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

Only used a couple of times up to now lots of cloudy sky. When it was possible great view of the moon and Saturn. Takes some setting up and quite heavy to handle. Depending were you are can be used connected to electric or on batteries. Up to now very pleased with this purchase.

This is a top notch telescope. Everything about it is quality and it is all heavy, solid stuff. The quality of the optics is superb. Surprisingly, it is very easy to put together. And then to use it, I thought it might be complicated. But it isn't. To start with, you can use the hand control like a joystick to just point it and use the finder scope! The spiret level was a breeze to use because if you extend the tripod on a level surface, it is bang on anyway. I like the useful max power of 500x and the impressive 8inch appature to gather the light. Use this with a computer connected CCD eyepiece and it is even more unbelievable good! Expensive but great quality, built to last and zip running costs. Oh, and you can get a power adapter for 12 pounds to save on the batteries too.

When setting up, don't forget the bubble-level supplied. It is an essential part of an ALT-AZ mount. Get the mount "flat" to the ground. If on old grass, with a thatch, or soft ground, tripod pads may help with "drift", over a session. With this sorted, what can I say ?!! Amazing Telescope is the minimum comment. You have gained a portable, good value telescope. It is obvious that other eyepieces may be a requirement. I bought a case of assorted eyepieces and filters (Celestron). I treated myself to a zoom lens too, great fun, but not essential. Having read other reviews (thank you all), I bought a Celestron Power Tank. AA batteries are a great option though. With a corrector plate, dewing over, in the cold is a possible issue. Again, a Celestron Dew Shield, prevents this. There are electric ones around, but a basic shround has served me well enough with a frosty air. In short you could end up buying many "extras", which are not required. I bought a focal reducer for brighter, wider angled view (F6.3 compared to C8 F10). Do you need this ? I did for some things, but could have survived without. Decide what you need to add, and don't go mad for "power/magnification". 50x Magnification for every Inch of scope is great, before the loss of resolution starts. I found Jupiter's Red Spot (more light brown at the moment), at 150x. However, know the difference between a clear sky, and good "seeing", when the stars have very little "twinkle". The atmosphere can be be deceptive from day/night. Avoid being disappointed, if a clear view is so different from one night to the next. I do not do astrophotography, Very expensive hobby. But below, with a mobile phone holder on the eyepiece, limited view of Venus at Crescent phase and a moon shot. Visual is best for me ! Lastly, Alignment is very easy. 2 star, if you know the star Names, 3 star for any bright objects, but you must be accurate with location, and local time . Keep it simple, and do as much as you feel happy with, the 25mm eyepiece is fine. AA batteries are fine, don't spend a fortune with add-ons. Grow with the scope and what you want from it. A fantastic telescope. Have fun looking up !!!

My wife has just started her astronomy adventure and we took quite a while choosing which telescope to buy. This one came out very high in many reviews and on many websites, and although I was a little reluctant to start off with a £600+ telescope, I wanted to make sure we could have a good experience so opted for this one. Firstly there's no doubt this is a quality telescope. The tripod itself would set you back a couple of hundred Im sure if you just wanted a good one for professional level photography or a replacement. Perhaps a pro photographer would disagree but without doubt it's a strong and sturdy set up. The tripod also comes with an equatorial alignment wedge. Now at this stage I don't know very much about what that is, but on reading many other reviews related to the other Nexstar SE series telescopes, it's clear that the others don't appear to have that option oddly. (Im sure someone will correct me if Im wrong). But at least it is there as and when you need it. The telescope itself is fairly impressive, particularly if you are not accustomed to telescopes as a rule. It comes with the basics you need to get going (also bought a lens & filter kit to compliment further). There are a number of tutorial videos for this telescope available online to assist you in setting it up and to be honest we found it quite a doddle to get the whole thing erected. Using the GoTo computer attachment for the alignment process was another experience however. I quickly realised that the software needed to be updated as the alignment process did ask me for global co-ordinates. I know these are easily obtained from most smartphones, but I had noticed on a couple of aforementioned tutorial videos that this wasn't requested by the handset, instead simply asking you to select your country and city. So the first issue in updating the software was of course connecting it to your PC. Trouble is it comes with an RS-232 (serial adapter) and not a USB. Who uses those anymore? This prompted me to think: how long as this product been around? I haven't used a serial adapter since I last owned a dial-up modem over 10 years ago. So I purchased a separate adapter and after a bit of fiddling about with serial port issues, finally managed to update the software. It took us a couple of frustrating evenings getting the telescope aligned properly, but this was of course due to our inexperience and the required learning curve, but was eventually rewarded with amazing views of the Moon, Jupiter & Saturn on the same evening. (if you do buy this I advise you to get a 2x Barlow lens as well. It really makes a huge difference when coupled with the 25mm Plossl lens that comes with the telescope as standard. More experienced stargazers will no doubt offer better advice but I at least discovered that was the case very quickly). Once you get the hang of the alignment process you're off. The GoTo computer and auto alignment motor does all the hard work from there. Overall I think this is a great telescope, and especially for beginners. The price might make some people think twice for a first scope, however there are a number of other viable options if you take your time and some advice from experienced stargazers. So far I'm very happy. I would have given this the full five stars had it come with a USB connection option.

Only owning a 2nd hand 5 inch telescope, I have always wanted an 8 inch telescope (size is everything) and decided to buy in xmas sale. I was unfortunately very disappointed. Firstly, the computer needs the date/time set on EVERY usage. Secondly the red dot finder (RDF) is practically useless (you struggle to see anything thru it with one eye) and the focussing requires 32 turns of a cheap knob. The Sky Align said it had worked (point at three bright objects) but I could not get it to find objects (the aim was slightly off) despite checking levelling, date/time, location and so on. Tried again (from scratch) on a clearer night but had exactly the same issues and at the end of the day could not justify the expense of this item (to my wife) with the frustrating experience. I suspect the light gathering optics are probably great, but could not locate any objects (either automatically or manually) with this set up. Cannot believe something this expensive comes without the facility to maintain date/time and has a useless RDF and dodgy focusser ... so I am disappointedly returning as “not fit for purpose” and returning to my 5 inch which at a fraction of the price of this scope at least allows me to view objects (automatically and manually) I.e. it works. Perhaps this scope could be great but not without buying gps (£150) to feed date/time, motorised focus (£150) and better auto finder (e.g. sky prodigy £350) which is outside my budget.

This telescope is pretty good for the beginner who's not so interested in learning their way around the sky but is more inclined to be a tourist of the sky and who may intend to make use of the integrated equatorial wedge(otherwise the Nexstar 127 SLT is a better buy due to the extra inch of aperture). With 8 fresh quality AA batteries the GoTo is pretty accurate when setup properly (it uses American dating system), easily placing objects within the field of view of a 25, 32 or 40mm Plossl eyepiece. Downside is it eats through batteries as it only works at it's best with fresh batteries, if you observe a lot and for long periods a Celestron or Skywatcher 7ah or 17ah power tank is required. The focuser seems to work well with not much in the way of the vibration after focusing, the tripod is nice and stable when extended but don't go bumping into it. The accessory tray can easily hold 4 1.25" eyepieces and a Barlow Lens which I've found is all I need for observing with this scope. The optics are high quality producing good views of the moon, planets and double stars, and open clusters though these don't tend to fit in the whole view even when it's only had a short time to cool down. But if you're more interested in faint deep sky objects this telescope will have too small an aperture to satisfy you, and you'd be better off with the 8SE or a dobsonian. It is highly portable, I carry it from a living room through a hallway and two rooms in one piece fully assembled with tripod legs up and with eyepieces+barlow lens in their accessory tray, it'd be a good choice for someone living in a high flat. Last couple things is if you do get this scope or another of the SE series I highly reccomend purchasing the Celestron SkyQLink 1 or 2 either work with Android or iOS and using Skyportal app or Sky Safari 4 Plus or Pro to control the telescope, it's a lot better than using the handcontrol. You will also want a a Celestron or Skywatcher powertank to provide a steady power supply to keep the GoTo accurate for hours on end.

Astronomy made easy or so I was lend to believe. You do need a good knowledge of the stars to setup this up. That’s he moan out the way. This is the best telescope I’ve ever had the pleasure to own. Yes it’s not straight forward to setup but once done the night’s stargazing is an absolute pleasure. That power and clarity of the optics is outstanding. Looking through the telescope for the first time was as if I’d opened my eye for the first time. I could not believe what I was seeing the brightness was incredible. It is not the cheapest of telescope and only get the one lens but I do feel it would be money well spent. The mount is well made and quite sturdy. Easy to fit the goto arm and the telescope is simple to fit too. Take about 5 minutes there’s a few options to align the telescope once done your good to go. The finder scope that come with this I’d don’t rate at all I can’t get on with it and will be replacing it as soon as possible. Everything else about the telescope is great there’s a little lens holder that fits on the mount and help keep everything sturdy. For mobility it’s a good size not to bulky the case for this is £300 up but I do feel with a little effort you use some of the packaging and away you go. I’d recommend this telescope every day of the week Excellent work Celestron this Nexstar 8se is fantastic.

I've always had a keen interest in the skies since I was a little girl...having played around with various cheaper alternatives it has to be said you really do get what you pay for. Although this telescope doesn't come cheap it really is worth every penny so if you have a genuine love of the night sky and want to see the universe in great detail then this is an investment. I purchased this around 3 months ago and the only frustrating thing has been cloudy skies. Weather hasn't been too great up north but on the good few occasions it's been clear it has been worth freezing your socks off in the garden to see the beauty of the night sky ! The moon is spectacular through this scope, also Jupiter and it's moons have been exhilarating ! I've also tried to get my children in on this and it's well worth seeing your kids gasp at the sights you can see through this telescope that are clearly invisible to the naked eye. It's well worth every penny and I'm sure it will last years as this is a sturdy telescope. In agreement with other reviews the only real slight flaw I can give is the vibration of the tripod at times but it's not a big deal and later down the line there are other tripods that can replace it. It is worth investing in other products for instance get a good set of eye pieces and I also purchased the skywatcher power pack as batteries are unreliable. I just hope the overcast skies disappear soon so I can take this out more. After 3 trips to the lakes I found it was a waste of time travelling there as it was so overcast but despite the extra room it takes up in the car, I've decided that this telescope will come with me wherever I go! Highly recommend this piece of fabulous kit!!!!!