Usually, most people start their astronomy journey with some basic beginner telescope. When you grow as an astronomer then you outrun these beginner telescopes and you want a bigger aperture telescope that has excellent performance. This is the same thing Celestron has kept in mind and designed a Celestron NexStar 8SE telescope.
Celestron NexStar 8SE Computerized Telescope
The ‘NexStar 8SE’ is one of the most popular & the biggest telescope from the “Celestron NexStar SE” series. In 1970, the orange tube C8 made its debut, and since then Celestron has been producing C8s in basically the same format. Now the telescope tube has different glass coatings for maximum efficiency and many improvements but overall the optical tube assembly is similar to that of C8 from the 1970s.
The telescope has an 8-inch aperture with a focal length of 2032mm. It has a focal ratio of 10. Its highest useful magnification is 480 times and its lowest useful magnification of 29 times.
The 8SE telescope collects 77% more light than the Celestron NexStar 6SE. The big aperture of this telescope will show the faint distance objects in great detail.
When you buy this telescope you will get an optical tube assembly, single-arm fork mount, tripod, and hand controller. You will also get a finder scope and two eyepieces.
Setting up this telescope with the help of the instruction manual is a very easy task. It will take between 30 to 40 minutes to set up this telescope if you are using it for the first time. Attaching this telescope to the mount is the most difficult part and it is preferred if you do this first on a soft surface like a mattress or carpet. After that, you can fix the attached telescope and fork arm assembly on the tripod. This will save you from an unnecessary accident of dropping the optical tube assembly while attaching it to the fork arm.
While collimating you must point the scope at a star or an artificial object, defocus it, and adjust the three small screws on the secondary mirror until everything is lined up.
Celestron NexStar 8SE Mount
The mount of the telescope is a single fork alt-azimuth mount. This means you do not need to polar align the mount. This mount can support optical tube assembly weights up to 12 lbs. While navigating through the night sky or adjusting the focus you will experience very minor vibrations. You can get rid of these minor vibrations by using anti-vibration pads.
The mount is a computerized go-to mount, so you will spend more time observing and studying the celestial objects than finding them in the night sky.
What can you see with this telescope?
In our solar system, you can see Mercury and Venus and their phases. The moon, its craters, valleys, and ridges will be visible in great detail. The ice caps on Mars and can see the dust storms. You will be able to see Jupiter and its cloud bands, the great red spot, and some moons of Jupiter. Saturn and many of its moons will also be visible.
In the deep space objects, you will be able to see many minor galaxies, nebulae, and the Messier Catalog. You can see our neighboring Andromeda galaxy with this telescope.
Celestron NexStar 8SE Astrophotography
As this telescope has a relatively bigger aperture, you might be wondering ‘what about the Astrophotography with this telescope?’
This telescope has an alt-azimuth mount. We have explained before how different types of mounts work and which mount is best suitable for astrophotography.
Though this telescope has an alt-azimuth mount, you can still do astrophotography with this telescope.
You can easily capture bright objects such as the moon, planets, bright stars, and bright galaxies in the sky. You can do short-exposure astrophotography with this telescope very effectively.
If you want to do long-exposure astrophotography then you need the celestial object in your field of view all the time. Though the mount of this telescope has a motor and it can track the object in the sky. But it has some limitations. While doing long exposure astrophotography tracking the objects for a long time you will find some drift in the tracking which will result in giving you star trails. So to solve this problem you can use a good quality wedge that will convert your alt-azimuth mount into an equatorial mount and then this telescope is perfect for long-exposure astrophotography.
This telescope is the best for beginners to advanced levels of astronomers. For beginners, it is recommended to figure out their level of interest in astronomy & then go for such an expensive telescope.
Celestron NexStar 8SE Accessories
If you want to use this telescope to its maximum capacity then you will need some accessories to use this telescope. These accessories will help you to get the maximum out of this telescope. The telescope comes with only one 25mm eyepiece. If you want high power then you can use some of these eyepieces from Celestron itself.
If you want to take the maximum advantage of the eyepieces you have. Then you must have a Barlow lens, having a Barlow lens is similar to having two eyepieces instead of one. So, a Barlow lens must have in their telescope kit.
The telescope runs on 8 AAA batteries, so instead of relying on these batteries, you can buy an external battery pack that will last longer during your stargazing night.
Some of the good eyepieces have a barrel size of 2-inches which will not fit in the NexStar 8SE, so you will need to buy an adapter that will help to fit these 2-inch eyepiece barrel sizes to 1.25-inch. If in the future you want to observe the sun with your telescope then you will also need to buy a solar filter which is made for these 8-inch telescopes.
Also if you want to use the telescope for long-exposure astrophotography then you must buy a wedge.
Accessories
- Wedge – Buy Here
- Barlow Lens – Buy Here
- External Battery pack – Buy Here
- High power eyepieces – Buy Here
- Eyepiece adapter – Buy Here
- Solar filter – Buy Here
Celestron NexStar 8SE Summary
| Aperture | 203mm( 8inches) |
| Focal Length | 2032 mm |
| Focal Ratio | f/10 |
| Highest Useful Magnification | 480X |
| Lowest Useful Magnification | 29X |
| OTA weight | 12lbs(5.4kg) |
| Mount Type | Computerized Alt-Azimuth Mount |
| Total Weight | 24lbs (10.88kg) |
Conclusion
Using a telescope to see awesome views can really get very complicated, especially for a beginner. This might kill the excitement & demotivate beginners and will push them away from the hobby. The NexStar 8SE helps beginners enjoy stargazing with minimum difficulties. So the telescope is perfect for people who want to get started with the hobby. This telescope will serve you for at least 8-10 years easily or even more.
If you take into consideration all the parameters while buying a telescope, this telescope fits perfectly in those parameters with minor drawbacks here and there. If you are thinking of buying the Celestron NexStar 8SE then go ahead with your purchase, you will not regret it.
We hope you learned something new about this super awesome beginner-friendly telescope. If you are new to astronomy and want to understand all the basics of stargazing then check out the basics of astronomy section. If you want to learn more about different stargazing telescopes then check this article.
If you are looking for a telescope specifically for astrophotography then you need to check this article. You can also find the best suitable telescope for you with our telescope suggestion tool.
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