Help with purchasing used C8+

I found a local 1994 version C8+ and was hoping someone could help me to decide whether or not it's a good deal. Included are: fork mount (motor does work), heavy duty tripod, solar filter, very nice pelican cases for scope and eyepieces, orion flexi dew shield, 18mm ultima series eyepiece, 5mm ultima series, 25mm SMA, tele vue 3x barlow, 6x30 finder, t-adapter, and orion moon filter. I plan on going to look at the C8 later this week and if it appears to be in good cosmetic shape, is $1000 a good deal? He's fairly firm on the price, so there likely isn't much (if any) room for negotiation.

BEST THING TO DO IS SEARCH THE ARCHIEVE CLASSIFIEDS
HERE ON ASTROMART AND SEE WHAT THEY HAVE SOLD FOR.
I JUST PICKED UP A MID 80'S C8 AND THE OTPICS ARE
GREAT.
ITS HARD WITH THE THE EXTRAS ENVOLVED.
I WOULD TRY TO GET A PRICE ON JUST THE SCOPE.
UNLESS YOU REALLY NEED OR WANT THE EXTRAS OFFERED.

Scott Weberpal said:

I found a local 1994 version C8+ and was hoping someone could help me to decide whether or not it's a good deal. Included are: fork mount (motor does work), heavy duty tripod, solar filter, very nice pelican cases for scope and eyepieces, orion flexi dew shield, 18mm ultima series eyepiece, 5mm ultima series, 25mm SMA, tele vue 3x barlow, 6x30 finder, t-adapter, and orion moon filter. I plan on going to look at the C8 later this week and if it appears to be in good cosmetic shape, is $1000 a good deal? He's fairly firm on the price, so there likely isn't much (if any) room for negotiation.

Scott:

This is what I do in such situations: Send Uncle Rod (Mollise) a private message, he's the man when it comes to SCTs...

My gut feeling: $1000 is considerably over priced. Locally I have seen an LX-90 with some eyepieces, one of which was a 9mm type 6 Nagler in like new condition, the seller was asking $900. I have seen older fork mounted Celestrons and Meades for considerably less, a year or two back, I saw a Powerstar with a 7mm Nagler, a couple of the good Celestron Silvertop Plossls for $325...

My personal experience with the fork mounted on a wedge SCTs is that they are awkward to use, quite difficult in the northern part of the sky. With all that weight hanging out there, the ones I have used have been prone to vibration. A few years ago I happened to setup next to a guy with one. He had never seen M51 because of the awkward position required.

In my view, the coming of the GOTO alt-az mount rejuvenated the SCT as it allowed for comfortable viewing positions as well as doing away with the need to star hop. Another alternative is to use an EQ mount which IME, allows for more comfortable viewing and is less prone to vibration. I saw Rod comment recently that he had long ago "deforked" his Ultima 8... I am guessing he put it on an EQ mount.

Another disadvantage of the older scopes is finding parts, electrical/electronic if something fails. These are some of the reasons the older wedge/fork mounted SCTs are pretty cheap these days...

Just my thinking/experience, your mileage may vary...

jon

Thanks for all the responses. I'm going to pass on the C8 and keep looking. In fact, the only reason I was somewhat interested was the fact that the guy selling lives only an hour away and I'd have an opportunity to inspect it well before potentially buying. At this point, I think my focus is going to be more on finding a good Newt EQ (LXD75, starfinder, etc.) as I'm looking to begin the journey of astrophotography. Thanks again for the help, I'm very glad I came across Astromart, you folks are great!

Scott Weberpal said:

I found a local 1994 version C8+ and was hoping someone could help me to decide whether or not it's a good deal. Included are: fork mount (motor does work), heavy duty tripod, solar filter, very nice pelican cases for scope and eyepieces, orion flexi dew shield, 18mm ultima series eyepiece, 5mm ultima series, 25mm SMA, tele vue 3x barlow, 6x30 finder, t-adapter, and orion moon filter. I plan on going to look at the C8 later this week and if it appears to be in good cosmetic shape, is $1000 a good deal? He's fairly firm on the price, so there likely isn't much (if any) room for negotiation.

1000 for this old scope (which was not top of the line when it was made) and a few middle of the road eyepieces? No, that is not a good deal. Offer him 500 - 750 and if he don't bite, move on.