Celestron Advanced VX 8-Inch Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope

Celestron 8" SCT (CGE) Optical Tube Assembly

The night sky has always fascinated individuals and with good reason. The heavens are teeming with life, but sadly, most of it is not visible to the naked eye. Now with the study of Astronomy and the invention of telescopes, the moon, stars and planets are all within reach. With the right instruments, there's no telling what you might see.

The Celestron 8" SCT Optical Tube Assembly is ideal for capturing breathtaking views of galaxies, star clusters, nebulae and planets. Celestron 8" SCT Optical Tube Assembly has a number of features that provide you with optimum light transmission and brighter, crisper images ideal for the astronomy enthusiast. The night sky is now in your hands.

Features

With an optical tube that measures a mere 17-inches in length and weighs just 12.5 pounds, this mid level optical instrument meets the demands of observers and astrogimagers who want a telescope that's more portable than a reflector or refractor.The scope offers a large 8" aperture and a long focal length of 2032 mm.

Celestron's unique StarBright XLT optical coatings dramatically increase light transmission by up to 97 percent on its Schmidt corrector lenses. Vew pinpoint stars across the largest imaging sensors in bright, crisp detail and capture breathtaking, sharp, flawless astroimages.

The 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain Optical Tube Assembly has an aluminum optical tube and comes with a 25 mm eyepiece and a visual back which allows for use with other 1.25" accessories. The 6x30 finderscope helps accurately find objects in the night sky and the star diagonal provides more comfortable viewing position when observing objects that are high in the sky. The 8" OTA includes a dovetail rail compatible with CGE Advanced Series mount.

Celestron Advanced VX GoTo Mount

Engineered from the ground up with astroimaging in mind, the new Advanced VX series from Celestron sets a new standard in mid-level telescopes. Advanced VX provides you with many of the features found on Celestron’s most sophisticated German equatorial mounts, at an extremely affordable price. Experienced imagers will love taking this portable mount to a dark sky site, with all the performance of their larger observatory mount. Or, if you’re new to imaging, this mount will help you get started with the hobby and keep up with your needs for years to come.

Design

Celestron's Advanced VX Mount is an integrated telescope support, alignment and guiding system and was specifically designed to provide optimum imaging performance for smaller telescopes. The mount holds a maximum instrument capacity of 30 lbs. This mount packs some of the features found on more sophisticated German Equatorial mounts, minus the added bulk or cost. Now your smaller telescope can take advantage of All-Star Polar Alignment and autoguider support. Advanced VX features significantly larger base castings than the previous design, improving stability under heavier loads.

Motors

To enhance tracking performance, the mount features permanently programmable Periodic Error Correction (PEC). PEC eliminates recurring track errors from the worm gear to prevent trailing and improve photographs. You’ll also be able to track through long exposures using the PEC. The Advanced VX improved motors offer more torque and can handle slight load imbalances with ease.

Features

An updated industrial design offers more rigidity, less flexure and improved aesthetics. The new design allows viewing or imaging across the meridian without interference from the motors housings, so you can seamlessly image the best part of the night sky. With the enhanced latitude range, the telescope can be used between 7 – 77° latitude allowing for a larger range of view. The improved electronics contain increased memory for future expansion. The mount has an adjustable stainless steel tripod and a 12 lb. counterweight for extra stability.

Technologies

Start observing celestial objects with the push of a button on the NexStar+ Hand Control. It's pre-loaded with a huge database of over 40,000 celestial objects. Automatically slew to objects in a variety of catalogs, including the Messier, NGC, Caldwell, and SAO brightest stars. NexStar+ hand control offers multiple language programming (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish). For enhanced pointing and tracking accuracy, the mount features Celestron's All-Star Polar Alignment. This system uses multiple guide stars to assist tracking across the night sky while keeping the optical tube parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation.

Observers and astroimagers will be impressed by the seamless operation the Advanced VX SkyAlign function. It makes computerized aligning of the telescope fast, easy, and accurate--simply point at any three bright objects in the sky and the telescope aligns itself. Navigation and tracking of the night's sky is as easy as pushing a button once the telescope is precision aligned.