Difference between Nextar 8 and Nextar 8SE by celestron

[stringpickin]

Hello and good day..   Thank you for your time and help and advice..

I am looking at purchasing a celestron nextar8se as my next scope..  

Question.. Found a used scope named  Celestron 8 nextar with a silver body...    I am thinking it may have been a costco line of scopes provided by celestron. Reason I say this is that I purchased an older 114GT Nextar used which came with the orignal receipt. It was costco and had the same Silver color.  The newer 8SE's are the orange color available online everywhere. 

Are there any differences? in the goto options?  Are the older Nextar 8's better or worse optics or?  

any and all info is greatly appreciated..   Thank you

[baggywrinkle]

The SE are the later itterations of the Nexstar line. The SE's have different coatings I believe and are made in China.

Have a look at http://www.nexstarsite.com/

[rowan46]

the older 8's are not as good as the 8se.  the nexstar 8 is permanatly attached to the mount so its not as versatile. It also doesn't track as well as the se, neither the handset or mount firmware is upgradeable.

If its very cheap its worth having as the optics are usually very good but its only worth having if its very cheap. I used to have a 5 the tube was great the goto and tracking was only adequate

[CSM]

I have also had the opportunity of buying an older Celestron NexStar 8 for less than half the price of a new SE but the issue of the non-upgradable handset, the tracking and various other things made me think no.  As for as the 8SE is concerned I wonder whether they are going to be phased out in favour of the VX range.  The difference in price is small and I would imagine that the tracking and alignment would be better with the bigger, improved mount.

[Herbig]

I have a 6/8 SE mount and I am always impressed with the pointing and tracking accuracy, also have an HEQ5 and an NEQ6.

Use the SE as a grab n go and for solar with a PST, very versatile mount.