Celestron C8 Newtonian v's Nexstar 8SE

[kbp]

I recently posted that I was looking at the Nexstar 8 and 8SE and I am still considering all my options. 

There is a C8 Newtonian on a CG5 goto mount for sale quite locally at £425.  The telescope is only a couple of years old and is in very good condition.

There is also a Nexstar 8SE for sale with a 6 month warranty at a reduced price of £899 as a return to the shop.

I've compared both and have learnt more about the difference between an f5 and f10, reflector and SCT, and the advantages/disadvantages of both types of telescope.

So here is my dilemma:

The price of the C8 N is very good and I didn't want to spend £900 on a telescope.  However, having had the nexstar 127 for a few years I like the set-up and find it simple to use. I'm not so sure about the CG5 mount.  And in the future I could always think about upgrading the SE mount.  I also dislike the idea of having to collimate the C8 N.  My main reason for upgrading is because I want to be able to view deep sky objects and the planets in greater detail.  In the future I may well decide to do a bit of astrophotography.  Also the 8 SE is less cumbersome for me to handle. 

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Karen

[triton1]

The cg5 mount is very capable plus it should come with the sturdier 2inch legged tripod.If at a later date you find the ota too cumbersome you could sell that and upgrade to a se ota

[kbp]

Thanks Jonn for the reply.  Does it require a lot of skill to use a cg5 mount?  Do you think it is better to do it this way round with the upgrade to the se later, rather than an upgrade of the mount in the future?

[triton1]

My cg5 is moterised in ra only but people on here seem to rate the cg5 gt which I think yours is.I don,t personnely have any experience with goto but the mount is a good platform to start with.I,ve seen 8se,s go for £350 to£450 secondhand for ota only so this way you sell the reflector at a later date and recoup some of the money back.I do like my sw200p but they are quite big,maybe you could try assembling it first before you buy,hope this helps.

Ps f5 are harder on eyepieces so you might have to spend more on them.(bst star guiders £49)

[CodnorPaul]

I LOVE my C8 - it originally came on the SE mount but I upgraded to the NEQ6.  The SCT as stated will be more forgiving on EPs, and is possibly a better OTA (I have heard mixed reviews on the C8N) but, and this is a big BUT, the SE mount and me did not get on - too wobbly and not very accurate.  I know there are people who get on OK with the mount, but since I changed I haven't looked back.

A CG5 is a capable mount, and they are not hard to use once you learn how, but if you could get the SCT on a CG5 or AVX that would be even better

[kbp]

Thank you both, that's helpful.  Can I ask what you mean by 'harder' and 'more forgiving' on the eyepieces?  When I bought my Nexstar 127 I bought a revelation astro set.   I think the point about the sturdiness of the mount is definitely a concern - now that you mention it. 

Karen

[CodnorPaul]

The faster the OTA the more your need expensive EPs that correct for CA etc.  Slower OTAs don't show this as much.  Fast is generally F5 down, then slower above - an SCT is F10.  The 'slowness' has no effect on visual, on AP there is an effect but you can get reducers to help bring the effective focal length down.

[baggywrinkle]

The 8SE is on an AZ mount so not so good for AP on DSO's. Great for planetary though.

The CG5 mount will be more sturdier but as you say not as quick to set up and more cumbersome and heavier.

Visually they will be fairly equal but the C8 will have a wider field of view due to its lower F ratio.

[kbp]

Thank you for the additional info and apologies for not replying sooner.  I'm still dithering and I hope to see the C8 N later this week.  In the meantime if anyone else has any thoughts please post.

Karen

[baggywrinkle]

If you get a chance to see one, take it.

Always helps t see what you are buying in the flesh...so to speak.

I recently upgraded from a Nexstar 6SE to a Celestron AVX mounted 9.25 SCT. The difference is huge in terms of the weight of the mounts and off curse the sizes of the OTA.

Having seen what I wanted I knew that I could move it with relative ease and manage to mount the OTA by myself.

The 8SE like the 6SE is a simple set up and the goto is easy to set up too. If I was going anywhere I would just break the setup down to the mount & ota together and the tripod, 2 parts.

The CG8 (is a bit like the AVX I have now)should be easy but you might have to break it down to mount, tripod and weights to move it around. It would be more flexible though for doing some astrophotography work.

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Karen, as Baggy says the different mounts AZ verses EQ willl be the major "think" for you, ease of set up (not sure if you have to set up and take down after every observing session or not??) the AZ mounted 8SE will be a much quicker set up time than the EQ where you have to consider Polar Alignment - I think the new AVX mount has a much quicker alignment routine than the CG5 I have, once you have considered alignment and calibration stars in the CG5 routine, the AZ mounts are quicker - but a thing to remember is that the OTA of the 8SE will only be held on the oneside of the scope - some say that the 8SE is a little heavy on the SE mount and adds instability to the mount when using higher powers - I think the wobble time is a lot longer and harder to keep on target whilst re - focusing.

Celestron have now bought out the Evolution range which are single fork mounts - wonder if you have considered a dual fork mount for the 8" OTA ???  I had a dual fork mounted LX90  8" Meade (bought second hand) for about 5 years and found this type of mount to be really stable and never had a minutes trouble with the electrics or the OTA - much better than the single arm mounts - given the short OTA the tube and mount were rock steady.

If your thinking of a little astrophotography - I just get my" fix " from a web cam on the Moon/Planets, but I tend to stick to just visual most of the time now - just a little for you to think on - there's nothing worse than spending a lot of money and finding that when you try to increase power at the EP, things start to get a little unstable and you end up fighting, trying to get the object centred.

Paul.

[kbp]

Hi Baggy & Paul,

Thank you for the additional guidance/thoughts.  I'm going to see the C8N on Sunday and that'll give me a good idea of which way forward.  I will keep you posted of what I decide to do. 

Karen

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Karen, Thanks, Just another thought for you when you have the Newt on the mount, depending on where your looking and what part of the sky your looking at, you may have to keep rotating the tube when you move to different parts of the sky, I used to just stick to one location/constellation for a while, but when moving, you have to rotate the whole of the tube assembly to re - position the focuser for comfortable viewing - this is why I decided to go for the SCT on an Alt/Az mount - no matter where you are pointing, your always looking at the same layout, with the EP sticking out of the back of the scope.  Even when viewing the planets high up on the Ecliptic, I just rotate the diagonal with the EP attached for seated viewing - I can spend ages just Planet watching.

Just another thing for you to think about - I know its a little frustrating when buying new equipment, but the best thing about posting on here is that you can get a wealth of someone else's troubles and tribulations when sourcing different equipment - there's a tremendous amount of advantages/disadvantages with all the different set ups, I think that's why a lot of us have more than one scope, I'm a big fan of the long focal length SCT, when conditions are/were ideal (as they were around opposition time on Jupiter in March this year) I had some of the best views of Jupiter for such a long time and living in a quite light polluted part of the country, I don't have the pitch black skies where the Galaxies/Nebulae jump out at you, but with a little patience and time spent at the EP, I can really still enjoy the hobby, as I have done over the last 25 years or so.

Paul.