"Celestron The Early Years" Book on CD-ROM

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.

Has anyone else seen this amazing collection of interviews, photos,
teardowns, and tidbits of Schmidt-Cassegrain history? It's 74 chapters

Hi Doug:

Yes indeed. I've been enjoying this fantastic resource for a couple of months
now. I recommend it--not just to SCT fans, but to anybody interested in
telescopes.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Where can I get a copy?

Neil
"Rod Mollise" wrote in message
...

Has anyone else seen this amazing collection of interviews, photos,
teardowns, and tidbits of Schmidt-Cassegrain history? It's 74 chapters

Hi Doug:

Yes indeed. I've been enjoying this fantastic resource for a couple of
months
now. I recommend it--not just to SCT fans, but to anybody interested in
telescopes.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

http://www.astromart.com/viewad.asp?cid=252296

(Doug Peterson) wrote in message . com...
http://www.astromart.com/viewad.asp?cid=252296

$50 is kind of alot (despite it's length) for a product you
don't have to spend thousands printing but can burn to a $0.50 CD rom.
The average hard bound science text is around $50 now, but then they
paid the price to print it, which must account for a good deal of
the selling price. However, it does look like an excellent resource.
If there is a "latter years" ed, it would be nice if it didn't sugar-coat
the misteps that happened in the 1980s, like incompetent managment and
poor quality scope production.
-Rich

50 bucks is NOT a lot when you look at the effort this guy put into
this utterly unique document, and how few copies will be sold to a
highly specialized audience. He interviewed dozens of principles. He
tears down EVERY one of the blue-white tube vintage models from his
own collection, including the legendary C22. Make no mistake about
this, it is a MASSIVE effort, and he will never be remotely repaid for
the effort, other than for love of the hobby.