Overall Impression:
Great telescope for someone not yet ready to take the plunge with a german equitorial mount, but still wants good viewing of any objects and/or planetary/moon/solar imaging. If you think you might be interested in astrophotography but want to try something in this price range first, I recommend getting the 6SE as it will perform well for what you want and will save you money you can use when you upgrade! If you know you want to stick with visual observing, the 8SE is the best option in this price range. If you are looking for good quality with an easy setup, this is it!
Summary:
The Celestron NexStar 8SE Computerized Telescope is an Alt/Azimuth GoTo telescope. It has an 8 inch aperture with a focal length of 2032mm. This setup is especially good for planetary viewing. You can also create decent planetary images as long as you keep your exposures to a few seconds (i.e. not recommended for deep space astrophotography requiring longer exposure times to collect enough data/light). With that said, however, visual observing of brighter deep space objects like the Andromeda galaxy, the Orion Nebula, or even Pleiades is excellent as the 8 inch aperture collects a lot of light.
The Telescope:
The telescope is a Schmidt Cassegrain design with an 8 inch aperture and a focal length of 2032mm and a focal ratio of f/10. The telescope comes with a good 25mm eyepiece, however you will likely want additional higher power eyepieces for closer planetary viewing and viewing of deep space objects.
The Mount:
What can I say.. the Celestron Alt/Azimuth mount with GoTo functionality is great! It is much lighter than a german equitorial mount, making it fairly portatable. The GoTo handset is easy to use. There are a few different setup modes with varying degrees of accuracy. All of which are relatively easy to perform.
Accessories:
If you wish to use this telescope for astrophotography, you will need some additional equipment. You will need a camera (either dedicated astrophotography camera, or any DSLR camera). Depending on which camera you use, you will need an appropriate adapter. A DSLR camera will require a Celestron T-Adapter a T-Ring for your specific DSLR camera. If you want to take astrophotography farther, you can get the NexStar Wedge which will make your Alt/Az mount perform like a german equitorial mount, allowing longer exposure times.
If you wish to use this telescope for visual observing, consider additional high powered eyepieces specific for what you wish to view.
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