Calling all Celestron C8 owners

[celestron8g8]

Ok my C8 on a German CG-5 EQ  mount has a serial # 918813 . I thought i bought this in 1997 but the owners manual that came with it shows Copyright 1998 with date 04-98 printed on back and i found my original receipt shows i bought it June 1998 . Black tube , Starbrite , smooth butt plate . 

[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.

[frederickheim]

Greeting from Planet X (my company name !)

I recently acquired a BEAUTIFUL Orange tube C-8 and am in the process of getting it back in working order. It had been in or near a garage fire, had tipped over and damaged the spooting scope mount and eyepiece holder and a couple of other bits, but the optics appear fine.  I'm in the process of repairing the image erector, as the bakelite prism holder took the brunt of the fall. One of the aluminum spider bars is missing, and one broken, so am in the process of making new parts.

As near as I can tell it is an early '70s model, smooth orange tube. has the 3 prong socket for the power cord (which is missing ) Have not been able to find a serial number anywhere yet.  Have not examined the motors for date code yet.

Any suggestions on collimating or other, I am all ears.

Fred

[frederickheim]

Making progress on my C-8, Diagonal was broken by a fall (previous owner),  paience and JB weld has the diagonal functional again.  Repaired the steel tripod, new aluminum spiders.  Still waiting on clear skies to try it out!!!, Will try to date it roughly by the clock motors, as there is no serial number anywhere that I can find.  Older, smooth orange tube.

Fred

[hazza001]

Sorry to resurrect but thought I would add this here.

I just purchased a C8, no documentaion with it and no info on purchase date (bought from a guy selling on behalf of and elderly gentleman) Has both R.A and Dec motors.

believed to be the Celestron Super Polaris C8 according to Uncle Rod's Used SCT Buyer's Guide (Page20)

serial No .862129

Aprox 1985ish

 

[Omahagrad]

C8 purchased 1975 serial on mount, orange tube 254726

Edited September 9, 2020 by Omahagrad
Add picture, correct position of serial#

[Celladwella]

Hello all. I have the orange C 8 with original wedge and folding tripod. Serial#  173707

[Rue]

Hey there I just inherited a c8 also. I don't know much at all about telescopes and astronomy but after a quick google search I found you guys. The serial number on my C8 is 831787, with that, do you guys have any information about the telescope with that serial number? 

[CCD-Freak]

My 1979 orange tube C8 is SN 1 444 9 and the motors are dated 2-79.  It was one of the last ones that used the old date code.

 

[CCD-Freak]

My friend Phil has an old Tri Color C8 serial # 195 that dates back to 1971 or 1972.  He is the original owner and still uses it. 

[CCD-Freak]

My other C8 serial # 826894 is a black tube with a ribbed back on an Ultima mount that has been "pimped out" with all sorts of upgrades. 

This scope is a pleasure to use.

[Tslattery83]

I'm new to the forum, great thread. I'm going to pick this up tomorrow from what I can tell the serial # 6306 must be mid 70's

This is going to be my first telescope I've looked through maybe 3 scopes in my lifetime at a stargazing party while in boy scouts around 1996, I'm really excited to look through this bad boy. My goal is to upgrade the hell outta' this thing, would that be considered sacrilege since it's in such pristine vintage condition?  If not, could I get some direction as to what I should buy for upgrades. I want to do astrophotography with it, and I plan to spend about $2500 on a mount so I guess I would have to de-fork it, I found this on ebay would this be compatible with my scope? Thanks in advance for any advice I'll post more pics of the C8 and the documentation that comes with it in the next few days.

Celestron Super Polaris C8 Equatorial Mount Tube-Attach Dovetail Assy. 

[SiriusDoggy]

On 09/06/2022 at 20:48, Tslattery83 said:

This is going to be my first telescope I've looked through maybe 3 scopes in my lifetime at a stargazing party while in boy scouts around 1996, I'm really excited to look through this bad boy. My goal is to upgrade the hell outta' this thing, would that be considered sacrilege since it's in such pristine vintage condition?  If not, could I get some direction as to what I should buy for upgrades. I want to do astrophotography with it, and I plan to spend about $2500 on a mount so I guess I would have to de-fork it, I found this on ebay would this be compatible with my scope? Thanks in advance for any advice I'll post more pics of the C8 and the documentation that comes with it in the next few days.

Congrats on a beautiful purchase. I have one very similar. Personally, I'd keep it as is original if everything is in working order. Back when Celestron was making these beauties, they weren't really thinking about astrophotographers so much. Not that you can't make awesome images with them, it's just a bit more difficult to coax out the quality you could get from a newer EdgeHD fastar type rig. You can probably get a focal reducer that will work but nothing like the fastar system.

I just think the money invested in de-forking and buying a mount and all the necessary accessories might be better spent on a seperate rig. You mention that this will be your first telescope so you have never dove into astrophotography either? Imaging with a long focal length rig like this is like having never jumped into a swimming pool before and deciding to start by jumping off the 10 meter platform.  Probably best to start with an easy and more forgiving wide-field rig like an 80mm refractor or something like the RedCat on a small EQ mount like an AVX.  We are coming up on the perfect season for wide-field imaging anyway. Spend a summer doing that before attempting to image at 2000mm fl.

[jjohnson3803]

If you're still compiling, mine was SN807736, purchased around 1980 or 1981 - don't remember.

Pic from about 4 years ago before I sold it: