Home > Consumer Reviews > Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope

I have a professional degree in astronomy before turning to medicine. I also have over 40 years of observing experience. This is a wonderful off-the-shelf telescope for the amateur observer who is mainly interested in visual observing. Optical and mechanical quality and image stability are excellent. I use a digital camera with it for planetary and lunar work, but I don't do deep-sky photography. This type of alt-azimuth drive/mount is not really designed for serious deep-sky photography, but it is terrific for visual observing. My only complaint is that it does not have an onboard memory clock, so the time, date, and location must be re-entered with each use. That is a crazy software design. The other complaint is that the unit I have does not know about the change in daylight savings time dates that was made last year. It is a small hassle, but a hassle nonetheless.

For the price and all the listed features, this telescope is a severe disappointment.

Out of the box, I noticed pieces missing. Celestron customer service (likely in India, China or Jamaica) doesn't provide humans to speak with. Only terse online text responses. No luck getting the piece I needed.

A buddy and I set up the scope and the first thing that happened was that the batteries shorted out and literally spilled acid inside the battery tray. I cleaned the tray and put in freshly-charged rechargables. They ran out of power extremely fast. So, I put in brand-new disposable batteries. Three out of four alignment attempts didn't work. Finally got it aligned. Motors seems to be really sloppy and very imprecise. Stars and planets weren't where they were supposed to be. Scope does not track so, by the time you see something cool and tell your friend to look, it's totally out of sight.

Objects viewed didn't look anything like the pictures on the web / marketing materials. I used it on a clear dark night with the optional Celestron accessory pack.

Very disappointing. Too big to ship back. I'm stuck with a nice conversation piece.

I am a beginner to astronomy and I find this is the perfect scope to begin and continue my adventure with. Its about as much telescope as you can have that is still be portable. It is solid and I can carry it out in one piece. Every time I take it out I learn more about astronomy. It is also an excellent platform to grow in the future with accessories, such as anti-vibration pads, upgraded finderscope, and a focal reducer. I am very pleased and would recommend it to anyone.

I received this telescope as a gift for Christmas. My husband did much research and purchased the telescope as well as ac/dc and portable power supply.

I was very fortunate that he purchased those external sources of power as the power source using the batteries is faulty. Loaded up 8 brand new batteries and turned on the scope: NOTHING. Thought perhaps they were loaded wrong, removed them and reinserted the batteries. Still nothing. Tried another set of brand new batteries. Still NOTHING.

I have been able to use the scope, it works well on external power, however if the power supply comes loose for even a second, I have to re-align the scope because the battery power supply seem disconnected from the scope. I have tried to call Celestron however, they are on vacation until 1/4/2009. Wonderful. I really don't want to send the scope back for this (which they would cover under warranty I am sure--except they won't pay for shipping).

Very disappointed with this as the scope was pricy.




E-mailed Celestron and received reply after everyone returned from vacation. I will have to return the base to the to have it evaluated.

When I opened the package I was surprised the quality of the product. I went right away to test it in my first night. Due to Florida's terrible rainy days lately it was mostly cloudy yet I was able to see Mars, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's moon and clouds, even behind a tinted glass! That's how high quality these optics are. Able to gather celestial light even with such terrible viewing conditions.

The eyepiece that came with it(25mm)is of very good quality itself, I bought a an eyepiece set but I still find myself using it a lot. The tracking does drain batteries fast so I had no choice than to upgrade to an AC power supply. Due to high humidity, dew was a problem on the optics, had to buy a dew shield.


To summarize, every penny spent on it was well worth it. This really isn't an entry level telescope so it does cost a lot but it also shows on the quality and what you can see through it.

I definitely recomend buying this telescope if you are serius about astronomy or want a real good telescope.
It's no wonder this is the most popular telescope these days.

~Leonel & Lennier