong, what they were actually saying, "this is great fun." I have a crowd anytime I go stargazing. What fun!

I am ordering the CGEM 1100 HDEdge because I am teaching Astronomy next year and I am teaching in Malawi this Summer and can see the Southern Constellations. I expect deep space pictures. I am certain I will!