Setting Up a Celestron NexStar 8SE | High Point Scientific 

Thanks! Hope you enjoy using the 8SE again!

Thank you!

Glad it helped!

Very welcome, clear skies!

We hope you enjoy!

I agree with you . . . but, I guess the reason would be that people use the scope in remote locations, national parks, camping sites, where they don't have the ability to plug the scope in. What do you do then? That's where the 8 AA batteries come in.

@@jongroubert4203 When Meade repaired/replaced my LX85 EQ mount they included a 50ft 12V DC power cord with cigarette lighter plug-in. Not a normal thing but I mentioned the power issue when e-mailing them about the mount.

@@jongroubert4203 I could plug into my Tesla. I still want the power adapter.

We hope you enjoy the telescope!

Closer to the center & center of mass of the optical tube would be ideal.

Did it work for you? I can’t seem to get the telescope to align.

Hello Sam, we'd love to help you out with this. We'd strongly recommend reaching out to the product advisors via the "email us" link on our website, as they'll have the best information on how to balance your OTA: www.highpointscientific.com/email-us

We'd recommend downloading a star app on your phone like SkySafari to help figure out which star in the sky you're looking for!

@@highpointscientific thanks!

Great question. The hand controller will suggest a star for you to align with. We recommend using a program like Stellarium or SkySafari to look for the location of the star in the night sky. Usually, it'll be a bright star like Vega, Altair, or Deneb.

Quick addendum to our answer earlier: in the video we mention the "two star alignment" method which doesn't choose a star for you, so you'll need to manually identify a star using a program like Stellarium to pick a pair of stars that you can view from your location.

@@highpointscientific how do I know if I’ve aligned it properly? Thanks for the great video

Hey Cole! Thanks for messaging us. We'd recommend realign the telescope every time you use it, especially if it is moved between observing sessions.

Yes, the settings will be saved and you can also go back and amend them, as needed.

@@highpointscientific perfect! Thank you very much!

With the two star alignment you do have to slew the scope to stars you know. There are other alignment options where you point the scope at any three bright stars you see and the scope will figure out what stars they are and align itself.

Thank you for the feedback! Yes, it is advised to input your date, time, location before each session

You should be able to connect to Celestron's PWI program with a Mini USB 2.0 cable (male type A to male Mini-B). The adapter for which can be found on the bottom of the hand controller.

You're welcome!

The 8SE will track the stars for your entire observing session.

You don't need an A/C connection for observing, the mount runs off 8 AA batteries as well.

The easiest way to do this is to make sure the first star you pick is bright (Vega, Arcturus, Sirius). It'll appear almost overwhelmingly bright when compared to the other stars.

It should remain centered once you make the adjustments. GoTo error does not usually result in tracking errors.

The telescope doesn't need to be pointed north before the star alignment.

Try rounding up to the nearest two digits and make sure your coordinates are in dms (degrees, minutes, seconds). Example: +28°36′30.2″N, -80°36′15.6″W

@@highpointscientific Thanks for your reply! will try this and hopefully I can get ahead. One last question please, I moved houses and I removed the scope parts to avoid damage. Now I can’t remember what goes where, I’ve watched a few videos on RU-vid but for some reason I can’t figure out why the 90° scope arm that comes with the telescope won’t lock back into place and keeps falling off, I feel I’m doing something terribly wrong. Is there a guide anywhere that can help with this?

The 8SE is not well suited for short distances, you'd be better off with binoculars.

Hello Roger, we'd love to help you out with this. We'd strongly recommend reaching out to the product advisors via the "email us" link on our website, as they'll have the best information on how to connect your PC to your NexStar Hand controller: www.highpointscientific.com/email-us

After setting up, first you want to perform a star alignment. Once the telescope is aligned, you can select deep sky objects to view. For example Messier 31. Once selected, the scope will automatically move towards Messier 31. Then you can view it through your eyepiece!

Both telescopes are good! They're both 150mm f/5, so the views through both would be identical.

@MaxedWayOut not exactly, there are slew limits that the user might need to adjust for their scope. About the balance, look at the vixen rail attached to the OTA. In or about the center, there might be a dimple in the rail to mark center. Align with the center of the dovetail and you're good. I have an older refractor model, the mark should be the same or similar.

Hello, thanks for reaching out. What part of the sky are you observing? You should be able to see at least a few stars from even the most light polluted of cities, such as Capella, Sirius, et cetera.

Sorry about that - appreciate your feedback.

It’s not quiet at all

We highly recommend using a Star Atlas app like Stellarium. These are extremally helpful in navigating the night sky.

Hi Blang, yes it does!

Hopefully we can offer some insight! Are you providing your time and date at the beginning of each viewing session? You can either choose your specific city or you can enter your coordinates. If this is incorrect, or if the date on the hand controller is wrong, you will not be able to properly align! We recommend starting there - let us know if you have in fact tried this! You may have to update your firmware as well.

@@highpointscientific Thank you for responding in such a timely matter. I appreciate it. I did enter the correct date and time into the handheld device, along with my local city. I did not know I could update the firmware, so how would I do that? I will try to align the telescope again once the weather clears. I recently purchased a 3x Barlow lease along with an adapter for my camera, and I was able to look at Jupiter the other night. As much as I want to align the telescope, I must say that it still gets the job done, but obviously, it’s very tedious having to get the target back in frame to capture photos.

Hello! A good high powered eyepiece (

@@highpointscientific many thanks for that tried my 10mm could you tell me why it’s coming out blurred I’ve done what it says in your video aligning during the day getting it into focus your videos are great explains everything needed to know 🙂

@@greengekko-ps3hr There could be several reasons. The biggest one is that your atmospheric seeing and transparency may be poor, which is resulting in views not as clear. You may also have miscollimation in your optics.

@@highpointscientific miscollimation can I do that myself is so have you got a video I could watch many thanks

@@greengekko-ps3hr You can tell if you are out of collimation if getting stars as close to in-focus as possible causes them to look "smeared" or teardrop-shaped - if so, would highly recommend a tribahtinov mask or a Duncan mask; allows you to do collimation fairly easily just by peering through the eyepiece at a bright star

This scope can take double A-batteries but we recommend a 3amp ac adapter which you can find here: www.highpointscientific.com/apertura-universal-2-amp-ac-adapter-ac2

@@highpointscientific Thank you!

You can move it without aligning it.

Every time you use it? Yes

A camera shouldn't be involved unless you're using something like the StarSense AutoAlignment tool.

@@highpointscientific ok it says that too hiw do I get it out of that

Hello! We'd be happy to help you out. Could you tell us more about your setup and how you're focusing? Are you trying to look through an eyepiece, or are you using a camera?

@@highpointscientific Is there and email address that my friend can send their questions to?

@@constancejones5555 You can reach out to our product advisors via the "email us" form: www.highpointscientific.com/email-us

Follow the advice near the beginning about calibrating the red dot. Focus on a near object. When you do, take note of which direction you have to rotate the knob to focus in and out, and how much. Some planets take a finer touch. Start with the moon, then move on to Jupiter and Saturn and you will get a touch for it.

It's a good choice! There's no such thing as the "best telescope for beginners" in our opinion, but the 8SE will be hard to beat as far as light gathering capability & ease of use.

Also I am using Google's and the Pentagons definition of UFO lol.

There are two possible ways.. perhaps three. You can perform a "Bright star alignment" and manually point your telescope to three bright stars in the sky and the internal computer will determine which ones they are by their distance from each other in the sky. The second method would be solar system aligning. You can use the position of the planets and even the moon if it's out. The final recommendation is to download a night sky app like "Stellarium". These are fantastic tools!

Steve, you can find the star Altair in the constellation of Aquila. It's one of the three brightest stars in the "Summer Triangle" asterism. Unfortunately, right now Altair is behind the Sun. We'd strongly recommend a planetarium app or a Sky Atlas to help you out.

After a quick two-star alignment, you should be able to select "Moon" under the solar system catalog.

Glad you didn't explain why you wouldn't buy the mount. It may have been too helpful

@@PafMedic it’s pretty costly in my opinion. Most people who are into photography will quickly outgrow it. It’s not terrible just not terribly good.

@@GavriloPewPew would you like my honest opinion of the mount? It’s not a very good one.

Cut it out mom.

Hello! We'd be happy to help with your selection. You're likely looking for a Newtonian or some sort of Cassegrain telescope.

@@highpointscientific okay and which one would you suggest? As i have a tight budget 😅

@@mohitastrophotography8499 What is your budget? Do you have a mount? Astrophotography can be a very expensive endeavor! A Newtonian would probably be a little better for wanting to do astrophotography and planetary work, however they usually have a higher degree of maintenance (such as collimation).

@@highpointscientific well i have around 1500 dollars. And no i dont have any mount . I have to build it from scratch but i am confuse what to buy . For camera i have a DSLR which is good.

​ @mohit astrophotography Having a camera will help. To be successful, we'd recommend considering the following: 1) A telescope, in your case likely a telescope with a focal length of 600-1200mm to be able to do both planetary & deep sky astrophotography. A Newtonian would be the most economical choice. Keep in mind that Newtonians also require precise collimation! 2) A barlow lens to be able to photograph the planets. This works by increasing the focal length, thus the amount of magnification in the image (a 2x barlow will increase a 600mm telescope to a 1200mm one, for example). As much magnification is possible as seeing allows for planetary work! 3) A guidescope/guide camera. This is necessary to take the long exposures needed DSOs as your mount will have some sort of periodic error to it, although not necessary for planetary imaging. 4) some sort of mount that can take the weight. At minimum, we'd recommend a mount like the Celestron AVX or a similar class, although a larger mount would be helpful. We hope this helps to narrow down your search!

$1600-$2000

Yes, anytime you move the telescope this alignment process needs to be done.

even the data entry?

@@RaulAyanami Your location can stay the same, but the time, date, et cetera all need to be updated for the night of observing.

@@highpointscientific would You recomend one of these over a manual mount for someone looking for ease of use and dont have much time to watch the sky or learn to use a telescope?

@@RaulAyanami In terms of sheer ease of use, a manual telescope would be better as you can setup basically within a few moments. A fully manual dobsonian, like our Apertura AD8, might be of interest to you. The only downside is that you'll need to track objects by hand. You'll also really need to take the time to understand where objects are located in the sky, learn the process of starhopping from one object to another, et cetera.

Glad it was helpful!

Hi There! You are right in that there are several different types of power adapters that people use for the Nexstar Series of scopes. The 12v 2a, 12v 3a, and 12v 5a all work actually but The 12v 3a and the 12v 5a are the ones that we highly recommend. These provide enough amperage for the Nexstar to run efficiently without any sort of power supply issue!