Tom74

This thread intrigued me one evening last May (2010), and I spent several evenings going through ads on a certain astronomy equipment site in the US, looking for C8 optical tube ads with photos that showed the serial number clearly on the front corrector (or for old orange tubes, on plate on the side of the fork mount base), and which gave information on the date the person had bought the scope, either new or used. Then using inference, and quite a bit of collected data from that site's ad photos, plus your several serial number data points in your table below, here is what I came up with.

Serial year

==========

004936 1973

176337 1977

219214 1975

339705 1975

800732 1975 - 1977 (C8 classic orangetube)

804081 1977

805507 1980 (C8 classic orangetube special coatings)

805630 1980 or later (C8 classic orangetube)

806633 1980 or later (C8 classic orangetube)

808735 1979 or later

810231 (C8 classic orangetube special coatings)

811294 (C8 classic orangetube)

811938 1981

815888 1982

822085 1983 - 1984 (est ?) (C8 classic orange tube)

825682 at least 1984 (C8 blacktube Starbright…at least 1984 since that's when Starbright came out)

827259 at least 1984 (C8 classic orangetube)

- (Celestron Super C8 on Vixen Superpolaris GEM was first sold in 1984)

- (Haley's Comet came in 1986…Celestron quality supposedly really dipped during Haley's comet craze from 1985 - 1987, until Alan Hale was brought back to turn Celestron quality around in 1988)

845210 1987 (C8 blacktube Starbright coatings)

847300 at least 1988 (SPC8 blacktube Starbright…ad claimed OTA was hand-selected by Alan Hale for ad photos)

- (had to be in or after 1988 since 1988 is when Celestron brought Alan Hale back to restore quality and company reputation)

850745 ???? (C8 classic with Starbright coatings…good optics)

858639 ???? (GP-C8) (older than 1991, newer than 1987)

877563 ???? (C8 blacktube no coatings) (immediately sold after buying, possibly bad optics (claimed "may need collimation"))

889700 1991 (Celestron Ultima C8 SCT blacktube)

927520 2000 (C8 Fastar Starbright blacktube)

928504 2001 (C8 Nexstar 8 goldtube)

928774 ? (had to be 2001 or later, using S/N 928504 with firm new-scope purchase date above)

934042 2005 (C8 goldtube Starbright non-XLT)

935835 2004 (C8 blacktube C8-S goto Starbright non-XLT)

S12078 2009 (C8 Starbright XLT blacktube)

S12561 (C8 Nexstar 8SE blacktube Starbright XLT)

S14029 (CPC800 XLT)

S16480 2008 (C8 XLT blacktube)

S19669 2009 (C8 XLT blacktube)