Joe Myers

A soft coating results from not heating the glass enough to bake the coating, have to be careful when cleaning. The tripod is a shortened 10" portable pier with a styrofoam filled fiberglas tube, cast aluminum wedge; this was the standard pier for the blue and white 10". The solar filter was Nichrome coated to density 4 or 5, on a gold spun aluminum lens cap. I made a bunch of these, but they cost too much to be profitable. I used this one in the eclipse last August, with a Canon SX286 at full zoom.

I worked at Celestron-Pacific from about Oct 1965 to about 1971. I originated the sequential serial numbering for the C8, with a simple #1. This continued until I left. I understand the index card box was destroyed ln a flood. Attached are photos of my C-8, #300, which I picked at random from the production line. The optics are quite good; the only caveat is the corrector plate is soft-coated, which I had done by an outside company. They didn't want to heat the corrector, for fear of breakage. The original orange paint was a matte finish Nextel Velvetone, which after 30 years disintegrated, I repainted the scope with Rustoleum SailBlue and Harbor Blue; similar to the earlier Celestrons. Joe Myers