Celestron C11 Classic, Celestron 8" SCT Camera

[toryglen-boy]

Recently got this from my partners estate, its been outside for .. well, for several years, although it was under cover, and has had the dust cap on the OTA at all times, as a result, the pain has weathered, and started flaking off, and the legs have some minor surface rust, some elbow grease and wirewool would have it looking fantastic, as would the mount after a coat of hammerite etc, its a great project. i dont have any of the electrical gubbins to test it, but the mount is very well balanced, and swings on its own, the good part is the optics, which, have remained in very good stead, giving pleasing views of Saturn, only 30 ago.

Also with this, is a Celestron 8" Schmidt Camera, to my eternal shame, I have no idea how it work, although there is a trap door on the OTA, and something, that looks it would be near the point of focus, to hold something, but i sure experts here will inform me. This has been in a box all its life, and is in mint condition.

What am i looking for for this? TBH, i dont know, i know the rules says i am meant to post a price, so if anyone can pm me in private, and give me some guidelines on pricing then i can edit the add immediately, its hard to gauge a price given its condition. TBH, i was hoping to trade it for something that i would use more, a largish dob etc.

I already have one party who has asked for first refusal, but i thought i would post here, for expressions of interest anyway.

all enquiries or advice, greatly received

ta

[toryglen-boy]

ok, so I received some questions, and i thought i should add here:


1. Unfortunately, i dont know if the drive works, as i have none of the electric components, to test it with, that said, when the axis are unlocked, the OTA moves with the push of a finger, silently, and smoothly, so it cant be that bad inside.

2. No eye pieces etc. come with it, although there was a diagonal, and an old celestron plossle, that came with it, that you can strip down and clean, the eyepiece is is reasonably good nick, although there is some condensation inside it, so if that can be cleaned out, it would be great.

3. Yes, i am willing to meet someone, somewhere, if they want it, although i still havent managed to figure how to fold the legs down, and the pictures dont it justice, the wedge is huge, and i mean big and heavy, and it feels FAR more solid than my old EQ6

4. Yes, the optics appear to be in good condition, i was amazed at how well, the finderscope was aligned, and how good the colimation was on it, given its not been used for several years. obviously without a handset to aim the thing its a PITA to look at anything, but i did snatch a quick look at Saturn and Jupiter through it, and the views where really quite pleasing.

5. Yes, that is my car, its a supercharged BMW Z3 Roadster (same one as used in Goldeneye) that is pretty nippy.

6. Yes, the grass needs cut, and the fence sorted. any takers.

7. The legs only have VERY minor pitting and rust, i gave one a rub with a fine wire wool brush, and a shiny chrome leg was hiding underneath.

8. I have no idea if the 8" Schmidt camera can be turned into a scope, there loads of resourceful people on here, anything is possible.

9. I believe the age of the scope is between 33-35 years old. That would certainly tie in, with when the orange C11 was released.

[Nikolas]

Any photos of the schmidt camera?

[toryglen-boy]

sure, will take some, its in brand new condition, and is the exact same model as this :

Celestron 8" SCT Camera (http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=829084)


;)

[julianh72]

There's an interesting and pretty comprehensive article on the Celestron 8" Schmidt camera here:
http://www.robertreeves.com/repair.htm

[toryglen-boy]

thanks for that, interesting read! i wonder what could be achieved with a CCD at focus on it.

[julianh72]

I think the big challenge is that the original film carrier presses the film into a curve to match the curved focal "plane", so it would be very tricky to get a large CCD to be in focus over the full area. I have no idea how "soft" the resulting image would be without a suitable "field flattener". There's a bit of talk here http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=38945 from a few years back where KenGee gives some calculations for the necessary flattener.

It might work with a smaller sized CCD, but that kind of defeats the point of a very wide-angle Schmidt Camera.

[Earl]

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