Been lurking on here for ages and finally bought myself a decent scope to replace my old Tasco rubbish. Spent £1,245 on a Celestron NexStar 8SE from First Light Optics and I've had it for about three weeks now. Thought I'd give you lot a proper review since I see a few people asking about it.
The Good: The computerised tracking is genuinely impressive. Once you get it aligned (which takes about 10 minutes first time), it locks onto objects and keeps them in your field of view. Built in GPS is handy. The 8-inch reflector gives decent light gathering and I've spotted some brilliant detail on Jupiter and Saturn. Image quality is sharp, optics seem well-made. Mount is sturdy enough for balcony use.
The Bad: It's bloody heavy - almost 11kg with the tripod. Not ideal if you want to take it up to the Pennines for dark sky observation. Battery life is about 5 hours on alkaline batteries. The hand control is a bit clunky and the manual is... well, it's a manual. Took me hours to work out where everything was.
Paranormal-specific thoughts: For sky watching and general surveillance, it's excellent. I've spotted three unusual lights in the past fortnight using this scope (all still unidentified, obvs). If you're doing serious night sky work, I'd recommend it. If you're just having a casual look about, save your money and get the cheaper 6SE model.
