Celestron 14 Telescope

Celestron, one of the world’s best-known names in telescopes, is marking 2010 as it is 50th anniversary year. While other telescope companies have reached this milestone, Celestron stands out for it is current success (com pany president and CEO, Joseph Lupica, reports that 2009 was Celestron’s second best year ever) and a continued commitment to it is founding resourcefulness of serving the astronomy community, specially “serious” amateurs. Indeed, the 5-, 8-, and 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes that set the course for Celestron’s future in the early 1970s are still flagship instruments in the product line. But they were not the scopes that launched the brand. For those, we need to step back another decade.

Thomas J. Johnson, Celestron’s founder and the talent behind the innovative Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, was in his early 30s when he employed his World War II experience as a radar technician and post-war employment in the electronics industry to establish Valor Electronics in 1955. Based in Gardena, California, Valor made a potpourri of parts for military and industrial customers, and by the early ’60s it had expanded to roughly 100 employees.

As Valor was growing, so too was Johnson’s interest in novice astronomy. First purchasing 4- and later 10-inch Newtonian reflectors from Cave Optical – one of the preeminent brands in North America for the duration of the ’50s – Johnson then headed down a path followed by a heap of amateurs of the day and turned to the sparetime activity of telescope making. In 1960 he conventional the Astro-Optical section of Valor. His introductory scope was an 8-inch f/4 “rich-field” Newtonian, and it was soon followed by a 12-inch Cassegrain.

His next project, however, was a highly unconventional 183A-inch Cassegrain made to be transportable. To reduce the weight of the 3-inch-thick necessary mirror, Johnson had a ribbed pattern sandblasted into the back of the glass blank. Six months and when it comes to $1,000 later, he had a fork-mounted scope that could be disassembled and packed into a car in when it comes to 15 minutes. On July 28, 1962, he hauled the scope to the parking area atop Mount Pinos for it is public debut at one of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society’s star parties. It made a huge impression amid the group’s progressed amateurs who examined it in detail. The telescope was so noteworthy that it became the cover story of this magazine’s March 1963 issue.

But it was another S&T article that proved peculiarly influential in Celestron’s history. As Johnson was nearing the completion of his 183/4-inch scope, Donald Willey published a seminal analysis of Cassegrain telescopes in the April 1962 issue. Johnson was intrigued by the splendid off-axis optical performance of the Schmidt-Cassegrain design. Based on his experience building the 18/-inch scope (some of the work involved other Valor employees) and a plan to use optics made to order by Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Johnson took the bold step of promotion a 20-inch multipurpose Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope called the Celestronic 20 in S&T’s January 1964 issue.

The Astro-Optical Division name quickly morphed to Celestron Pacific, a division of Valor. By December Valor was dropped, and Celestron’s ad introduced pictures of 4-, 6-, 10-, and 22-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes as well as mention of a 36-inch. A 16-inch entered the product line in early 1967. But most of Celestron’s sales were for the 10-inch, which cost when it comes to $2,000 when outfitted with a few basic accessories.

Despite his basi arrangement with Perkin-Elmer, Johnson experimented with making his own Schmidt- Cassegrain optics. From the outset, he and his colleagues were competent to formulate them at a pace necessitated to meet orders. A breakthrough came early on when Johnson blended known technologies with his own experience and proficiencies to develop a method for efficaciously mass developing the telescopes’ optically complex corrector plates. For this and other contributions to optics, Johnson was later awarded the Optical Society of America’s honored David Richardson Medal, one of only a few non-Ph.D. optical engineers to ever receive the honor.

Celestron 14 Telescope

Celestron Accessory Kit

• Five superior-grade 1.25-inch Plössl eyepieces: Four-element design with a 52-degree AFOV, superb color, resolution, edge sharpness, and clarity. All eyepieces are to a complete degree multicoated for greatest or most complete or best possible contrast and resolution. Supplied eyepiece sizes: 6mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm, and 32mm.
• Barlow 2X lens: Complements the Plössl eyepieces and gives you a total of 10 power combinations. The highest-grade glass optics with to a complete degree multicoated lenses are used, so there is no degradation of image.
• Six colored eyepiece (planetary) filters: Included are Kodak Wratten Nos. 12, 21, 25, 56, 58A, and 80A. Since all the eyepieces necessary to study the planets and moon in detail are provided, these filters will principally heighten your enjoyment of the solar system.
• Moon filter: A neutral-density filter that allows you greatest or most complete or best possible enjoyment of the moon, specially for the duration of the more splendid phases.
• Aluminum carrying case: This sturdy and well-built case fits all of the above items in it is die-cut foam interior with room for further and added accessories.

Celestron 14 Telescope Photo

Celestron 14 Telescope Photo

Celestron 14 Telescope Image

Celestron 14 Telescope Image