sell or keep old C8?

[Gerhard]

Hi all,

a friend of mine is thinking about selling his 1982 C8 on a motorized wedge mount.

He has already found a buyer for it, willing to pay €700 for it...

He wonders though, if this particular setup might become a rarity, and so a prized asset...?

Or, on the other hand, if it could be worthwile to take the OTA off of the mount, stick a dovetail on it and put it on a nice secondhand HEQ5 or similar...

Opins?

Thanks!!
 

Gerhard.

[Chris]

Hi Gerhard,

I'm guessing the C8 OTA on it's own would be worth around the 400 mark if in very good condition. 700 sounds about right to me with the mount.

There are similar scopes for sale at the moment on ABS and Ebay but 90's versions I notice. One of which is a 10" version which doesn't seem to be selling for 900 pounds.

I'd basically take the 700 if he doesn't use the scope, but if he does use it then maybe hold onto it for that reason.

I think all kit becomes rarer the older it gets but I'm not sure it would be worth a great deal more if he held onto it for another 10-15 years?  

It will be interesting to hear what others think?

[Laurie61]

Hi, I don't think I would worry too much about future value. If the scope is now surplus to requirements then sell and use the money on whatever is useful. All I would say is a C8 is a very handy package and if still in good working order selling might be regretted later.   

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have a 90s C8 on Great Polaris mount, and do not intend to sell it, as it is such a compact and versatile package. However, if the scope isn't being used, I would sell it. Fork mounted C8s are less handy than GEM types, I find. Investing in a dovetail to mount on an HEQ5 seems to be a bit over the top

[John]

A few year back I paid £350 for a fork mounted C8 from the early 1990's. It was in great condition and I thought it a great buy back then. I've seen them for sale for around that since for scopes from that era though. If your friend wants to part with the scope it's probably a fair offer - 700 Euros = £520 approx. Celestron made loads of these since the 1970's so I don't think they have any rarity value. They can be very nice scopes though if you get one with decent optics. The ones made in the run up to the return of Halley's Comet in 1986 need to be treated with some caution because both Meade and Celestron relaxed their quality control to meet demand.

[Gerhard]

Thanks all for the responses!

I did not mention in fact that my friend is selling because he would like to buy something newer. He saw me with my HEQ5 synscan, all automatic (which is not new, but a lot less old than his fork mount), and so got the idea to change.

He is using the C8 at the moment, as he has nothing else, but the optics are probably due for a makeover...

That's also why I have been telling him "sell, sell, while you still can!!" :-D

If he can sell for 700, he can add some €€ and get a nice 8" newton on HEQ5. he already saw one here:

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p4314_GSO-200mm-f-4-Newton-GoTo-Teleskop-Skywatcher-HEQ5-SkyScan.html

Having seen this one, and maybe even trying to find something like this second hand, in fact sticking the not-so-good-anymore C8 on a HEQ5 would be overkill...