NexStar 8SE recomendations for accessories

[Gos]

Greetings,
We just unpacked a NexStar 8SE for my wife's Christmas gift.
I have two basic questions for the learned. We're in Western Washington State, USA which means humid nights.

Which is better for keeping the dew off an 8" lens, a dew protector tube, or heater ring?

We both wear glasses. Any suggestions on how to extend the eye relief? The unit came with 25mm Plossl eye piece.

I also bought, I mean Santa brought a power converter so we won't burn up batteries.

Any other items for a beginner would be appreciated. Up until this time any scope I've looked through was either a Leupold Spotting scope, or binoculars.
Merry Christmas,
Gos

[Lady Fraktor]

Hello and welcome,

To your first question a dewshield will be good to start with.
Typically eyeglass wearers will need eyepieces with 15mm+ of eye relief

[Gordon]

Just a couple more things to add. Be sure to spend some time indoors setting up and running the telescope to get used to how it works. Trying that for the first time, at night can be a real challenge!

Also, I find it much easier to just remove my glasses and view without them. It's just easier for me.

Enjoy the new scope and let us know how it goes.

[gregl]

I"ve had an 8SE for perhaps 10 years and have done several modifications to it. As to your first question, I use a dew shield and home-made heater straps when needed (which is rare here in California's dry Central Valley). I made a controller box for the heater straps (one strap each for the OTA, the finder and the eyepiece area) using PWM dimmers from Ebay which sell for perhaps $6 or less. The straps were made from nichrome wire, the length and wire size calculated using online sources (just Google "nichrome wire calculations"). I use a 12-volt 18 amp hour battery as I'm always observing away from AC power. I use that for the mount as well. While the mount can take AA batteries, they don't last long.

I agree with Gordon; if you don't have bad astigmatism you might get away without glasses.

Another significant change I made was to adapt the mount to a heavier tripod, an old Celestron one someone gave me. It's about twice as heavy as the SE tripod and the difference is significant. Much less vibration and wiggle. This would be something to think about later, finding a tripod locally or perhaps Ebay.

I've done lots of other little things including a mount for a GLP (green laser pointer), a RACI (finder), and a modified focusing knob for better focus control. If you remind me sometime the first week of January I can put some of this up on a file server I have access to but can't get to right now.

Something you'll want to do right away is to check on the site below for instructions on how to align the scope. The instructions that come with the scope may not have the best info (but it's been 10 years on mine so let's hope they rewrote them since). I like the two-star alignment using Polaris and another star in the east at least 90 degrees from Polaris. And the direction of your final movements is important. You'll also want to run the backlash correction routine for better accuracy.

I'd also suggest you check out Mike Swanson's Nexstar site. It has lots of good info on these scopes: https://www.nexstarsite.com

[JayTee]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

When I lived in Portland, on some nights, I needed both the dew shield and the heater strip, but normally the dew shield should be enough. One of the flexible kind that velcros together that are widely available work great.

I also wear eyeglasses but I take mine off to use the telescope it's just so much easier. I'm lucky that in my right eye I don't have astigmatism so that's the eye that gets used.

One accessory you may want to consider in a future purchase would be the .63 focal reducer. It allows your scope to see a bigger chunk of sky and for large objects that makes viewing a lot more enjoyable.

Cheers,

[Bigzmey]

Welcome to TSS Gos! You have made a right choice. 8SE is a great scope.

Dew shield is a must. Not just for dew control but also to shield from stray light. You may add heater on top if nessesary.

Observing chair. Your back will thank for that. I have been using this one for years.



I also observe with glasses and to do that you should aim for EPs with 15 to 20mm eye relive. Good news is that 8" SCT been slow scope is not too fussy about EPs, even simple designs work well.

25mm Plossl which comes with scope is of good quality. Eye relief maybe a bit tight for glasses but I still use it on occasion.

32mm PLossl is good to have since it provides maximum field of view for 1.25" diagonal which comes with your scope.

https://agenaastro.com/gso-32mm-plossl-eyepiece.html

You will also want to get a couple of EPs in shorter focal length range. Celestron X-Cel LX will perform nicely in your scope. I would suggest 18mm and 12mm.

https://agenaastro.com/eyepieces/all-ey ... el_lx.html

[Richard]

Well all the 'cheap' refractors have a dew shield so I always wonder why the 'expensive ' SCT dont yes it needs one , it has a piece of glass in front which will dew up and a mak has a thick piece so even worse , If anyone knows why I would love to know

[billywjackson]

I...
I'd also suggest you check out Mike Swanson's Nexstar site. It has lots of good info on these scopes: https://www.nexstarsite.com

There are a lot of good suggestions here. I really second this one from Greg1. I bought the Nexstar Users Guide II that Swanson wrote and has links for on his page. It helped me immensely, clearing up problems I had that weren't clear to me from the manual.
I bought three things that helped me a great deal. The first one you already have, the ac adapter. The batteries in the mount don't last long enough to really be useful.
Second was the book I mentioned.
Third was a reticle eyepiece to help me get more accurate alignments.

It's a great scope, enjoy!

[sdbodin]

Originally from the 'wet' side and used a dew shield exclusively on my C8. If it got too wet for that, probably not a good night for viewing anyway. BTW save yourself some bucks and go to the craft store and get some light weight card stock and make your own dew shield, still use mine made back in the mid '80s and made one for my BigDog about fifteen years back and it still works fine.

I also wear glasses and have minor astigmatism, just ditch them for viewing, never seen a problem with getting a sharp view. After all the scope is just one big eyeglass anyway.

Welcome,
Steve

[AstroBee]

Telescope viewing chair. I can't believe I waited till I was 55 to buy one of these. Single best investment for visual observing. Height adjusts to a comfortable setting depending on where the scope is pointing.
Every star party I've been to I get more comments about the chair than I do the telescope. Which is kinda annoying!
https://www.amazon.com/Starbound-Astron ... e904010ad0