Optical reference

Celestron NexStar 8SE: aperture, focal length and eyepiece fit

What the Celestron NexStar 8SE measures, the magnification and true field each eyepiece produces in it, and the barrel, mount payload and camera adapter that fit.

Published specifications

Aperture
203 mm (7.99 in)
Focal length
2032 mm
Focal ratio
f/10
Optical design
Schmidt-Cassegrain
Focuser / eyepiece barrel
1.25 in visual back (SCT rear cell), accepts a 1.25 in star diagonal; a 2 in diagonal fits with an SCT-to-2 in adapter
Mount
Computerized single-fork altazimuth (GoTo)
Highest useful magnification (published)
480x
Optical tube weight
12.5 lb

Eyepiece ladder

2 pairings

The 8SE is the flagship of the NexStar SE line. Its 2032 mm focal length makes it a long, slow f/10 instrument, so it excels on the Moon, planets and tight double stars and reaches deep-sky objects at lower power.

Because magnification is the telescope's 2032 mm focal length divided by the eyepiece focal length, a 25 mm eyepiece gives 81x here and a 10 mm eyepiece gives 203x. The highest useful magnification is the published 480x, beyond which the image dims and softens without showing more detail.

The focuser takes 2 in eyepieces, so long 2 in wide-field eyepieces such as the Omni 56 mm fit as well as 1.25 in ones.

Match an eyepiece, mount or camera