My Celestron 8SE arrived this morning!

[Crazy Dutchman]

Hello everyone,

 

I got my first ever telescope today: a Celestron 8SE from Harris Telescopes. I was a bit shocked by the size of the box: as tall as 4 adult Meerkats (see attached picture)  .

 

I will keep you informed the coming days on the unpacking, setting-up and the first usage. I also hope to make my first pictures, as it came with an adaptor for my Nikon D800.

 

To be continued...

[emadmoussa]

Congratulations on the new scope. Look forward to the unboxing photos?

[Marki]

Congratulations! The 8SE was the first scope I bought too. Great optics and good aperture in a compact format. You'll have some great views with this scope! Look forward to more unboxing pics and reading your first light report :-).

[Demonperformer]

Congratulations on your purchase of a great scope.

[Astro Imp]

I'll add my congratulations and wish you good luck with your new scope.

[jonathan]

Excellent, welcome to the 8SErs!  There are a few of us around so if you get stuck with anything just post and someone will set you straight. 

Some quick advice:

Invest in a dew shield (or make one) and think about a dew heater controller and tape for the main scope.

Invest in a small leisure battery (small to keep the weight down) to run the scope with, or a 12V mains adapter, with an appropriate connection for your chosen power cable, SkyTron do some good cables.  You can buy battery clips with a cigarette lighter style socket attached and in-line fuse from somewhere like Motosave, a very simple and easy portable power setup.  The battery compartment in the 8SE mount does not provide enough juice to run the mount very well or for very long.

Invest in a 10mm or 8mm eyepiece, this will be your high magnification eyepiece.  Something like the Celestron X-Cel will be fine.  You could also buy a 16 or 18mm eyepiece but the supplied 25mm is fine for wide-field and for finding targets.

A moon filter would be good to keep the glare down when viewing the moon and planets, you'll get some excellent views of the lunar surface, and sky conditions permitting Saturn and Jupiter too.  Venus will be up soon (the brightest planet by far) so look out for the changing phases on that.

Don't let the goto get the better of you, it can be frustrating if it doesn't work first time and you don't understand exactly what's going on (speaking from experience, the 8SE was my first scope) but with a bit of practice and some practical advice from members here you should be able to get the best from it in no time.

Finally, enjoy your scope!

PS.. don't forget to turn the red dot finder off!

[Crazy Dutchman]

Thanks for the advice and all the warm words of welcome. Tomorrow I will post the unpacking pictures.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pig]

Congratulations on getting your scope

[emadmoussa]

Thanks for the advice and all the warm words of welcome. Tomorrow I will post the unpacking pictures.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

can't wait.

[Crazy Dutchman]

And now the unboxing and set-up. All was done in about 30 minutes and was really easy and straightforward. Praise for the Quick Set-up Guide!

UNBOXING AND SET-UP PART 1

1. The big 5 foot box, ready to be opened

2. 22 Kilograms

3. And what did I find when I opened the box? A box in a box 

4. And after opening the second box: 4 boxes in a box in a box 

5. After opening the 4 boxes in a box in a box

6. Box 1: The tube

To be continued...

[Crazy Dutchman]

UNBOXING AND SET-UP PART 2

7. The sturdy Tri-pod

8. The Fork Arm

9. The rest of the Accessories: Bubble Level, Eyepiece, StarPointer and Star Diagonal

10. The Second box, ready to be opened (a lot smaller...)

11. Inside the second box: The Eyepiece and Filter Kit, Adapter for my Nikon D800, Power Supply and Dew Shield

To be continued...

[Crazy Dutchman]

UNBOXING AND SET-UP PART 3

12. The Aluminium Case with Eyepieces and Filters

13. The Aluminium Case, opened for the first time

14. Five eyepieces; 6mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm, 32mm and a 2x Barlow Lens and seven filters

To be continued...

[faulksy]

nice one mate, look forward to pics of it set up. and of corse first light report

[Crazy Dutchman]

UNBOXING AND SET-UP PART 4

 

15. The Tripod

 

 

 

16. The Tripod; extended and with the Accessory Tray fitted

 

 

 

17. Tripod, Tube and Fork Arm

 

 

 

18. Tripod with the Fork Arm mounted

 

 

To be continued...

 

 

[emadmoussa]

Sexy!

[Crazy Dutchman]

UNBOXING AND SET-UP PART 4

 

19. The Tube mounted on the Fork Arm (still in its proactive paper wrap)

 

 

 

20. The wraps come off...

 

 

 

21. The StarPointer mounted

 

 

 

22. The Star Diagonal

 

 

 

23. Eight Duracell Batteries ready to go to work

 

 

 

24. The final telescope in all its Glory

 

 

 

25. And this is what the stars would see if they had eyes and would be gazing back at us...

 

 

 

And that concludes the unboxing and setting up of my Nexstar 8SE.

 

Tomorrow I will have my first look through it, and I hope I can make my first picture(s) too.

 

[emadmoussa]

Very nice. One great thing about these scopes is the amount of power packed up in a small scope. I hope you'll enjoy using it

[Crazy Dutchman]

Sorry, I forgot the post the disclaimer for the unboxing and set-up of my Nestar 8SE:

No Meerkats have been hurt while unboxing and setting-up this Scope

[emadmoussa]

Sorry, I forgot the post the disclaimer for the unboxing and set-up of my Nestar 8SE:

No Meerkats have been hurt while unboxing and setting-up this Scope

:D

[Pig]

I am not sure if you have used the "Goto"  function on a mount before, if not, be patient with it as you will no doubt get a bit frustrated if you cannot find the objects you are looking for, most of the time it is down to user error and once you understand them its a great feature.

Should you need any help please do not hesitate to ask.

Shaun.

[Astro Imp]

Looks good to go.

Now for some clear skies, good luck.

[MadAlbert]

Nice pix! Remember, those batteries will not last very long (given reasonably clear skies!) so you might want to consider a power tank, or suchlike. HTH

[Demonperformer]

+1 for an alternative power supply.

Particularly if you move around a lot during a session, looking at a lot of objects.  The GOTO is VERY power-hungry.

Remember, it is not just a case of the batteries running out and ending the session, but as they get low the GOTO system can start doing weird things and not doing what you want.  And replacing them during a session with a second set requires an entirely new setup procedure.

That said, you are in for a treat with the views you will get.

[Crazy Dutchman]

As this is my very first telescope, I have not used the GOTO function before, apart from in Monopoly.

I will however get myself an alternative power supply, I bought a mains cable with the scope, but a separate power pack seems the best alternative. Although, when I asked, Harrison Telescope advised me not to buy the Celestron PowerTank as it has very outdated battery-technology.

[Demonperformer]

If you are going to run it on battery rather than mains power most of the time, the general wisdom seems to be a heavy duty leisure battery (100Ah  -ish).  Not cheap, but the worst thing is to get something that proves to be inadequate as you add other devices to it.