Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Celestron - NexStar 6SE Telescope - Computerized Telescope for Beginners and Advanced Users - Fully-Automated GoTo Mount - SkyAlign Technology - 40,000 Plus Celestial Objects

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2020

Style: NexStar 8SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

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!

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Christopher Dollard

Fantastic fist telescope. If you want to begin with astronomy, this is a great way to start.

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2024

Style: NexStar 6SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

The Celestron NexStar 6 SE is an incredible first telescope. I wanted to avoid cheaper scopes and get something that will last a lifetime. This is it. The optics are very good, nice crisp images. The motorized GoTo mount is fantastic for beginners as it makes it very easy for you to find objects quickly and enjoy observing without needing to find them yourself, and it tracks the objects as they move across the sky so you don't need to. It's not difficult to use at all as long as you read the manual and follow the on-screen prompts to align the scope, and once it is aligned, you're off to the races. I've seen absolutely stunning views of the Orion Nebula through this, even in my light polluted city back yard. It can be used anywhere, even in a city - you'll still see a great deal of objects like the planets, moon, star clusters, double stars, and bright nebulae, even a galaxy or two, like Andromeda. Outside of a city, in a real dark site, this scope will reveal so much. I found Neptune, very hard to see, on my second night with the scope. Truly stunning.

A few notes: get a power bank to power the telescope. The AA batteries do not last long. I only keep the batteries in to move the scope back into storage position after it has dried out (it will collect dew) and come to room temperature inside. I recommend the Celestron power banks, despite the price, because they are made for this. Get a dew shield (the Celestron portable roll-up shield is just fine) because SCT scopes are dew magnets, you will need it. And get a couple more eyepieces - the 25mm that's included is okay, but if you want to see more, I recommend getting a 32mm plossl and an 8-24mm Celestron zoom lens. Both are reasonably priced and will open up what you can see in this scope. Zoom lenses are especially great for beginners to "dial in" the right magnification and get the best views. The included star finder is alright, a little cheap, but it doesn't matter as long as you align it properly. You only need it for a few minutes to do the initial alignment for GoTo, then you shut it off for the rest of the night, so it's really not worth the cost of replacement. A couple of filters can help too - Orion Ultrablock for looking at nebulae, and some inexpensive color filters may help with bringing out details with the moon and planets.

Regarding shipping: I suspect this package was mishandled at some point by Amazon. Not long after receiving it, the altitude motor started making strange sounds, and the focuser knob (not the focuser itself) was slightly bent, so I suspect it was dropped. The box even showed a little damage, the visual back of the scope was likely pushed into the cardboard. But Celestron took care of fixing it quickly, for free under warranty, and now it's perfectly fine.

For beginners considering a more "serious" telescope that 1) is easy to use, 2) will last a very long time, and 3) is portable to travel to dark sites or do quick observing sessions in your back yard, this is a great one to start with. It's portable enough (with a carrying case) to take almost anywhere, and not too heavy. It's a quick setup and if you're following the instructions, it aligns quickly. The hand controller is intuitive and very easy to use as it guides you through every step. If you want more feedback on this scope, check out the Cloudy Nights forum where you can read reviews and first-hand experiences of using it, along with common FAQ.

Highly recommend this telescope. Inspect it when you get it to make sure there are no problems regarding mishandling during shipping. Otherwise, I love it, it really opened my mind to the wonders of amateur astronomy, got me started with a powerful yet easy-to-use telescope, and gave me a great hobby to get outside and enjoy the beauty of the night sky. Just be sure to use it on good, clear, calm nights for stargazing and you'll get the most out of it.

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ICEMAN

Great Telescope !

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2018

Style: NexStar 8SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

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.

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S.D. Falchetti

A Portable, Easy-to-use Solution for Visual Astronomy and Short-Exposure Astrophotography

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2020

Style: NexStar 8SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

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.

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WCat

Buy the scope, but you may want to invest in a power supply and a better finder scope

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2022

Style: NexStar 8SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

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.

81 people found this helpful

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Goose

Great Telescope

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2020

Style: NexStar 6SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

I am new to stargazing and i was trying to decide between a 6SE and a 8SE and decided with the 6SE. On my experience i can tell you this telescope has not disappointed. I will explain but keep in mind this is my own experience. I am using the lens that comes with this telescope which is a 1.25 mm

City View:
This telescope does great in city lights. During the week i use it in my backyard and it's amazing the different things i am able to see with this telescope. I am able to look at jupiter and it's clouds, Saturn (even though smaller than Jupiter) has great details from it's rings and 4-5 moons. Mars you can see the red planet but hard to see it's features, Uranus you can see a kinda gray dot and Neptune a blue dot. Don't expect to see images like you see from the Hubble Space Telescope. That's a 1.5 billion dollar telescope compared to $500+ telescope. But the images you do see and the satisfaction of finding the planets and stars is priceless. You will see details thought the lens just not like the pictures.

In the city it will be hard to look at nebulas because it is just so bright. The only one that i have been able to see small details would be Andromeda Galaxy. What you will see is a blurry cloud. It is still amazing to find it.

Outside of City:
Outside of the city this telescope is amazing. Planets and stars look amazing. Clusters and Nebulas have better detail and you are able to see stars that normally you cannot see in the city environment.

Set up:
The set up is very easy. Tripods are very sturdy and i like how it has a leveler that you can attach to your stand. As for the Nextar at first it might be confusing to use if you have never used a hand remote telescope before like me but after practice and reading the manual it should be self explanatory. Make sure stand is balance when using the 3 star alignment and it should sync to the night sky and make it easy to track and find objects fairly easy. That is one thing i love about it. Once it aligns the menu displays items available to watch and you can just select from the list and the telescope will automatically find it.

I did receive a defective hand remote at the beginning where i tried to update the software on my computer and it would not detect it. After contacting support (which took about 1-2 months of email conversations because they do not answer right away) They sent me a replacement.

Overall if you are new to this, the 6SE for the price is a great telescope and you will not be disappointed. Save the money that you would have spent on the 8SE, and that money use it to buy other features like a powerbank, eye pieces, filters, and other amenities that you will need later on.

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Shopper 38580951900

Very disappointed and feel cheated. Uses old technology in a shiny package.

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2013

Style: NexStar 8SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

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.

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chibear

A very nice scope

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2010

Style: NexStar 6SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

I bought the 6SE through Amazon and also bought the Celestron lense/filter collection and the AC adapter. Everything arrived on time and intact, despite UPS's best attempts to damage the telescope box. Kudos to Celestron for their packaging. Collimation was perfect right out of the box and didn't need adjustment.

I've used the scope on virtually every clear night for the last month and am very impressed. Sky Align is a breeze. The only times it has failed I either forgot to enter the correct date or time. After that it is a matter of finding 3 bright objects in the night sky and centering them in your eyepiece. HINT: I use the 27mm eyepiece to initially find each object (after using the finder scope) and then add the 2X Barlow to more accurately center the object. I usually pick some star in the Big Dipper, Capella, and for the time being Jupiter as my alignment objects. Works every time I input the right info. There is a bit of a learning curve so don't expect the unit to bend to your will until you've learned the system. The 'Identify' feature is great for a newbie astronomer like me: Point at the object and NextStar tells you what it is. I've spent a lot of time viewing Jupiter and images of it and the 4 visible moons are clear and crisp using the provided 27mm eyepiece as well as the 9mm and 15mm eyepieces I purchased separately, all 3 alone and with the 2X Barlow. Tracking is not all that accurate unless you sync to the object (in the 'Align' menu. Then it is much better. A list of Strengths and Weaknesses as I see it:

Strengths:

1. The price and low cost of accessories.

2. The clear images.

3. Ease of setup and alignment.

4. Portability of the SC design.

Weakness:

1. The provided level is junk. I use a 4" builders bull's eye level for much better accuracy.

2. You must remove the telescope from the tripod for leveling. Leveling with the scope attached to the tripod produces an error of approximately 1.5 degrees. In that respect it would have been nice if Celestron built an accurate level rather than the logo into the base.

3. The AC adapter turns with the scope so it is possible to unplug it or entwine your tripod during a night's viewing. If you unplug you lose your alignment, so always have batteries installed even if you use the AC adapter. A nice future upgrade would be to install the plug for the adapter in the non moving part of the base. It merely requires 2 contacts on 2 spiral tracks between the movable and stationary parts of the base.

4. Unless you use the Sync option, alignment seems to deteriorate over the course of a couple of hours. I am careful with the initial alignment as detailed above so I do not think that is the problem, rather something in the software. This is evidenced over the course of an evening by slewing back to an object (Jupiter in my case) using the GOTO Planet on the keypad. Over a period of time each return is farther to the left of center and lower in the field of view.

5. Keeps me outside on cold nights exploring the skies rather than inside by the fire.

Still a 5-star product I am very happy with.

26 people found this helpful

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Shane A. White

Perfect value beginner telescope. Needs power adapter (AC, Cig lighter or powertank) and eyepiece upgrades to really be fun...

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2017

Style: NexStar 8SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

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...

1,925 people found this helpful

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Nathaniel C.

Celestron 8SE - A good scope, for the right person.

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2020

Style: NexStar 8SE Computerized TelescopeSet: TelescopeVerified Purchase

Hello everyone! I purchased a Celestron 8SE package through Amazon shortly before the Christmas holiday for me and my family (ok, mostly for me!). I wanted to write this review because I probably made a mistake buying that package, which, of course, is only an opinion which benefits from hindsight. I normally pride myself on doing adequate research before buying a product, but I guess I didn't realize how much I wanted to try astrophotography until shortly after I received the scope in the mail. I was really drawn to the 'goto' capability, because I wanted my family to have an easy time getting the most out of the scope. I did read some reviews and many people posted cool pictures of the moon, solar system objects, and even some deep space objects -- those seemed to be enough to convince me.

So, there are good parts of the package. The scope seems well built. In my uninformed opinion, the optics are clear and the scope came perfectly collimated. The mount, while it has deficiencies, is actually pretty easy to use. It's also very easy to assemble and disassemble, very light, and again, in my opinion, is pretty sturdy. It's very easy to do a three-star alignment. My first attempt was spot on and a solution was found. All of the various pieces that came with the package seemed well built, except for the spotting scope (more later) and perhaps the diagonal -- it's very cheap plastic and doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the quality of the mirror.

The bad parts? Well, they might not be bad for certain people, so I'll leave the judgement up to you whether these issues are a 'negative'. First, the cheapo spotting scope never worked. I did email celestron on the day after christmas and I had a new spotting scope -- the upgraded version -- before new years. So kudos to Celestron for their quick work to fix the problem. The package came with one single eyepiece, a 23mm plossl I think, and it's the least clear eyepiece I now own. Now, on to the mount. I read that the mount "isn't great" for astrophotography, and honestly, at that point, I didn't think I'd get 'the bug' for it. After a couple weeks, I bought a T-adapter for my wife's Nikon D5100 and started to take some really cool pictures of the moon, venus, and even some quick exposures of deep sky objects. Once I really learned about astrophotography -- at least, as much as you can in a few months -- I realized this mount is just simply inadequate. Apparently there must be bicycle gears inside because it's not smooth, at all. The higher the objective is from the horizon, the worse the mount performs. When Sculptor was about 30 deg off the horizon, I was able to get 8-10s exposures. That same night, andromeda was about 70-75 deg when I started, and I couldn't get more than 4s; not acceptable. That was really the moment I decided to buy a new mount, and also the same time I somewhat regretted my purchase.

In terms of performance for visual astronomy, it seems to be ok enough. I've tracked venus for a while and it generally stays close. It does drift considerably over time, which is a natural effect of an motorized system trying to track anything without corrections, so this is expected. It's easy enough to set the slew speed slow and center the objective and it tracks just fine for a while. Again, there is a direct relationship between tracking performance degradation and the elevation of the object in the sky. I suspect there is a large amount of play in the gear system which causes backlash that is exacerbated when one axis of the mount approaches perpendicular from the earth.

The other part I wish Celestron would've improved is the focus knob. I mean, that thing just sucks. It has only one focus mechanism (no fine focus) and is pretty hard to accurately focus, but overally pretty easy to roughly focus. For casual visual observation, it's not a big deal. For astro, it's a pain in the royal butt to get focused right. I just got the Bahtinov mask in a couple days ago, so I'm hoping that'll make things a little easier. I'm not a fan of spending ANOTHER $350 on a fine focuser, so I'm going to create my own remote focus apparatus with a low RPM gearbox motor, belt, some type of attachment to fit over the focus knob, and a metal bracket. I've seen some designs online and I think I can get that going pretty quick. Eventually, I'm going to integrate the focus control to an image processing service to auto-focus the scope. Just keep in mind this can be frustrating.

What I didn't realize when I purchased the scope was how much I enjoyed doing astrophotography. I'm obviously a total newbie, but that type of hobby is right in line with my interests. I'm a very technical person, current engineer on a very cool project integrating instrumentation hardware/software interfaces, so the nexus of electrical engineer and software is my real passion. So, hooking up the scope, mount, camera to the mount, creating an effective workflow to automate the process is super interesting to me -- and it's really just lackluster with the mount. I also didn't even think AT ALL about buying an APO refractor. In fact, with the amount of money I've spent so far, I could've easily bought a decent APO and a good EQ mount, and probably a guidescope and camera. But, such is life. Live and learn.

I'll probably try to recoup a few hundred dollars by selling the Celestron goto mount, if possible. It's probably great for a casual hobbyist, but I tend to take things to the exteme.

Anyways, I hope this review helps people understand the quality, performance, and limitations of the 8SE GoTo package. I would give the setup a 4/5 stars -- because, it does exactly what you'd expect in terms of performance and quality.

55 people found this helpful

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