The Rose City Astronomers is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit organization and all donations to the RCA Telescope Library are fully tax deductible. However our storage for telescopes is very limited and we do not keep every telescope that is donated, nor do we accept every telescope. If you're trying to sell your telescope, please see below

If you have a telescope to donate to the RCA, we will make every effort to incorporate it into our library. However, we reserve the right to re-donate to deserving individuals or other organizations. We adjust our library according to the needs of our group and the limited storage space that is available to us. 

We are not accepting small telescopes with weak and wobbly mounts or telescopes that need major repairs and we maintain the right to refuse any donations at our discretion. (On a side note: we have a monthly Telescope Workshop that would be happy to help you with any problems or questions about your telescope, see the calendar for dates).

Some telescope donations will be re-donated to schools, youth organizations, and other non-profits who are looking to teach astronomy. We are also establishing a program to donate telescopes and equipment to deserving individuals (especially youth). All re-donations are at our discretion. Some telescope donations will be auctioned off which gives us the ability to fund the repair and maintenance of the library telescopes. We have been able to provide all of the library telescopes with a good set of eyepieces, finder scopes, carrying cases, and have even purchased Coronado PST solar scopes with the proceeds of the auctions.

Sometimes we are able to pick up donations, but it is best to first get approval and confirmation that we will accept the donation and then deliver it at any of our General Meetings which are held on the 3rd Monday of every month. contact the RCA Telescope Librarian for more information.

If we accept your donation it is fully tax deductible and we will happily provide you with a receipt that is acceptable to the IRS. According to IRS rules we will provide a receipt that describes the donation and the fact that it is not in exchange for any consideration (a new IRS wording), however we will not provide a dollar amount for the value of the donation (per IRS rules) but values can usually be found on such places as eBay, Cloudy Nights forum, Craigslist, and Astromart.

We also accept cash donations to fund repair, maintenance and purchase of new equipment and telescopes. Any cash donation is fully deductible and cheerfully receipted.

If you have any questions about donations to the RCA Telescope Library, contact the RCA Telescope Librarian - or - the RCA Treasurer.

The RCA was qualified by the IRS on May 31, 2000, as a public benefit association entitled to exemption from federal income tax under the provision of Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. As such, donors may deduct contributions to the RCA from federal income taxes as provided in section 170 of the Code. RCA will happily furnish a receipt for donations.

Cloudy Nights - www.cloudynights.com/classifieds - free, but you must sign up first to sell, (you will get no spam or email messages from them)

Sky & Telescope Marketplace - http://www.marketplace.skyandtelescope.com - $5 to place an ad.

Astromart - www.astromart.com - not free ($15) and you must sign up first to sell, (you will get no spam or email messages from them)

Craigslist - portland.craigslist.org - free and local

Astroclassifieds - www.astroclassifieds.net/us/ - fairly new and no many listings, but does list by state.

Rose City Astronomers Forum - We do have a "For Sale" section of the members only forum where we will post your ad for 90 days, but most of our members already have telescopes and generally telescopes for sale on our forum do not sell, but you can try.

Send us (webmaster@rosecityastronomers.org) the information including:
...Name
...Email
...Phone
...General Location (i.e. Portland, Longview, Salem, etc.)
...Description including age of scope, eyepieces and other equipment, tripod
...If possible include a link to a photo on a website showing the telescope or your own photo, or send us a photo
.........(we reserve the right to modify the photo to fit our forum ).
...Price you are looking for or "make offer".
...any additional information you wish to include.