Celestron Nexstar 80GT 80mm Go-To Refractor Telescope
by Celestron

List Price: $349.99
Category: Digital Camera
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Digital Photo Product Details

• 400mm focal length, with a 3.25-degree wide field of view
• 2 eyepieces (16x and 40x)
• Observe immediately with the computerized auto align feature
• Automatic slewing to over 4,000 celestial objects
• Common sense menu descriptions

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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Celestron Nexstar 80GT 80mm Go-To Refractor Telescope

Customer Review: Updated review
Summary: 5 Stars

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!

Description of Celestron Nexstar 80GT 80mm Go-To Refractor Telescope

The NexStar handset is your user-friendly guide to more than 4,000 celestial objects.

If you think you?ve seen the optical tube before, you have -- it?s the same Chinese-sourced tube sold by other retailers. The optics are decent at low powers, but as you climb in magnification, the fast f/5 focal ratio optics start showing some aberrations -- there?s false color (purple halos) around brighter objects, and as you get near 100X, image quality starts to break down. The moral: Take it easy on the magnification, and you?ll be OK. Even without pushing it, you can still easily see the rings of Saturn, four moons of Jupiter, and a lot of lunar detail. And aberrrations aside, the little NexStar 80 is a fun low-power rich field telescope. You?re going to have a lot of fun looking at the Pleiades, the Double Cluster in Perseus, the Andromeda galaxy, the Orion Nebula, and dozens of other objects.

The telescope?s Goto system will be instantly familiar to anyone who?s initialized a NexStar (or Meade?s similar Autostar system.) If you haven?t done this before, the scope needs to be told some basic information: the current time, date, location on the planet, etc. Then you center two known stars to the best of your ability. The scope takes over from there, automatically slewing to the desired object, and keeping it in the field of view as the earth rotates. Mostly it works well, but there are a few minor glitches here and there. The battery pack has a loose connector, which is prone to falling off, forcing you to reinitialize (hint: try attaching the pack to the fork arm itself using velcro.) The computer sometimes takes the "long" way around, strangling itself with its own cord. And the unit?s light weight -- only 11 pounds -- won?t break your back, but it?s so light that any accidental bump (easy to do in the dark) will knock the scope out of alignment, forcing another reinitialization.

The hand held controller contains a wealth of information. The 4,000 object database is probably optimistic for such a small scope (you won't be able to actually see all those objects), but it?s a nice touch, and besides, silicon?s cheap, right? In fact, one of the fun things you can do with a scope like this on a rainy day is to do a "fake" initialization indoors (yes, even in the daytime.) Then, just start pushing buttons on the controller and read all about the objects in the sky.

So, in the end, what we have here is a nice telescope that offers good value for the price. No scope in this price range is perfect, of course, but there are few other options in this price range. Meade?s ETX70AT is similar to the NexStar 80GT. If you?re looking for more light gathering ability, go with an Orion XT6 or XT8. If you like the NexStar system but want a more serious telescope, consider saving up for Celestron?s NexStar 5i. --Ed Ting

Pros:

• Light, compact, versatile, and inexpensive
• On-board computer makes finding objects a snap
• Good at low power

Cons:

• Optics only so-so at higher powers
• Cords tend to tangle
• Relatively small aperture (80 mm)

Refractors

• Camera & Photo > Binoculars, Telescopes & Optics > Telescopes > Refractors