Celestron 11069 NexStar 8SE Computerised Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope with Advanced GPS, Astroimaging and AutoAlign Features, Black/Orange

Product Information

To make your experience of using this telescope even better, you can use the free software Stellarium to control your goto motor, just see the video for how. Our experienced staff can test refractor lenses up to 120mm aperture and provide a comprehensive 2 page report showing the optical quality and Strehl ratio, plus much more information. You will need an additional power source but, other than that, you are great to go right out of the box! Takedown is just as quick and the whole scope packs away into rather small dimensions – certainly small enough for the average trunk. The views you see at the eyepiece will take your breath away if you’ve never used a scope before, or even if your used to something smaller.

Once you’ve got the box open and ready to go, let’s look at how easy the NexStar 8SE is to set up and get operational.But if you want to photograph dim things, you want a telescope with a fast focal ratio, since focal ratio affects exposure time. As an astrophotographer, the first thing I noticed was the Alt-Az fork mount, and that’s not what you want if your primary interest is long-exposure astrophotography. Despite the long focal length of these telescopes, the OTA itself has a very short length, making the system a compact telescope which is extremely easy to transport. Like all catadioptric scopes, the optical tube is a sealed unit, so takes a long time for the air trapped inside to equalize its temperature with the outside world. Celestron makes a portable PowerTank (shown below) for this purpose, but you might want to look into some more powerful portable battery station for extended use.

Even if you are unfamiliar with the night sky, you can easily align your telescope on any three bright objects. One of the most important factors in a telescope is its transmission—the percentage of light that reaches the focal plane.I realize guiding will be trickier with the AVX than a higher-payload scope such as the CGEM, but I just don’t think I’ll use my scope as often if I need to assemble it each time.