14 replies to this topic

[niels216]

A few years ago I was out at my local flea market and came across an old film camera and a C14 OTA. After some negotiation we settled on a price of $300 for the pair. Thus began my journey to restore the C14 to (somewhat) its former glory.

 

The tube had a few dings in it and been stored corrector plate down with the visual back open to the elements. It had filled with dust and sand over the years and was in a pretty poor cosmetic condition but I  though it was worth the money even if it could not be fully resurrected!. After an initial disassembly and vacuum I noticed that the secondary holder rotated freely in the corrector plate and had some lateral play but the optics where in very good condition with no scratched or obvious problems other that the collimation, even to the unaided eye, was a mile off!

 

The main problem was that the secondary was not marked as to its orientation although the corrector plate was. As the primary was essentially fixed by the focusing system the only problem was how to correctly position the secondary rotationally with the optics.

 

All optical elements had the same number (1008) either etched on them (corrector plate) or written with a blue marker so I knew that this was the same telescope as manufactured. There was also a date (I assume) of 03-82 (40 years old this month!).

 

The primary and secondary had a blue line drawn on the backs and so I aligned these in the telescope and reassembled the OTA on this basis after a harrowing session cleaning the reflective surfaces. I followed the tried and tested procedure of using copious amounts of water to initially rinse off the dust and then some washing liquid and further rinsing in the shower followed by distilled water for a final rinse, then drying with cotton wood pads. The results were very good with no marks left on the surfaces. I say harrowing because the fear of dropping the mirror or scratching its surface made me quite fearful of the many catastrophes that could occur! Thankfully it all went well without incident.

 

Collimation followed and low and behold the telescope is of good optical performance with little or no hint of comma and near identical in and out of focus star refraction rings! Incredible! I have posted this to be of some encouragement/interest/use to other Celestron SC users.

[marcyc]

Wonderful story, and welcome to the classics forum! Do you have any pictures? We here just love pictures - especially before-and-after shots.

[photiost]

Hi and welcome to the classics forum. 

 

Our club had the Orange C14 in the dome when I joined in 1993.

Very impressive instrument and that sample gave excellent images.

 

Congrats and yes we do like lots of pictures !!

 

cheers   

[tim53]

Schmidt cassegrain optics are figures of rotation, so it won't matter how the secondary is positioned relative to the primary.  Any marks indicating such are for the opticians to put the mirrors back into the test jig at the factory after working on them, so they don't have to keep collimating between figuring runs.

 

-Tim.

[Stevegeo]

Anyone with a C14 orange tube ,  could you dm me with your serial number , i would like to start a C14 ORANGE TUBE registry.

All thats needed . 

Serial number ,

, attachments , and a location ( nothing specific, state, country.) .

 Also condition ..good fair excellent,  poor .

 

Stevegeo 

[VictorMG]

I picked up my Celestron Smooth orange tube C14 on March 30th, 2025. The original owner only used it 3 times, Joel Barnes and packed it up for decades.  The serial # is  1    434    6. The owner ordered it in 1975 and it was delivered in early 1976. 

 

I am blessed to have received a great, fully functioning telescope,  that has nothing short of incredible optics.  It magnifies clearly up to 840x. This high magnification is proof clear of exceptional optics.  I knew I had a winner when it magnified so highly and clearly. 

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[starman876]

You got to love good reports on the orange c14.   I still have one  and it always was a pleasure to use.  Saturn is so beautiful to observe with a  c14 with all its moons

[VictorMG]

Here the base, take note, Celestron Pacific,  not Celestron International. 

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[Josef1968]

What a beauty!!!

[ccwemyss]

Hard to beat a really good C14. Also hard to find a really good C14. So great find!

 

Like Johann said, I love counting moons around Saturn with mine. Also seeing spiral structure in M33, and going deep in the Virgo galaxy field. I'm really hoping to find time this summer to pull it out of the observatory and make sure that I've finally fixed the misalignment that resulted from Celestron's repair department shipping it back to me with the rear cell screws loose. I remember it being sharper before they worked on it (although they did manage to reglue the primary so it doesn't flop a degree on meridian flips). 

 

Chip W. 

[CHASLX200]

Hard to beat a really good C14. Also hard to find a really good C14. So great find!

 

Like Johann said, I love counting moons around Saturn with mine. Also seeing spiral structure in M33, and going deep in the Virgo galaxy field. I'm really hoping to find time this summer to pull it out of the observatory and make sure that I've finally fixed the misalignment that resulted from Celestron's repair department shipping it back to me with the rear cell screws loose. I remember it being sharper before they worked on it (although they did manage to reglue the primary so it doesn't flop a degree on meridian flips). 

 

Chip W. 

It's the finding a sharp one that is the hard part.

[Bomber Bob]

... Celestron's repair department shipping it back to me with the rear cell screws loose ...

 

Yikes!  Sounds like my Chevy Chevette... EVERY spot that required 3 welds had... 1... found that out after the Driver's Side Door fell off, on The Square, at college.  Erased all my Cool Points.

[VictorMG]

Hard to beat a really good C14. Also hard to find a really good C14. So great find!

 

Like Johann said, I love counting moons around Saturn with mine. Also seeing spiral structure in M33, and going deep in the Virgo galaxy field. I'm really hoping to find time this summer to pull it out of the observatory and make sure that I've finally fixed the misalignment that resulted from Celestron's repair department shipping it back to me with the rear cell screws loose. I remember it being sharper before they worked on it (although they did manage to reglue the primary so it doesn't flop a degree on meridian flips). 

 

Chip W. 

Man, I hope someone at Celestron didn't swap your optics for the inferior production ones they have today. I stated on another thread, this Celestron Pacific will blow away any HD 1400 they make today. I've never seen a bad Celestron Pacific.  They all have great optics.  I've been researching this for over 30 years. 26 years ago I suspected there was a difference.  This telescope I believe has proven my theory. 

[VictorMG]

Anyone with a C14 orange tube ,  could you dm me with your serial number , i would like to start a C14 ORANGE TUBE registry.

All thats needed . 

Serial number ,

, attachments , and a location ( nothing specific, state, country.) .

 Also condition ..good fair excellent,  poor .

 

Stevegeo 

I would have to conclude. My Celestron Pacific  14 is in excellent condition. It has no dents and just a few minor scuffs, no deep scratches and zero paint peeling.  The mirrors look new and corrector has minor dusting. The screws and collimation screws have zero scratches or flaws.  They've never been turned or twisted, virgin it appears.  Remember,  Joel  the original owner only used it 3 times in Wyoming and afterwards packed it up. I suspect the turbulent air discouraged him. The auction house said he only used it 3 times. The trunks even look great. 

[ccwemyss]

Man, I hope someone at Celestron didn't swap your optics for the inferior production ones they have today. I stated on another thread, this Celestron Pacific will blow away any HD 1400 they make today. I've never seen a bad Celestron Pacific.  They all have great optics.  I've been researching this for over 30 years. 26 years ago I suspected there was a difference.  This telescope I believe has proven my theory. 

No. They didn't even want to replace the corrector plate, which has a clam chip that is mostly hidden by the retaining ring. It's a very early Fastar, shortly after they had new investment, enabling them to replace the worn master blocks from the Halley era, and switch to a new support scheme for grinding the correctors that did away with some print-through issues. My understanding is that they were doing a careful job with the optics at that time, to restore the bad reputation they had acquired. 

 

It was originally a black tube with a fork mount. The first owner had de-forked it, and the second owner told me he was sending his GEM mount back to Celestron because it was not tracking properly.

 

I got it collimated, then pointed it at another object and collimation was gone. Comparing the view to the finder, it was shifting nearly a degree on a meridian flip. After trying everything Celestron service suggested, it was determined that the glue wasn't holding the mirror on the tri-tree. I suspect it may never have been glued down. When it was pointing at something on the same side of the sky where it was collimated, it was incredibly sharp. 

 

When it was returned, the rear cell was loose on the tube, and they hadn't secured the mirror locks. They told me to put it face down and tighten the cell screws, and it would be aligned. Clearly it wasn't, and I did some adjusting with a collimator that made an improvement, but it doesn't wow me like it did before. I need to build something to support it properly while I do a thorough job of ensuring that the tube is aligned, and the corrector and secondary are centered. 

 

There was a thread in the Cats and Casses forum a few years ago where a master optician put an HD1400 on a bench with a Zygo, and was able to turn a mediocre optical system into something very good by carefully aligning all the components. I think at least some of the bad reputation is because the factory alignment doesn't survive shipping, and people aren't equipped to redo it. 

 

Having been used only three times and put away, yours has probably held onto its alignment. I think you're really going to enjoy what it can do for you. 

 

Chip W.