This is a GREAT telescope. Don't let other reviews or Youtube videos try to convince you that you should go with the 5" or 6" since they are smaller and more portable...light gathering ability is EVERYTHING in a telescope, and the 8" gathers ~78% more light than the 6SE model.

Out of the box, however, so you are not disappointed, there is a bare minimum of two accessories that you MUST have - 1) either an AC adapter to power the scope or a Celestron "PowerTank" or a car or motorcycle battery with a car adapter cord to plug in to your telescope. I have the Celestron Power Tank 17. The power tank uses cigarette lighter style power cords which you can also plug into your car's dashboard if observing remotely next to your vehicle and you buy the car adapter. Although the scope can run on AA batteries, it will eat them up in less than an hour, rendering the scope slow and eventually unusable. 2) Also buy a dew shield (Celestron #940009 for 8" scopes) , which is only $23.00 or so...that will keep the night dew from forming on the front of the scope as the temperature drops at night.

The above is the bare minimum I would order if buying this telescope. Anything less will adversely impact the enjoyment of it.

While I am at it, I will strongly recommend that you buy a 2" diagonal and eyepiece setup. The scope, out of the box, only comes with a single 25MM 1.25" eyepiece, which has a narrow field of view and not enough magnification to really enjoy your first astonishing views that get you hooked on astronomy, like looking at Saturn. Celestron sells a kit that has a diagonal, 2X Barlow Lens and three 2" eyepieces (Kit #94305 - $300.00). You can buy that for starters to get you going with 2" eyepieces at the lowest cost, or if you have the financial means to "do it all right the first time" without buying the same type of things twice, I would recommend that - instead of buying the 2" starter kit - you buy the Celestron 93527 2" diagonal, which has the Starbright XLT coatings and can be used with 2" eyepieces as well as the 1.25" eyepiece that comes with the telescope, the Luminos 2.5X Barlow lens (#93436) which will allow you to more than double your magnification with any eyepiece, and the Luminos 23 mm 2" eyepiece ($199.00 #93434). Having that diagonal, Barlow, and eyepiece will give you 23MM and - with the Barlow lens - 9.2MM views using the same eyepiece. 23MM will be nice for looking at constellations, and 9.2MM will allow you to zoom-in and see the gap in the rings of Saturn and the big spot on Jupiter.

Future additional purchase recommendations would be the 2" 19MM Luminos eyepiece (#93433; $150.) and the 31MM eyepiece (#93435) to complete your eyepiece collection. You really do NOT need any more eyepieces than the three Luminos eyepieces I have recommended, since with the 2.5X Barlow, that gives you 31, 23, 19, 12.4, 9.2 and 7.6 millimeter views. All of the Luminos eyepieces have 82 degree wide views and really nice twist-up eye reliefs to allow you to block extraneous light if you don't wear glasses, or drop the relief down if you do wear glasses. If you did not know it, in the telescope world, the smaller MM eyepeice means more zoom-in (greater magnification). You divide the focal length of the scope (2032MM for the Nexstar 8SE) by the eyepiece MM to get the zoom...Example: 2032/19 = 107x. You can use the diagonal and eyepieces I have recommended with larger Celestron telescopes should you upgrade in the future to an even larger telescope (I have a Celestron C11 on a CG5-ASGT mount as well).

This scope is perfect for a beginner, can be set-up in about 10 minutes, and aligns easily by pointing to three bright objects in the sky. It is the ultimate "grab-n-go" telescope. It is NOT ideal for astro-photography, as it is an Altitude/Azimuth (ALT/AZ) telescope and BOTH motors must run at the same time to track an object, which is not as precise as a German Equatorial Mount (GEM) where only one motor has to run to track an object. GEM's require polar alignment, which is a bit complex for the beginner.

If a bigger easy-to-use ALT/AZ scope is wanted, the next step up from the 8SE would be the CPC Deluxe 925HD (9.25") or CPC 1100 series (11")...or if you get into Astronomy and astro-photography, jump to a GEM telescope.

4 Stars since it does not include an AC adapter or DC cigarette lighter cord out-of-the-box. With those items, I'd give it 5!

My first venture at seeing the stars, love the tracking function and ability to use my camera to photograph things I may want to get a picture of..

Great Telescope for 3 years now. I bought the 5" for the polar alignment feature. There are many good reviews on here about the scope already. So, I'll just say that you don't really 'see' what these images show, you need a decent camera and a computer to process your photos into stunning images. I would also suggest getting the Celestron Star Sense Auto Align, it will save time and that means more viewing. The Orion Nebula was shot with a Sony A6000 at 30 Sec ISO3200 using a Celestron 94123 1.25-Inch UHC/LPR Filter and is a single image. Jupiter was created from a series of video frames shot with the Celestron NexImage 5.

This is hands down a fantastic instrument. I purchased this scope to have something portable for camping in the summer and something less cumbersome to set up in our pasture for impromptu star parties. I have a 12" Meade lx200 classic with great optics but it's a beast to move around and flat out miserable to take camping where the really dark skies are. I wanted/needed a scope that was easy to transport but had enough aperture to make things interesting. This scope got awesome reviews and everyone seemed to love it so when Amazon had it on a warehouse deal for a scandalously low price I bought it. No regrets at all so far after a couple of months of solid use. When I first looked through the 6se, I was blown away by how bright and sharp the images were for being a 6" as opposed to my 12" Meade which desperately needs its mirrors recoated. This little 6" reignited the spark as I observed favorites like Albireo and the great cluster in Hercules. Amazing views! The single arm mount seems very solid though the spur gears are not optimal for fine tracking needed for loooong exposure astrophotography. I may end up upgrading next year to the nexstar 8 evolution for better gearing and some more bells and whistles. There is a noticeable amount of noise in the gearing as it tracks but really not a big deal in my mind as it does its job very well. I'm impressed with how well it does track though as I've centered an image and come back 2 hours later to find it still centered exactly as I left it so far as I can tell (visual observation, not using a camera). The 6se is about as big as I'd think you could go on this mount however as a scope that is much bigger might be a little heavy for the arm but I don't have an 8se so I'm just guessing there. As far as my original goal of portability goes, I found a cheap hardside suitcase which the packing foam fits in perfectly that makes transportation to observing sights a dream. This is a total winner for my needs and I look forward to years of quality astronomy using it. Highly recommended.

OK I am a beginner with that said I would have giving this a five star rating but trying to align the telescope with objects seems to be challenging .so hopefully when I get the GPS mount it will fix the issue. Viewing the moon with this telescope is incredible, I have not yet had the opportunity to view any planets due to their positioning but I cannot wait to .