The Past Present and Future of the Schmidt

The Past, Present and Future of the Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope Rod Mollise ALCON 2003 Nashville 1

Do You Like Cats? ! 2

No! REAL Cats!…CATADIOPTRICS! Yes? You’ve come to the right place! 3

The Past The Original Celestron SCT n The SCT design had been around for a while, but it took Tom Johnson to figure out how to mass produce it. This is his prototype 18. 5” in 1963 4

The Past Celestron Pacific Is Born n This is the Down With Love Telescope, the famous Celestron Pacific 10, which all of us dreamed of owning and none of us could afford (2000 1964 dollars!)… 5

The Past The Earth Shook! In 1970, Celestron introduced the legendary “Orange Tube” C 8. This was the telescope that made the SCT relatively affordable… 6

The Past Celestron’s Success Didn’t Go Unnoticed The Criterion Dynamax was a telescope that was intended to better the Orange Tube for a lower price. It failed… 7

The Past Criterion Was Never Much of a Threat, and Celestron Had 10 Years of Sunny Days with SCT Sales Almost All to Themselves. 8

The Past Until 1980… Meade’s new 2080 was a groundbreaking scope that did improve on the C 8 in at least one way… 9

The Past Through the 80 s, Both Companies Made Significant Advances—adding DC Motors and Other Features to the Basic Telescopes. 10

The Past They Also Added Larger and Smaller Telescopes to Fill-out Their Product Lines: 4 s, 5 s, 8 s, 10 s, 11 s and 14 s. 11

The Past Halley-Mania Turned Out Not to be a Good Thing for Either Company In the course of trying to meet demand from a suddenly scope-crazy public, Meade and Celestron wore out their tools and their workforces. 12

The Past The Post-Halley Telescope Depression was bad for Meade and Celestron, but fatal for the Dynamax. The Bausch and Lomb 8001 Pro Was the Best “Dynamax” ever, but following Halley, the Company ended all SCT 13 Production…

The Past While Meade and Celestron Were Putting Themselves Back Together, a New Player Came on the Scene! The Takahashi TSC 225 was a beautiful scope, but it was quite expensive at nearly $4000. 00, and was ultimately not a success… 14

The Past But What Was the Most Historic SCT Event of the 80 s? Hint: Somebody Built the First Commercial Goto SCT… 15

The Past The Celestron Compustar n Celestron was there first in 1986 with a goto SCT, the Compustar, eventually available in 8, 11, and 14 inch apertures. Unfortunately, a few bugs and a high price, $22, 000. 00 list, for the 14 doomed it. 16

The Past Post-Halley, Meade’s Efforts Focused Mainly on Developing and Marketing an SCT of a New Type The LX 6 featured an OTA with a focal ratio of f/6. 3. The previous flagship scope, the LX 5 stayed on to provide f/10 optics for those suspicious of 6. 3… 17

The Past Meanwhile, Celestron Offered Several Models of Its Increasingly Sophisticated DC Drive Powerstar 18

The Past The Top of the Line for Celestron Was the Ultima 8, However n The Ultima 8, soon joined by an Ultima 11, is remembered as a classic by many amateurs. With it’s heavy-duty fork, it was one of the best nongoto astrophotography scopes ever made. 19

The Past Then in 1992 a Telescope Came Along That Changed Everything! 20

The Past The LX 200 (1992): An Historic Breakthrough n Not because it was much more advanced than the Compustar initially, but because it was affordable, surprisingly affordable, at $1995. 00 for the 8 and $2295. 00 for the 10. 21

The Past Following the LX 200 Intro, Meade Revamped the Rest of the Product Line n n n Introduced the LX 100 Revived the basic 2080 Revived the 2045 as the 2045 D 22

The Past Following the LX 200 Debut, Celestron Searched for Direction n Reintroduced a spur gear telescope, the Classic 8. “Astrophoto scopes” on heavy-duty Losmandy mounts. Brought back the good, old C 5. 23

The Past The 9. 25 Was the First New Celestron OTA in Quite a Few Years n The 9. 25 really caught on, albeit slowly, finally attaining an almost legendary status today. 24

The Past The Celestron Ultima 2000 (U 2 K) “The LX 200 Buster” Just Didn’t Make It 25

The Past Meade Also Introduced Some New SCTs As the Century Wound Down The LX 50 Was a PECless DC Drive Scope Available in 8 and 10 Inch Apertures. 26

The Past The 2045 Disappeared, Replaced by a Little MCT, the “ETX” n n “Everybody’s Telescope” was one of the most revolutionary CATs in years. It started life with a simple RA drive, but went on to gain a computer and goto as the ETX EC. 27

The Past At About This Time, Many Celestron Fans Became Concerned About the Health of the Company Celestron, You See, Had Been Bought-out by Notorious Department Store Telescope Importer, Tasco. Meade Just Seemed to Go From Strength to Strength While Celestron Featured the Same, Old Boring Stuff. 28

The Past Finally, Competition for the ETX in the Form of the Nexstar 5 n n The Nexstar 5 featured the classic C 5 OTA, and less plastic than the ETX. The NS 5 was soon joined by the NS 8, also with a single-arm fork mount. 29

Yes, Things Seemed to Be Looking up for Celestron UNTIL, in May 2002, Amateurs Received Word That It’s Parent Company TASCO Had Filed for Bankruptcy! 30

But This Turned Out to Be a Good Thing. Celestron International Was No More, but Celestron Was Reborn As an Independent Entity, Its Assets Bought-out by a Team of Former Management Personnel… 31

The Present Actually, Things Had Been Improving for Celestron for a While Before the End of Tasco… 32

The Present Most People Are Most Curious About the GPS Capability of This Telescope. Does It Work? What Does It Do for the Astronomer? Faster scope setup. n (Possibly) more accurate goto. n Future uses. n 33

The Present But GPS Is Probably the Least Significant Advance for the Nexstar GPS n n Ergonomic handles. Slip-ring routes signals, so there is no problem with twisted cables and no need for “hard stops. ” Carbon Fiber Tube. Reasonable price. 34

The Present And the New Celestrons Just Kept Coming! 35

The Present Celestron Has Also Reworked the Original Nexstars, the 5 and 8. 36

The Present The Celestron Advanced Series Inexpensive goto scopes on Chinese GEMs. n Available with 5, 8 and 9. 25” SCT OTAs. n 37

The Present There’ve Also Been Many Changes at Meade, but I’m Happy One Thing Remains the Same! 38

The Present Meade, Like Celestron, Has Not Been Idle, Revamping Their Entire Product Line Over the Last Several Years The LX 50 is gone. n Non-goto ETX 90 has been phased out. n New LXes. n 39

The Present The LX 90, the First of the New Meade Goto Scopes. n n One of the most solid, friendly scopes I’ve used. Excellent goto accuracy. No cord wrap. Full-featured Autostar computer. 40

The Present The Second Wave of New Meade Gotos. n n Like the Celestron Advanced Series, these are U. S. Made OTAs on imported (Chinese) GEMs. Only SCT offered is an 8. The other scopes are refractors and Schmidt Newtonians. 41

The Present But This Is the One We Were Waiting For… 42

The Present Meade Obviously Had to Produce a GPS and They Did It in a Big Way. n n After 10 years of fame, the original LX 200 was history. The new scope features GPS, a huge object library, a mirror lock, a motorized crayford focuser and more. 43

The Future! Where Is the SCT Going in the Next 30 Years? 44

The Future Maybe Here? The Toastar! 45

The Future Or Here? The Mixstar 46

The Future Or My Personal Favorite: The Beerstar 47

The Future But Probably Here 48

The Future The Joys of a Real Computerized Scope n n No need to bring a computer into the field. Run a planetarium program on your scope. Take CCD images without a computer. Talk to your scope. 49

The Future But There May Be a Limit to the Fancy New Features 50

The Future Something Will Eventually Have to Give. 51

The Future What Will Probably NOT Happen? Premium SCTs 52

The Future What I Don’t Expect to See n n Built-in CCD cameras: CCDs are getting better and cheaper every day. Who wants to be locked-in to one camera? Built-in image intensifiers: Unless they get better and cheaper in a hurry. Internet ready telescopes: Some amateurs are experimenting in this area, but this is too much of a niche market for Meade and Celestron. Really big SCTs: Rumors of a C 18 notwithstanding! 53

The Future What Do I Want? My wants are really simple: built-in dew heaters. I’m just so tired of the cables and control boxes and power cords! Is that too much to ask? ! 54

The Future What is my final prediction? 55

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OH! THOSE CELESTRON GIRLS! 58

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And Never Forget: SCTs ROCK! 60

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