Rating: 
Summary: Great Beginner Scope - Some Small Annoyances
Review: I've wanted a telescope for years, and finally decided to get one this Christmas. I bought the Celestron Nexstar 80 based on what I deemed as a good compromise between optical capabilities and ease of use. For the most part, I'm very happy with the purchase.Setup could not be easier. I was ready to rumble in minutes. Being a pure beginner, I needed the GOTO functions to help get me started. Within five minutes of bringing the scope outside, I was checking out Saturn's rings and scoping out Jupiter. I even managed to find the Orion Nebula. And I had no idea how to find these things without the scope's help. Now, after only a few days, I can find them on my own - which saves lots of battery life. There are some annoying design problems. As many other reviews have noted, the battery pack is a pain. The connection to the scope slides out far too easily, dumping alignment. Also, the wiring on the battery pack itself is fairly fragile. As soon as you break the scope out of the box, you should Velcro or tape the battery pack to the motorized mount (not the tripod legs). This will save you some disappointment. I was also disappointed in the readability of the hand controller. As the text scrolls by, it's very difficult to read. Don't fret too much about this, though. After you align it once or twice - you won't need to read the display that often, anyway. Lastly, while I have found the optics very good, I would recommend purchasing a 6mm and/or 4mm eyepiece right off the bat when you order your scope. The 25mm and 10mm eyepieces that come with the kit are great, but you're going to want more magnification the first time you look at Jupiter, Saturn, etc. And while you're buying an additional eyepiece, grab a moon filter and a solar filter as well. My daughter loves looking at the moon with the telescope, but it's so bright that it destroys your night vision for ten minutes without the filter. Overall, I'm very happy with the telescope. I have really enjoyed it, and look forward to exploring the night sky for years to come. Who knows, maybe this is the first of more telescopes in my future.
Rating: 
Summary: Updated review
Review: New users should look for the Nexstar group on Yahoo if you have questions on using a NexStar scope. Because I have attempted to update my review twice, yet have never managed to get it accepted, I'm going to do it this way!! We've had the NexStar 80 GT since Christmas 2001. In that time, we've learned a lot about telescopes, equipment, and what's what in the sky. I can firmly say at this point that spending the extra money for electronics (GOTO) instead of aperture (bigger scope) has been the right decision for our family. Without GOTO, I can almost guarantee that we wouldn't be as captivated with the scope -- we're busy people and while spending time learning the skies on an intimate level so that we can "star hop" as a means of locating objects is a fine way to spend an evening, we're really interested in getting to the objects and spending our time "seeing" rather than "looking for" objects. We've done that -- nebulas, open clusters, double stars, 5 planets, the moon, and even on one particularly wonderful night, M57, the ring nebula -- hole included. With the aid of Mike Swanson's website and the wonderful NexStar Alignment Guide, we learned how to align our scope so that we can locate objects with ease. The 7 year old for whom the scope was originally purchased can do it herself now, so that might indicate how easily this scope does GOTO. A point of fact that is important in evaluating our daughter's ability to align the scope is that using the 25mm eyepiece included with the scope, you have a wide field of view (over 3 degrees), making it very easy to find objects even if you're not completely careful in your alignment. That means the scope is really easy to use -- and great for things like open star clusters. And wait until you see the Coathanger asterism!! The truth is, this scope is so easy to use and provides such crisp images that it doesn't make you regret buying it in any way -- it makes you want more aperture, but that's because it does such a good job of introducing you to the sky! In fact, we've added a 114mm GOTO scope to our home and use them both, side-by-side. We haven't had any problems with the quality of the telescope itself. In fact, Celestron had apparently started selling scopes with an upgraded hand control which we did not get when we purchased ours. But all we had to do was send in the old one and they provided us with a new, upgraded one at no charge. The upgraded HC is *much* friendlier than the old one and we're very pleased with the additional capabilities -- "auto-align", "2 star alignment" and "quick align" for when you don't really want to align, but want to use tracking. The upgraded HC also addresses some issues with the telescope being "jumpy" when you're moving it around. Image-wise, be forewarned that images of things like planets will be small. But they'll be crisp. Extended objects look better in the 80 than in the 114mm (though the 114 does nebulas much better.) Oh. Batteries. You'll go through a lot of them and you will certainly want to consider another power source -- either rechargable batteries or an external 12V power pack (of at least 7 amp hours). The battery cord will get wrapped around the scope, but you can work around this by using velcro to hang the battery pack on the arm... or get a long cord if using an external source. Tracking. This scope isn't meant for doing long-exposure photography. It just doesn't track well enough. But my guess is that you're looking at this scope as a first scope and aren't thinking about long-exposure photography in any case. (I know I wasn't thinking about it at all when we purchased it.) The red dot finder works well if you align it with the telescope. And if you purchase a cable, you can indeed utilise software to control the scope -- with the new hand control, it works very well. With the old HC, you will have to limit yourself to only a few pieces of software, Mike Swanson's NexStar Observers List (free online) included. I can't think of anything else at this point in time. I believe that our 114mm will not be a keeper -- it will be replaced eventually with a larger aperture scope -- but the 80 is here to stay. It does what it does very well and if you accept its limitations (small aperture, short focal length, some false color on planets and bright objects), you shouldn't find yourself unhappy. Good luck with your telescope purchase!
Rating:
Summary: Not bad for a first scope
Review: Qualifying this review, I'll say that this scope was purchased for a child (7), but because of the nature and price of the scope, the child is aided in its use by at leat one, and often two parents. We're not experienced with telescopes, but we have a rudimentary knowledge of constellations, coupled with a keen interest in learning more. Since this purchase was our first, we weren't certain what to do so we asked around. I think perhaps if I'd done more research, I might have settled on a scope w/o the GOTO feature simply because in the end, it isn't too terribly difficult to find objects w/o it, and we could have gotten more telescope (meaning magnification power) for the money without it. However, that doesn't mean we're disappointed with the choice. After my husband took a few minutes to set up the scope, we went outside for our first look into the sky. Using the 2 eye pieces that come with it (25 mm which provides 16x -- 400mm divided by 25 mm = 16x magnification -- and 10mm which provides 40x) we looked at the moon and it was pretty amazing. (Keep in mind, you're always thrilled when you do your first views, but then want *more power*!) Because Saturn and Jupiter are quite prominent in the sky, we decided to try to locate them, and it turned out to be pretty easy. The spotting scope, once tweaked, provides a helpful means of getting to an object using the naked eye. We saw 4 moons and the banding of Jupiter, as well as the rings around Saturn, though we couldn't see the Cassini division. All told, not bad for a first night out, we thought! After doing more reading, we decided to buy a 2x Barlow lens, to double our viewing power (with the provided 10mm eye-piece, that took us to 80x) and we've enjoyed having a larger planetary view. Most people I've spoken to don't recommend anything higher powered than the 2x Barlow, and at most, perhaps a 7.5mm eye piece. We haven't tried a 7.5mm yet, but will probably. (That'd take the 53x power of the 7.5 mm up to 106x, which is apparently stretching the scope's capabilities.) One of the things we like about this telescope is that we can leave it set up in the spare bedroom, and just grab it and run outside without having to do anything but plug in the hand control and go. A lot of people told me that a telescope with greater power that is heavy might only be used once or twice per year, whereas a smaller scope might be used more often. From that point of view, if you're looking at price/usage, this scope turns out to be a bargain. It is no big deal to drag it outside for only 15 minutes of viewing... I only attempted to use the GOTO feature once, and didn't manage it properly. So, I can't really report on that -- I think we've got too much of an obstructed view on the horizon in the East, and this is what caused my problem. I've heard others tell of great experiences with the GOTO feature, so I'll leave it at that. The software that comes with it is decent, in that it provides a view of the sky in your city, at your time. You can find the location of various objects, as well as check out dates for interesting events such as "When is the next solar eclipse?", etc. I was hoping I guess for something a little more interactive for the child, but that was probably an unrealistic expectation. We haven't attempted to interface the scope with the software, but allegedly, you can do that as well. As a first telescope, we've had an excellent experience. Will we get years of use out of this? I'm not sure. The reason I'm not sure is that I do want *more power*, but I'm going to let it rest for a while to see if my interest is still as keen in a year or so. If it isn't then we made the right decision on the price/performance curve. From the child's point of view, this has been an incredible experience. It is one thing to look in a book and see Saturn, and a completely different experience to look into a telescope and see the rings of this far-away planet, floating in the sky. It is so much more real, and so much more of an emotional experience. Very cool, indeed. (You might want to look at the Celestron 80HC review before deciding on this scope.)
Rating:
Summary: A whole lot of scope for the dollar
Review: The only reason this product does not get five stars is due to the fact that it is still a "beginner" model and the customer should not expect to see crisp detail in far away novas or brilliant color in the gas bands of the Gas Giants. HOWEVER, for... this telescope is one of the best bargains currently on the market. For one, it bears the top name in the business: Celestron. This is not you Home Shopping Network bargain basement model. Secondly, it come equipped with a computerized database of pre-set star coordinates that (once aligned) the telescope can point itself to with the push of a button. Finally, although (as previously stated) you won't get to see images that look like pages out of Astronomy Magazine, you will clearly see at least 4 of Jupiters moons, the rings of Saturn, the Orion Nebula, and a host of other objects that the average stargazer misses out on. On top of all of this, this telescope is mind-boggling easy to assemble. If it takes you more than 5 minutes out of the box to have it up and running, then you should probably consider a tutor of some sort. All in all, the 80 GT is a spectacular buy.
Rating:
Summary: I'm falling in love ...!
Review: This little scope is so cute, you will just "fall in love" with it! It arrived in just two days from the warehouse, and last night I tested it out on the moon.
The views of the crators on the moon were excellent and very bright, with no unwanted "red or blue light fringes" appearing around the edge - (as is sometimes seen in refractors).
Of course the image it gives does not match what I have seen with my 6-inch f8 reflector, but that can be expected. WARNING, you will "get hooked" on this little refractor with its wide field of view! Also, they finally made a finder scope that is easy to use - and the "red dot" invention is fantastic!
I am able to line it up to a distant object and keep my glasses on! I recommend the use of a 17 mm eyepiece which gives about 23 power. With the use of an erecting image diagonal mirror, this scope may be used as an excellent spoting scope. (Otherwise, with the star diagonal, the image is upright, but a sign will appear to read backwards. The reason for the use of the star diagonal is to give brighter images when observing at night). The alignment feature may be "by-passed" and the hand control
can still me used manually - (I was glad for that!) In the next couple of months (weather permiting) I hope to learn how to align it to the stars, and use the GOTO feature! The Celestron CD rom (that comes with this telescope) called "The Sky" is fantastic! It is like having a small planetarium on your PC! You can "see" how the stars rise in the east, and then see them again setting in the west!
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