1880 replies to this topic

[Jeff L]

Jeff, that finder, is it the StellarVue 80mm?  How do you like it?  Would you recommend it?  I'm considering one as a low power/wide field piggy-back on my EdgeHD 8.

Ya, I love it. It’s a telescope by itself. Kinda pricey when you have to buy the rings and illuminator separately. But hey it’s only money . I tell myself that I’ll just skip going out to eat 

[Jeffmar]

 

I never set out to have three of these things but I use them all and they work well!

[Scott Beith]

 

 

 

I never set out to have three of these things but I use them all and they work well!

 

 

14", 11", 8"?

[Jeffmar]

14", 11", 8"?

Yes, they are 14”, 11” and 8”.  Marvin the Martian is covering  scratch on the 11”.  Right after the scratch incident I started getting hard cases for my telescopes. The others have R2D2 decals I just liked.

 

Edited by Jeffmar, 02 December 2019 - 11:46 PM.

[Scott Beith]

Yes, they are 14”, 11” and 8”.  Marvin the Martian is covering  scratch on the 11”.  Right after the scratch incident I started getting hard cases for my telescopes. The others have R2D2 decals I just liked.

 

Very nice collection!  

[SloMoe]

Telrad on a small Mak,

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[Jeffmar]

Telrad on a small Mak,

What size is your Mac? 

Edited by Jeffmar, 05 December 2019 - 06:56 PM.

[SloMoe]

90mm

 

Just got my finder bracket for the 50mm, I'll post pic's with the correct finders on it this weekend.

 

That Telrad up there looks like a brick,,,,,,

Edited by SloMoe, 05 December 2019 - 09:35 PM.

[BigKahuna]

I picked up a AVX Mount yesterday and moved my 8SE OTA to it. 

 

[SloMoe]

Here's the recently up-dated finder selection for terrestrial, and I'm doing away with the Sky Surfer, 

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[Woj2007]

My cat ( and cass)

 

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[BFaucett]

My Christmas present to myself this year (scope and mount). 

 

Sky-Watcher Skymax 102 Mak

 

Cheers! Bob F. 

 

[SloMoe]

Here's a better pic of the mount, it's from a Craigslist find, a Meade long tube 50mm from the 80's that I completely disasssembeled cleaned and lubed everything that moves, then I put it back together instead of the clam shell to hold the OTA I attached a dove tail clamp for modern scopes.

 

It has the clutch lever for an RA clock drive, I found one that works really well on Amazon, new $20, battery powered, that I use when celestial viewing, battery pack secures to velcro strips on the leg.

Little yellow tubing is the handle, color and length make it much easier to use in the dark.

 

The two axis hand drive knobs are modified slo motion cables that came with it, now then secure directly to the drive shafts, 

 

As you see it in this view it's set for terrestrial, 

 

Many of my targets I can't see because they are a distance away I found the 8 X 50mm 45° finder here on CL, it helps a lot when all I can see is a very small sail across the bay.

 

The forward finder shoe is filed out so that my little digital level gauge can rest in when setting my latitude

for the polar alignment when solar viewing.

 

And down in the center of the tray is a bubble level for setting the tripod axis, you'll note the over sized fasteners holding the tray, that actually is to beef up the stability of the old tripod, manufacture used way under sized little bitty wing nuts and screws, this was the era and decline of small scope tripods, they still used all the heavy parts of the mount but cut costs on the fasteners, now days the cut costs every where on their tripods rendering most of them useless.

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Edited by SloMoe, 11 December 2019 - 08:46 AM.

[Rocketboy25]

Hello from Germany ,

 

this is my >1989 Celestron C8!

 

 

Regards ,

 

Jochen

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[seawolfe]

Here's my Edge 8 at Mt. St. Helens:

 

 

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[Rustler46]

Here's my 1985 Celestron Super C8 Plus with its "finder" - an AT115EDT triplet APO:

 

The mount is a Losmandy G-11/Gemini-1 controlled via iPad Mini running SkySafari.

 

Here it is on the original fork mount set up to observe the 2012 Transit of Venus:

 

 

The optics of the SCT are quite good. Here's a tight crop of the Venus transit just after second contact.

Little if any of the dreaded "black drop effect" was seen.

 

Kind Regards,

Russ

[Joe1950]

New to me C-8, from about 1980. Very good condition and optically very good.

 

 

I bought one when they were first out, about 1969-70.

 

 

So a trip back to the good old days!

 

Thanks.

Edited by Joe1950, 12 December 2019 - 01:30 PM.

[Joe1950]

BTW...The C-8 came without a finder. Since I live in a very light polluted area, an optical finder is needed with so few stars visible to the eye.

 

So my gift to me for under the tree...  a GSO 8x50 RACI finder.  Very good price for 50mm and for $2 extra, I got a shoe that attaches directly to the mounting screws on the C-8. Too good to turn down!

 

 

The finder comes in black, white and silver-gray. Only silver-gray was in stock and although a very nice color, it just didn’t go with the orange tube.

 

Off to the home store and I found Rustoleum Satin Rustic Orange a virtual match to the C-8 orange. So I painted the tube, and although only a little area shows, it really looks nice, if I may say. 

 

I’ll wrap the box for under the tree.    And act surprised and say I shouldn’t have.

 

 

[Augustus]

BTW...The C-8 came without a finder. Since I live in a very light polluted area, an optical finder is needed with so few stars visible to the eye.

 

So my gift to me for under the tree...  a GSO 8x50 RACI finder.  Very good price for 50mm and for $2 extra, I got a shoe that attaches directly to the mounting screws on the C-8. Too good to turn down!

 

B7D07C18-3648-4FC9-91F9-9C08F09FE89C.jpeg

 

The finder comes in black, white and silver-gray. Only silver-gray was in stock and although a very nice color, it just didn’t go with the orange tube.

 

Off to the home store and I found Rustoleum Satin Rustic Orange a virtual match to the C-8 orange. So I painted the tube, and although only a little area shows, it really looks nice, if I may say. 

 

I’ll wrap the box for under the tree.    And act surprised and say I shouldn’t have.

Joe, what's the serial number on the corrector? It's pretty easy to figure out when they were made based on them.

[Joe1950]

That #, on the corrector is 811836, Zane.  But, on the little metal piece on the mount, it says “Serial # 395537.” 

 

From the number list, the 811... seems to indicate 1980-81.  But the number on the mount is supposed to mean “3rd quarter, 1977,” from what I read.

 

Why they are different, I don’t know.  I know you have experience with these and maybe you would know?

 

Thanks, Zane!

 

 

BTW.  The first and only other C-8 I had was from about 1970. I bought it new at Edmunds Scientific when I was 20 years old.  It has that nice velvetone orange, but I can’t recall if it was tricolor or not.

Edited by Joe1950, 12 December 2019 - 11:50 PM.

[Augustus]

That #, on the corrector is 811836, Zane. But, on the little metal piece on the mount, it says “Serial # 395537.”

From the number list, the 811... seems to indicate 1980-81. But the number on the mount is supposed to mean “3rd quarter, 1977,” from what I read.

Why they are different, I don’t know. I know you have experience with these and maybe you would know?

Thanks, Zane!

Go with what the mount says, thus ‘77.

[Joe1950]

Okay bud! Thanks!

[PXR-5]

BTW...The C-8 came without a finder. Since I live in a very light polluted area, an optical finder is needed with so few stars visible to the eye.

 

So my gift to me for under the tree...  a GSO 8x50 RACI finder.  Very good price for 50mm and for $2 extra, I got a shoe that attaches directly to the mounting screws on the C-8. Too good to turn down!

 

B7D07C18-3648-4FC9-91F9-9C08F09FE89C.jpeg

 

The finder comes in black, white and silver-gray. Only silver-gray was in stock and although a very nice color, it just didn’t go with the orange tube.

 

Off to the home store and I found Rustoleum Satin Rustic Orange a virtual match to the C-8 orange. So I painted the tube, and although only a little area shows, it really looks nice, if I may say. 

 

I’ll wrap the box for under the tree.    And act surprised and say I shouldn’t have.

 

Very nice Joe

[Joe1950]

Thanks, Jeff!  Brought me back to those days of yesteryear.  They were both good years and quite a time of turmoil in the world. 

[SloMoe]

Hello from Germany ,

 

this is my >1989 Celestron C8!

 

 

Regards ,

 

Jochen

I've got a 1992 8i, first scope that I purchased when getting back into the hobby,