Hitchhikers guide to the nexstar 8se - Celestron NexStar 8 SE Telescope

I'd been eyeing this telescope for some time and finally was able to afford it. I didn't want to get a smaller one and end up wondering how much better the bigger one would have been. As far as visual quality, I couldn't be happier. The views through the telescope are wonderful and the SkyAlign feature works pretty good. I do notice a little drift from time to time, but I think I'll be able to get a handle on that as I use it more or add a wedge. My only complaint is that this model just doesn't work very well on batteries. I spent a whole night messing around with the tracking system wondering why it wouldn't slew properly only to discover that my new AA batteries had been drained by only about an hour of casual use. As it turns out, running on batteries in even moderately cold weather just doesn't play well on this telescope at all. Once I plugged it into AC power the drives worked like a champ. I know the design incorporating the batteries into the base is space-limited and probably wouldn't allow for C or D cells, but I feel that this should have been explained better in the docs for this scope by Celestron. So if you want this scope I'd suggest purchasing the AC adapter for home use and/or the power tank for mobile use. Using batteries just isn't practical. That stuff aside, its a very nice scope and I'm still glad I purchased it.
Pros: Quality construction and good visual quality
Cons: Portability limited by underpowered battery capacity

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.