Has anyone else seen this amazing collection of interviews, photos,
teardowns, and tidbits of Schmidt-Cassegrain history? It's 74 chapters
by Robert Piekiel chronicle in excruciating detail how the scopes
evolved, were fabricated, aspherized, etc. I got my copy from an Ad in
Astromart, apparently it is also available on DVD.

It clarifies how Tom Johnson, came out of virtual retirement, cleaned
up the mess of the Halley's Comet era, and brought the company back on
line. What happened? Apparently the company could not meet the demand
for scopes during that period, so they rationed 10% of each dealer's
order. The dealers overestimated the demand, and when they learned of
the rationing, multiplied their orders accordingly to get their hands
on any scopes they could. When the virtual bubble burst, $30 million
in backlog disappeared overnight. Fabricators were cut from 100 to 7.
The master blocks from which the correctors were made were abused and
useless. Johnson, etc., were brought in and in a few weeks had the
situation under control.

Another interesting outcome, is that one gets the impression--as fine
as the orignals were--that the current crop of SC's are even better. I
have observed that the consistancy seems to be very high in recent
years.