Just picked this up.
Posted 14 February 2019 - 06:52 PM
Wow, I did not know that Celestron ever made such a thing. Very handy for aligning guide scope with main scope. I have a similar device from Astromania, but it doesn't look
quite as sturdy as that one. Works quite well, though. Very handy.
Posted 14 February 2019 - 07:18 PM
I have a similar one on a 1976 C5 that is drilled for a 8 inch Schmidt camera.
Your tangent-to-main scope mounting holes look like they may be the same.
Yours is a later tangent with a single 1/4"-20 screw that I'm pretty sure uses
this bracket shown:
Robert
Edited by clamchip, 14 February 2019 - 07:34 PM.
Posted 14 February 2019 - 07:32 PM
Here's the early version with it's connections for a C5.
On the main scope side of the tangent the wide spaced arrows are 8 inch Schmidt
camera and possibly others.The narrow spaced arrows are C14.
I was going to modify mine to fit my C14 but chickened out due to two reasons,I
didn't want to do irreversible modification, although it didn't matter because
Celestron did exactly the same thing, and I felt strongly I'd someday own a
8 inch camera.
I sold the C14 and I would like to own a 8 inch camera someday. And although
these days there are many modern choices for guiding I still think I would like
to do it with a C5 guide scope, exposure times will be very short.
Robert
Edited by clamchip, 14 February 2019 - 07:35 PM.
Posted 14 February 2019 - 07:51 PM
I had one years ago for a C5 and my C14. Paid heavy price for it back in the 90's.
Posted 14 February 2019 - 08:38 PM
They don't pop up for sale very much. Avg price for one back in the 90's was over $200.
Posted 14 February 2019 - 09:42 PM
I have had a couple of those and I paid dearly for them a couple of years ago and then I sold them with some scopes. They were a coveted item with the blue and white celestrons. The 4" and 5" blue and white guide scopes were always mounted on the blue and white celestrons with those tangent arms. However, they were painted blue in those days.
Posted 08 February 2022 - 04:10 PM
I have a rather odd version of the tangent assembly; it's meant for an
Orange Tube C90!
I was told by the seller that it was meant to use a C90 as the finder for
a C14. I picked it up to add to my orange tube C8, but somehow that
never happened; I never got around to fabricating a base adapter for
it to mount the beast.
For the Celestron fanciers out there... the part number is molded into
the base. It is 50925.
Posted 08 February 2022 - 06:51 PM
They were never made to be used as a finder. They are to mount a guide scope.
Posted 08 February 2022 - 07:13 PM
Posted 12 February 2022 - 08:15 AM
This is why I like CN. Solves a lot of mysteries. Years ago I bought an old C8. "Old" meaning this one has the smooth orange finish and the no knob plastic cap plus the non-standard SCT threads. It had an odd "item" bolted to the tube as well as a random screw on the back cell rib. Never could figure out why these were there. Now I think I know what these items were for! After seeing this thread, it would appear that this C8 may have started out life as a guide scope for a C14 and these odd items were the remnants of the robust Celestron tangent mount.
Mystery solved.
Chris N
Cedar, MN
Posted 23 January 2025 - 11:44 AM
So...as I understand this item, this was to "fine tune" an slightly smaller secondary scope as a finder so the larger scope could have a camera attached to it.
But, the off axis flip mirror replaced this rather archaic method of visual guiding.
We have to remember back in the 1970s, there was no computer small enough or any camera guiding available back at this time. The human was the computer and provided guiding, and cameras had film.
Just like the Apollo lander the human "was" the computer, with the help of a rudimentary computer that MIT built.
The flip mirror made this device obsolete. The electronic CCD replaced the eyeball, and the portable computer replaced the human, with the CCD replacing the film camera.
The off-access guider then replaced the need for a separate scope attached to the main scope, then lately modern cameras now have duel cameras replacing the off-access guider.
The latest change being the robot telescope, making all of the above obsolete...
Interesting and sad at the same time. The human equation being tasked less and less...
People still sail...because of the challenge. Maybe the hobby needs to have different classes assigned to it.
Maybe five different classes of effort and technology.
Mixing and matching has caused this to blur, but really, just like motorcycles with different CC sized engines and HP, or hobby railroad gauges, that maybe in this hobby, this should be given some thought as well.
Edited by GalaxyPiper, 23 January 2025 - 01:52 PM.
Posted 23 January 2025 - 03:07 PM
No, not as a finder!
A guide scope!
Posted 23 January 2025 - 03:10 PM
yea I got one
not in use right now
was for Schmidt camera piggy back
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