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Hello from Madrid

Juan from Madrid

By Juan from Madrid
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Juan from Madrid

Juan from Madrid

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Hello everyone,

after all my life longing for having something to look at the sky with, my wife has surprised me for my birthday with a Celestron NexStar 8SE.

So I am starting now the astronomy hobby after years of interest in the matter.

I have others hobbies that are also somehow technicaly oriented: radiocontrol planes,  motorbikes (trial & road), gliders, classic cars and my own work as an engineer designing realtime control systems.

Searching the web hints on how to run NexRemote on Windows 10 brought me here.

I normally live in Madrid where usually only the Sun and the Moon ara visible, but I intend to use the stuff in a cottage in the Galician country side, were I spend some summer nights with my children looking at the sky with the help of Google  Sky Maps. Hopefully this year things will become more interesting!

My first attempt to align the telescope has been this morning with the full moon and "solar system alignment", but I only achieved to reduce its drift... hopefully I will be able to master these basic things asap :-)

Best regards, Juan.

PS/I can still return the Celestron to Amazon, so I'd appreciate opinions on my wife's election, that was anyway based on spying my wish lists.
 

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Juan from Madrid

Juan from Madrid

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Hi again, everybody.

Well, during this time and while exploring the market, I found an official Celestron dealer that offered me a price for the Celestron 8 SE of over 200 € below what my wife paid to Amazon, so I decided to return  it on the basis of this fact, and I am about to buy it back right at the time of the refund, hopefully this Monday.

Another minor issue is that the cardboard boxes looked like they had visited several houses before mine, although everything else seemed brand new :-)

However, while surfing the web, I found an incredible offering of a second hand Meade ACF-SC 203/2034 8 "UHTC LX90 GoTo that is so incredible that is making me to hesitate, or at least think about buying it in addition to the Celestron (I'd have a different place to use it). The explanation the dealer gives to me for such a low price is literally:

"Price is low because the product is last in my shop and was demo model. It was on display in the window. Condition is 10/10, only open box. All manufacturers supplied accessories included. Excellent condition. Full manufacturer's warranty; Buy with confidence".

I have also read that Meade has been having quality control problems in recent years.

The price is 360 €!!!  and I'd have returning guarantees, but I can't help but be very suspicious.

I would appreciate opinions and advices on this temptation.

PS/I suppose that the books I have already bought for SE 8 ("The NexStar User's Guide II" and "Beginning Astronomy with a Celestron... So, what's the matter?") would also be of some use to the Meade.

 

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Demonperformer

Demonperformer

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Hi, Juan, and welcome to SGL.

The 8SE is a nice scope. You can improve alignment after SS on the moon by adding a second alignment point. Use the GOTO to move to a bright star and centre that in the scope. Then hit the ALIGN button. I can't remember exactly what it says, but you do not want to "replace Moon" - the 6/9 keys will move you to the other option. Unfortunately, when you add a second alignment point, the scope will stop tracking until the process is complete, but with a bit of practice, you should be able to hit the ENTER key twice very rapidly and still have the star close to the centre.

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willinliv

willinliv

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Celestron NexStar 8SE is I think a nice scopefrom my limited exposure at a friend's in Dubai (never seen GoTo fully operational though). One more expensive aspect is that you can fit a DSLR at the rear which is something that might appeal. But GoTo really very nice for parties etc. If you end up reordering then enjoy and good luck with new hobby!

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Juan from Madrid

Juan from Madrid

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On 1/20/2018 at 10:32, willinliv said:

Celestron NexStar 8SE is I think a nice scopefrom my limited exposure at a friend's in Dubai (never seen GoTo fully operational though). One more expensive aspect is that you can fit a DSLR at the rear which is something that might appeal. But GoTo really very nice for parties etc. If you end up reordering then enjoy and good luck with new hobby!


Well, the soap opera just ended.

My definitive NexStar SE8 arrived yesterday from AstroShop.

The price has been 260 € lower than what my wife paid Amazon, the cardboard boxes seemed to have a single layer of adhesive tape, and best of all it's a newer unit than the previous one: instead of the RJ-22 connector on the bottom of the handheld controller it has a mini usb, so it has inside the USB to RS-232 adapter. This means that it was manufactured after April 2016.

Interestingly, the very same day Amazon did the refund, an offer of a single SE8 appeared at Amazon.es with a very reduced price, casually quite close to what I've paid to AstroShop. I wonder how many homes has that poor unit visited without finding an owner who likes it :-)

https://www.amazon.es/Celestron-NexStar-11069-Telescopio-importado/dp/B000GUFOC8

As for the incredibly cheap Meade offering, it keeps appearing and dissappearing at Amazon.de, every time under a different store in a different country, so it is quite suspicious. You can access this url periodically to check it out:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listing/B001FRFV92/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

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Juan from Madrid

Juan from Madrid

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On 1/20/2018 at 08:34, Demonperformer said:

Hi, Juan, and welcome to SGL.

The 8SE is a nice scope. You can improve alignment after SS on the moon by adding a second alignment point. Use the GOTO to move to a bright star and centre that in the scope. Then hit the ALIGN button. I can't remember exactly what it says, but you do not want to "replace Moon" - the 6/9 keys will move you to the other option. Unfortunately, when you add a second alignment point, the scope will stop tracking until the process is complete, but with a bit of practice, you should be able to hit the ENTER key twice very rapidly and still have the star close to the centre.

This first attempt was made in the morning, but next time I'll take your advice into account. Thank you.

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