To C8 Orange Tube Owners

Hi All,
What started with a curiosity to try to find what year my daughters
Orange Tube C8 was made has turned into part time hobby.
First thing I found was that Celestron's records don't extend back to the
earlier C8s.
Then I found someone who knew what the purchase date of his C8 was, a
1984 with a SN in the 800,000 range. My daughter's is in the 254,000.
Several years later I found a 1973 with a known purchase date, SN 4936
2. I thought once I found an older scope, I could extrapolate and come
up with an approximate year. Did not work!
So now I am cruising the net and bugging people. I apologize, but if I
may bug you, what I have started is a database consisting of:
Serial Number:
Serial Number Location: Fork Base, Secondary Mirror, Someplace else?
Purchase Year: If Known
Forks: Sandcast or Diecast
Paint: Orange Peel, Smooth, Matte Burnt Orange, White
Miscellaneous: Optics Enhanced Optics, Special Coatings, Starbright
Label Celestron Pacific, Celestron International
Secondary Mirror 3 or 4 screws
AC Plug Round, Oval, Side or Underneath
Anything else that may pinpoint it to an particular year.
If, in a couple of years, I can get enough numbers, a pattern might start
to make sense.
Please feel free to completely ignore me.
Thanks,
Roy

Hi Roy,

This is mine. And i'm note sure on the purchase year...

Serial Number: 804081
Serial Number Location: Secondary Mirror
Purchase Year: 1977?
Forks: Sandcast
Paint: Orange Peel
Miscellaneous: Starbright
Secondary Mirror 3 screws
AC Plug Oval, Underneath

-Florian

Subject: To C8 Orange Tube Owners
From: Roy Dionne
Date: 9/14/03 2:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

Hi All,
What started with a curiosity to try to find what year my daughters
Orange Tube C8 was made has turned into part time hobby.
First thing I found was that Celestron's records don't extend back to
the
earlier C8s.
Then I found someone who knew what the purchase date of his C8 was, a
1984 with a SN in the 800,000 range. My daughter's is in the 254,000.
Several years later I found a 1973 with a known purchase date, SN 4936
2. I thought once I found an older scope, I could extrapolate and come
up with an approximate year. Did not work!
So now I am cruising the net and bugging people. I apologize, but if I
may bug you, what I have started is a database consisting of:
Serial Number:
Serial Number Location: Fork Base, Secondary Mirror, Someplace else?
Purchase Year: If Known
Forks: Sandcast or Diecast
Paint: Orange Peel, Smooth, Matte Burnt Orange, White
Miscellaneous: Optics Enhanced Optics, Special Coatings, Starbright
Label Celestron Pacific, Celestron International
Secondary Mirror 3 or 4 screws
AC Plug Round, Oval, Side or Underneath
Anything else that may pinpoint it to an particular year.
If, in a couple of years, I can get enough numbers, a pattern might
start
to make sense.
Please feel free to completely ignore me.
Thanks,
Roy
********************
Does the fork arms have holes in them???

Chas P.

Hi Chuck,
It was corresponding with Rod that gave me the idea to start the
database. The serial numbers seemed to follow no logic. He agrees. By
just looking at one or two isolated numbers they make no sense. But then
you couldn't identify a beach by two grains of sand. :-) (Or probably,
with technology, you could. Poor analogy.)

Chuck Taylor wrote:

"Roy Dionne" wrote in message
...

Hi All,
What started with a curiosity to try to find what year my daughters
Orange Tube C8 was made has turned into part time hobby.
First thing I found was that Celestron's records don't extend back to the
earlier C8s.


Hi Roy,

Have you met Rod? You can find him here on saa and at:
http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

He's the CAT expert!

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try the Lunar Observing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/

Thanks Tom,
One I had already been in contact with and have sent my "form" letter to
the other.
Roy

Tom Hole

"Roy Dionne" wrote in message
...

Hi All,
What started with a curiosity to try to find what year my daughters
Orange Tube C8 was made has turned into part time hobby.
First thing I found was that Celestron's records don't extend back to the
earlier C8s.


There are 2 of them that just popped up for sale on Astromart. May want to
email them.

Tom

(Bill Goodart) wrote in message . com...
S/N 814914
on secondary mirror holder
3 screws
Purchased 11 June 1982 at factory in Torrance, CA
Sandcast forks
Orange peal tube

Now that I look at the forks again, I think they are die-cast with
crinkle-finish paint. No holes, but hole outlines cast into forks.
Also, the power connector is oval and at the bottom rear of the drive
housing.

I don't quite understand the term "die
cast" anyway.

It's my understanding that the old sand cast forks were heavier than the
later die cast ones. I THINK most of 'em had real holes through 'em.
I'm going over my old orange C8 looking for the serial number, and
having a hard time finding it... I'll post my answers pretty soon...
Marty

I just found a thingy looking through old paper about sand and die
castings. It's in "Tuthill's Twenty-Two Telescope Tips" Copyright 1978,
and it says:
18. DIE CASTINGS VERSUS SAND CASTINGS
In general, if die castings instead of sand castings can be used in
telescope construction the resulting casting is denser with less
porosity or holes. It is also made to closer tolerances for precision.
For the best use of material that can be placed in the correct
structural form without excess weight the use of die castings is very
much recommended in engineering circles. In general, sand casting do
not provide the fine finish or precision of die castings.

there, FWIW
Marty

In general, sand casting do
not provide the fine finish or precision of die castings.

Hi Marty:

Waalll...maybe not. But sandcasting worked fine on the C8, and SHORE was purty!
;-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Rod was replying to me:
(this gets so confusing...)
In general, sand casting do

not provide the fine finish or precision of
die castings.

Hi Marty:

Waalll...maybe not. But sandcasting
worked fine on the C8, and SHORE was
purty!

;-)

Peace,

Rod Mollise

I don't know much of the difference myself. I can remember seeing used
C8s selling years ago, and the fact that they had sand castings was used
as a PLUS.
Beats me,
Marty