advise please

[Daniel-K]

i sold my 200p a few monts ago (got to put food on the table) but now things are a lot better and looking to buy another scope im still very much a newibe but have found this even though its a bit old.

celestron celestar 8 Sct 8 inch telescope on eBay (end time 30-Nov-10 19:40:50 GMT)

would i be able to put the OTA on a differnt mount?

thanks

[Capricorn]

If I recall the scope/OTA is on a dovetail that attaches it to the mount. So should be easy to take the OTA and dovetail off, and if the dovetail is the correct one attach to another mount.

There are enough 8" Celestrons out there that someone must know for sure.

Just looked at the advert. It looks like a fork mount and not a single arm which was what I was expecting, If a fork then it will not have the expected dovetail to attach to the arm. Anything wrong with the mount and tripod that it is on ? It looks pretty good.

[astro mick]

Hi.

I have the same scope,although mine is the Fastar Deluxe Version.The tube is,nt on a dovetail,but can be detached from the fork arms if you wish,then you,ed have to frabricate some sort of dovetail fixture.

But why would you want to,leave the scope as it is designed,and it will give years of pleasure.These are original American Celestron made,and very solid.

The advanced Astro Master is a God send as it can locate any object that has R/A DEC.Yes its not Goto,so you push to the co-ordinate Readouts.

However this is a lot of scope for the money,and i would.nt hesitate.

Mick.

[Daniel-K]

Hi.

I have the same scope,although mine is the Fastar Deluxe Version.The tube is,nt on a dovetail,but can be detached from the fork arms if you wish,then you,ed have to frabricate some sort of dovetail fixture.

But why would you want to,leave the scope as it is designed,and it will give years of pleasure.These are original American Celestron made,and very solid.

The advanced Astro Master is a God send as it can locate any object that has R/A DEC.Yes its not Goto,so you push to the co-ordinate Readouts.

However this is a lot of scope for the money,and i would.nt hesitate.

Mick.

thanks mick for that just woundering could you tell me what to expect from this scope then?

[astro mick]

Hi Yes.

The scope works at F10 which is ideal if you want to view the moon or planets,using eyepieces in the range of 26mm for low power,then say around 10 or 12 for medium range.You could invest in a quality barlow which increase the focal length and doubles the magnification of the eyepieces.Also at F10 it is great for splitting Double Stars.

If you want to view star clusters,galaxies,bright nebulae,i woud invest in a Celestron or Meade F6.3 Focal Reducer.This makes the scope work faster and gives a wider field of view.

20cm,s is an ideal aperture for a scope,as it still remains portable.This scope will reveal Thousands of objects,but dont expect them to look like long exposure images.In the 70,s 80,s the classic c8 was the workhorse of amature astronomers.

If the scope is in good condition i dont think you can go far wrong.Ask the seller as many questions as you like,until you feel happy.

Hope all this helps.

Regards.

Mick.

[John]

I owned on of those Celestrons for a while and it was a pretty good scope. You will need some form of dew prevention gear for it (as for all SCT's / maks) and I found the fork mount vibrated a little more that I would have liked at high power but you can get around these things. Don't be tempted to pay too much - mine cost £350 in similar condition to the one on e.bay. These scopes are 10 years old or so also bear that in mind. The optics of the Celestron SCT's that I've tried (I've owned 3 now) have been good with the 8" that I owned showing me some of the best views of Saturn I've ever had on some nights of good viewing a few years back (I used an 8mm Tele Vue plossl giving 250x then).

[astro mick]

Hi again.

I am in the process of selling a lot of astro gear,to raise funds for a new mount.As i have said i have the same scope as advertised,but a better model,mine is fastar compatible.

I was going to advertise this scope after xmas,but if you are seriously looking at the scope on EBAY,i can tell you mine has always been kept in an observatory,and everything works.It would come with loads of extras,infact evething you would need to set up again.

All these extras are to numerous to mention,but if you are really interested please PM me.

[astro mick]

Please feel under no pressure,it was just an after thought.

Moderator i hope i am not breaking any rules with this thread.If so please feel obliged to remove it.

Mick.