Celestron C8 Love/Hate relationship.

[Guest]

Over the years I have owned several 8 inch SCT's. The first being an LX 90 Meade. They have all given me some great views of the planets and deep sky objects. I did use one as a grab and go with an Az 4 mount. Worked very well indeed. I am now coming to the realisation that I never fully understood the "Cool Down" issues and the importance of allowing the instrument to properly cool down. This resulted in me selling them on. Now at the tender age of 21  (#@??) I think that I am mature enough and patient and knowledgeable enough to dip into the market to reunite myself with a Celestron C8. 

I did have the C9. 25, but found it quite a weight with not such a great improvement in performance. Just my opinion. 

I also have a Celestron C5. I am glad that I can keep this little gem. Having recently put it up for sale to fund house repair works. The C5 is asking for it's big brother C8 for company, lol. 

I am interested to hear of others experiences with The Celestron C8. 

All the best

? 

[Peter Drew]

I have two, an old one and a relatively new one . I love them both for different reasons. The old one for nostalgia, I'd always dreamed of having one in the early days, the new one as it has given me some of the best lunar and planetary details, albeit housed in Tenerife.  ?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I got my C8 decades ago, and it is still going strong. Love the scope to bits, the more so after some modifications, like a 2" visual back, and a 14x70 finder. If ever I get myself a big dob, I will still keep this, as a compact but very capable travel companion. It has shown me tons of objects, including some 500 galaxies, a load of comets, supernovae, etc. Great visual and great planetary imager

The can take this scope out of my cold, dead hands!

[Knighty2112]

Loving my C8 Martin (which I acquired from a sullen fellow from the fourth planet  ), and whilst cool down can be an issue with care it can be minimilised. If push came to shove I would still say you get better star images in a good ‘frac rather than an SCT, but unless you are hunting down tight doubles this really isn’t too much of an issue. M13 and other globulars in the scope are a joy to behold whilst staring into the maze of stars. Great for lunar and planetary work, and a good work horse too at scooping up quite a few galaxies too. The Veil parted easily under inspection from me with the C8 at the last SGL star party, so nothing but thumbs up from me for the C8!

[knobby]

I live mine (edge version) small enough to be manageable yet big enough to show great detail, I have diddy fans on the vents which gets rid of the thermals fairly well in about 30 mins.

[25585]

I have a 1991 vintage orange tube C8. Just the OTA. It is light enough to go on my Skytee 2. I usually have a Celestron reducer on it which protects the inner tube from outside pollution. Also a Baader 2 inch helical lock for eps, diagonal, etc. My biggest grab and go scope, it's portable and effective.

[Stu]

I had a very enjoyable time with my C8 Edge. I often ran it side by side with a frac so I had widefield/finder capabilities alongside the higher power/greater light grasp and resolution of the SCT. I thought the Edge optics gave very good results visually when using 100 degree afov eyepieces; nice flat field and sharp stars.

I still struggled with cooldown, and the Edge is if anything a little worse because the baffle tube is blocked by the additional optics, meaning you can't use a cat cooler and have to rely on the little vents at the back. I didn't like the views of doubles through it, and bright stars are generally 'hairier' than with a frac, but once below the bright stars, they look great and the additional resolution over a 4" frac is well worth it. Planetary views we good too; more colourful than a smaller scope and with better resolution when the seeing allows.

I do wonder about getting another when current austerity measures are relaxed (which seems to be happening now finally!)

In many ways they are an ideal compromise of portability and performance. The C925 is quite a beast in comparison, although clearly a step up in performance

 

[Paz]

My C8 is the least used of my scopes at present.

If I am doing grab and go the smaller maksutov usually gets picked, and if I'm going for aperture the VX14 goes out and the C8 therefore gets left out in the middle.

It is however a load of aperture in a relatively small light package. Where it does win is I can break down my eq5 and other stuff with the C8 to go to other sites, I can't take the VX14 in the car.

The views are softer than the reflector or maksutov but it does resolve more detail than my smaller maksutov.

Cool down does need planning, I don't have a fan on the C8 so I can't speed up the process or break up the currents.

I remember a fine view of M42 through my C8 with a UHC filter, which is proof enough that this scope has a lot going for it.

Like the ST120 and MC127 which I'm more familiar with,  I'm hoping to learn more over time about how to get the most out of the C8.

[m.tweedy]

I had one for a number of years and had the best views of Galaxies and other faint fuzzies from it at Starcamp. I sold it when i got the C11 which is a beautiful beast and can resolve much fainter deep sky "stuff". However when i broke my back the C11 and NEQ6 pro sat in storage in my shed for 2 years until i got an Observatory built. 

I bought a 1979 Orange C8 soon after selling the Black C8 and removed the forks (a sin but they were broken and did not suit what i wanted from the scope). Lightweight enough not to hesitate in lifting it onto a lightweight mount. I added a vixen dovetail and i am happy for portable astronomy. It gives great views and has been well used for public outreach including white light solar. 

My view is that it is very good at everything but does not have the "wow" of a very expensive and potentially heavy refractor.

But i could not live without mine being there.

Here is the Beauty and the beast prior to my back "incident".

 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, m.tweedy said:

I had one for a number of years and had the best views of Galaxies and other faint fuzzies from it at Starcamp. I sold it when i got the C11 which is a beautiful beast M. Tweedy. A great story. How is your back now? and can resolve much fainter deep sky "stuff". However when i broke my back the C11 and NEQ6 pro sat in storage in my shed for 2 years until i got an Observatory built. 

I bought a 1979 Orange C8 soon after selling the Black C8 and removed the forks (a sin but they were broken and did not suit what i wanted from the scope). Lightweight enough not to hesitate in lifting it onto a lightweight mount. I added a vixen dovetail and i am happy for portable astronomy. It gives great views and has been well used for public outreach including white light solar. 

My view is that it is very good at everything but does not have the "wow" of a very expensive and potentially heavy refractor.

But i could not live without mine being there.

Tanks M. tweedy. A great story. How is your health now? 

[m.tweedy]

1 minute ago, Grumpy Martian said:

Tanks M. tweedy. A great story. How is your health now? 

Thanks.

Metalwork aches however i am upright.

 I only mentioned it to show that the C8 is very portable even with back issues (which i thought you had) otherwise i would not have mentioned it as my avatar says enough. Sorry for distracting from the thread.

[Skyline]

I want to get a SCT as well, I still remember sharp views of the moon from my old Meade LX10 I used to have.

What's the biggest SCT I can mount on a HEQ5 Pro for Visual ?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Skyline said:

I want to get a SCT as well, I still remember sharp views of the moon from my old Meade LX10 I used to have.

What's the biggest SCT I can mount on a HEQ5 Pro for Visual ?

From the specs on First Light Optics the HEQ5 Pro mount can take 11kgs for imaging and 15kgs for visual. 

The C8 weighs 5.67 kgs, C9. 25 weighs 9.07 kgs and the C11 weighs 12.47 kgs. 

There is a C9. 25 for sale on this site at the moment

[Skyline]

The C11 sounds more interesting

[Chris]

I always come back to a C8, especially the C8 Edge which is a lot flatter and noticeably sharper. I sold my last C8 Edge a few years back when I decided to move vowing to buy another in future...I now have one back in the form of a CPC800 Edge which I'm very thankful for  

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Lockie said:

I always come back to a C8, especially the C8 Edge which is a lot flatter and noticeably sharper. I sold my last C8 Edge a few years back when I decided to move vowing to buy another in future...I now have one back in the form of a CPC800 Edge which I'm very thankful for  

Hi Chris. Are you saying that you think that the edge is better for visual over the standard C8. I know that people have said that any improvements are only noticeable for imaging use. 

[RobertI]

I have had a C8 for around 20 years now, it was the scope I always dreamed of as a teenager so I purchased one as soon as I could afford it. My opinion of the scope; when she's good, she's very very good, and when she's bad, she's 'orrible! I have had some stunning views of Jupiter and the Moon and the C8 effortlessly resolves globulars and tracks down faint fuzzies. However when the atmosphere is not so steady or it has not reached ambient temperature (or other unknown random things happen) then the stars can boil and the experience is not so good. On one memorable occasion the Tal100RS was splitting doubles that the C8 could not. Even when conditions are good, the stars can look 'hairy' as Michael says, so it wouldn't be my first choice for observing doubles. However, I tend to forget the how high the magnifications are sometimes, and when attaching the reducer and adjusting the magnification down to 50x - 100x the views are more consistent and the stars become lovely pinpoints and more refractor like, so perfect for open clusters.

The portability is a big plus, and I suspect if I had an 8" reflector instead of a C8, I may well end up doing less observing because of the size, can't be certain though. 

I still use the C8 a lot for visual and I can't see myself ever selling it. 

[Chris]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Martian said:

Hi Chris. Are you saying that you think that the edge is better for visual over the standard C8. I know that people have said that any improvements are only noticeable for imaging use. 

Hi Martin,  I've owned several standard C8's and two Edge's. The later is definately better for visual, especially good with hyperwide EP's as the stars stay sharp to the edge. I feel they are also sharper on axis and this is supported by Celestron's White paper:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/celestron-site-support-files/support_files/edgehd_whitepaper_final.pdf

Take note of page 5 - comparisons between standard, Meade coma free, and the Edge, on and off axis.  

 

EDIT: I'll add that using a 0.63 reducer with a standard C8 does go a half way to performing like the Edge, but not quite due the corrector being placed at the back of the scope and not inside as with the Edge which is optimal.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I love my 8SE (i'm guessing its practically the same as C8). I love the aperture and portability of it (very important to me), however i started out as a kid with a small 60mm Prinz refrac, and i find myself going back to refrac now.

I have a 90mm (F10?). Not used it in 10 yrs, but am thinking of bringing it out of retirement if i can find a way to mount it on Alt-Az. Until recently, i also had a 70mm Celestron Travel scope (gave it to a kid across the road). My most recent purchase is a Bresser AR 102 xs (with AZ5 mount and tripod).

Also have a Heritage 130P Dob (this is a real grab n go)