This is my new (and first) telescope, a Celestron NexStar 8 SE. It's an eight-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, which is a nice all-around scope that combines elements of a reflector and refractor. This is the telescope I've always wanted. A neighbor had a classic Celestron SCT (probably a six inch based on my memory) and I longed for that telescope -- the shape, the view, and especially, that orange color. Awesome!
The scope is just over eight inches across and about 17 inches long, with useful magnifications ranging between 29 and 480 times. What's great about this scope is its NexStar system, an on-board database of some 4,000 stellar objects (and which you navigate with that keypad on the fork arm). Take a moment to tell the scope your location and time, align it to a few stars in the night sky, and then just select and go. What to see the Hercules Cluster? Select it from the "Named Objects" menu, punch "enter" and the scope automatically slews to the object. It's extremely slick.
Other hardware I'm using (all made by Celestron):
- 12.5mm Plossl eyepiece
- 25mm E-Lux Plossl eyepiece
- 32.5mm Plossl eyepiece
- 2-inch x 1.25 inch Barlow lens
- #21 Orange 46% filter
- #80 Light Blue 30% filter
- #56 Light Green 53% filter
- #96 Neutral Density 25% filter
- 120V AC adapter
