Need Help with a Birthdate for a C8

Hello everyone,

I just picked up a used C8 8" ota that has the gray body, starbright coating and orange Celestron badging. The serial number is 940631. Any clues out there on the age of my new baby.

The seller told me that the ota is coming off of a fork mount. And, I want to mount the ota using a dovetail bar for a LXD55 mount. I was checking out Celestrons newer ota's at Orion's store and the dovetail bar just screwed into the ota. But on mine, the two screws holes that are closer to the end of the ota are farther apart that the width of the bar.

Any hints as to how best to do this?

Thanks, Don

Don,

You can try Celestron but it has been my experience that they do not keep a record of manufacturing dates by serial numbers. There is a history of Celestron SCT's at http://home.att.net/-telescopebluebook/sct/celestron.htm that might help narrow it down a bit as far a span of years. This will not get you where you want to be but may be a start.