Pimped out Celestron G-8N

[WWPierre]

I bought this telescope used on an EQ5 for the cost of the mount alone. I replaced the focuser and finder scope and motorized the mount. It seems to be a very rare scope; I haven't run into another person that owns one, and I have searched.

It is a Bird-Jones newtonian with a spherical mirror and a corrector lens between the primary and secondary to fool the photons into thinking they have bounced off a parabolic mirror. It was a bear to collimate, but it is pretty close now, and gives nice bright views.

I fabricated the stalk for the finder out of aluminum because I wanted to be able to use it on other scopes which use the standard Orion finder shoe.

[A McEwan]

Looks nice! What end f-ratio is that then?

Ant

[Astro_Baby]

I think Towa used to do a similar optical design back in the late 70s early 80s. It looks nice though and its really compact.

[WWPierre]

Looks nice! What end f-ratio is that then?

Ant

It's 200x1000; F/5. I was planning on using it for astrophotography, but haven't got a chance to really try it out yet. With the low-profile focuser, in daylight, I can achieve focus on the focal plane of my Canon Rebel with a target at 1 kilometer, but a target at 2 kilometers puts me chock-a-block at the bottom of the travel. It may not focus at infinity.

[ptoastman]

WWPierre, I too own a Celestron G-8N & need to replace the focuser. I noticed that you have a GSO crayford style focuser installed on yours. Would you be able to provide me with some info on how you went about replacing it?