Celestron Nexstar 8se wedge

[Bob tries hard]

Hi guys I’ve been looking into the wedge for my Nexstar 8se.

but am put off by the price £350. Is high.

Am I right in thinking all it’s for is to angle for tracking equatorially.

Is there another way to do this for a sensible price.

[Cosmic Geoff]

Putting a C8 SE on a wedge is a really bad idea.  This mount is barely fit for its intended role as a visual mount, and if you put it on a wedge (presumably for imaging) it will not be fit for purpose.  I used mine for planetary imaging, and found that I needed to actively guide it to keep the planet image on the camera chip (several minutes of arc in width) for a minute or so. The idea of achieving the accuracy of a second of arc or so desired for long exposure deep space imaging is , well...🤣   It is also quite difficult and time-consuming to do an accurate polar alignment with a wedge mount.  People who enter this route with great enthusiasm usually give up after a while and buy a German equatorial.

If you want to have a C8 OTA mounted equatorially, then buy an equatorial mount. You should be able to find one used with a little patience.