Advice on Celestron SCT

[PatrickO]

Can anyone tell me what model/age of 8" Celestron SCT this is. Is it different from recent models? I'm thinking of buying it for lunar/planetary imaging.

Many thanks

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I couldn't say, but I would not worry overmuch about its age. They can last a long time, and some people are using Celestron SCTs that are over 40 years old (but they are not on the original mounts.) With such a long history, they have been made in the USA and in China under different ownerships.  According to some reports, the models churned out for the last appearance of Halley's Comet weren't so great. Unless you can deduce the year of manufacture of this one and do some research, your options are:

1) Buy it if it looks clean and undamaged and the mirror looks shiny, and the price is right.  Note that used SCTs generally sell for far less than the cost of a new one, and well under the 66% of new price guide.

2) Don't buy it.  

For reference, my C8 SE came with the older Nexstar handset, making it at least 12 years old, and there is noting optically wrong with it at all. 

[Elp]

The newer OTAs come with the easily removable secondary mirror with the fastar logo in the middle, I believe older ones can be converted so you can use a Hyperstar lens in future if you wish, but I can't confirm this, this post was more to highlight old and newer OTAs.

[Shimrod]

2 hours ago, PatrickO said:

Can anyone tell me what model/age of 8" Celestron SCT this is. Is it different from recent models? I'm thinking of buying it for lunar/planetary imaging.

Many thanks

 

There's a long thread over on cloudy nights that collates C8 serial numbers and age of OTA. Based on your serial number (905605), it puts this OTA early to mid-nineties as a best guess.

 

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/402734-celestron-c8-registry/#entry5161309

[Peter Drew]

Could be a SuperC8, these were in black livery.  Apart from coatings type, all tube assemblies are essentially the same for non Edge models.  Earlier ones had Starbright coatings and later ones XLT coatings.  Cloudy Nights has a serial number registration so you might be able to check it against this.     🙂

[Louis D]

I just checked a bunch of recent ads for these vintage black C8s on CN classifieds, and with few to no accessories, they tend to go for $400 to $500, so keep that in mind.

[John]

I had one that looked just like that. It was from the 1990's. Mine could perform very well but it suffered from "mirror flop" which meant it lost collimation when pointed in certain directions. This was rather frustrating so it's worth being aware of with these older SCT optical tubes.

 

 

[davidc135]

My orange tube C-8 has an SN of 870505 and was made in the early 90s, I was told.

I wouldn't offer more than you would want to resell it for, in good conscience, if it turns out to be disappointing. It may well be fine but I expect it's a bit of a lottery.

David