Books by Philip S.
Harrington
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Nights of Future Passed
Here's a fun look back at some amateur telescopes from days gone by.�
Some were great, some not so good.� I'll leave it up to you to decide which
is which!
Choose your decade:
Click on the thumbnails
to see the fine print.�
1960's
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A. Jaegers
Jaegers was a premier supplier of optics (especially
refractor objectives) from the 1950's into the 1980's.� A fire burned
the place to the ground, and while they have reopened in Valley Stream, NY, they
have never really regained a foothold in the market.� Click
here to see their storefront today.
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Celestron Pacific
Before Celestron introduced their
8" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain instrument in 1971, they catered more to institutions,
such as museums, planetaria, and schools.� Originally just a "division
of Valor Electronics," Celestron Pacific opened with the "Celestronic
20," shown here in an ad from 1964.� Note the eyepiece coming
out of the declination axis.� Looks like a good idea when the
telescope is aimed at the meridian, but image trying to look through it
when aimed toward the eastern or western horizon!
�
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One early
Celestron scope, the Celestron 10 (see here in a 1965 ad), is especially
popular among telescope collectors.
�
�
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Joining the Celestron 10 in this ad from 1965 were
the Celestron 6, Celestron 22, and a strange bird: the off-axis Celestron
4.� Whether or not any of this last model were actually sold is a
mystery.� And what's that?� A slide rule?!� How many of you
kids out there remember those?
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By 1968, Celestron had expanded their
product line to include these three offerings.� How about that Celestron 22!
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Criterion Manufacturing
Criterion's RV-6 Dynascope, first
introduced at the end of the 1950s, was the
telescope of the decade in the 1960s.� Although I have no statistics
to support this claim, I would estimate that more RV-6s were sold to
amateurs than any other "serious" telescope during the
period.� And with good reason.� The optics were exceptional, the
mounting sturdy, and the set-up convenient enough to be taken outside
quickly.� Even today, an RV-6 in pristine condition commands a high
price on Astromart and eBay.
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Introduced in 1969, the Criterion RV-8
Dynascope was big brother to
the immensely popular RV-6.� I still have mine, which I received as a gift
for Christmas 1971.� I even still have (and use) the Dyna-Tracker
variable-speed clock drive controller.� Both work as well as the day my
parents picked them up for me at the company's Hartford factory. |
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Criterion's
Catalog F from 1968 (PDF file) |
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Eastmann Optical
Here's a company that, although it
didn't attract a lot of attention at the time, incorporated some of
today's most sought-after features into their Augen 170 back in
1965.� The Augen 170 was a convertible 4-inch Newtonian-Cassegrain
reflector that rode atop a fork equatorial� mount.� A clock
drive that ran on either 12 volts DC or 115 volts AC came built into the
mount's base, a concept that subsequently proved very popular in 8-inch
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, still several years in the future. |
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Edmund Scientific
If you were an astro-child of the 1960s
like I was, then you likely lusted after the telescopes sold by Edmund
Scientific.� Here is a 13-page excerpt from a 1968 catalog that shows
those telescopes and accessories.� My heart still skips a beat! (PDF
file) |
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Lafayette Electronics
This is
it.� The Lafayette Meteor reflector was my first "real" telescope.
It was waiting for me under the Christmas tree back in 1969. Introduced
a year earlier, likely to complete with Edmund's popular 3-inch f/10
Space Conqueror, the Lafayette Meteor featured a 4-inch
f/8 primary "quartz" mirror (the ad incorrectly states f/11),
rectangular diagonal mirror, 12.5mm and 25mm 0.965" Huygenian
eyepieces, an eyepiece screw-on
sun filter, plastic focuser (but with a metal rack and pinion), and an
unpowered soda-straw "optical sight," all on a wooden tripod.
Optically, the scope was okay, but the sight tube proved very
frustrating for this new astronomer, as did the wobbly mount. I
ultimately replaced the mount with the Edmund equatorial mount and
pedestal used with their 4.25-inch Deluxe Space Conqueror, before
selling it all.
But perhaps the most engrained memory I have with this scope is the sun
filter, which screwed onto the back of the eyepiece -- extremely
dangerous!� I was amazed, back then, that the filter showed
flares!� Only later did I discover those "flairs" were caused by a
hairline crack in the filter glass, which allowed unfiltered sunlight
to pass through.� Yes, I was extremely lucky that the filter
didn't crack completely.
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Optical Craftsmen
Optical Craftsmen of
Chatsworth, CA, made some great telescopes back in the 1960's.� This
one, from 1968, was, by far, their most ambitious instrument.�
Imagine a trailer-mounted 16-inch telescope!� Even more impressive
was the price -- a staggering $10.950!� Remember, this was in a day
that a Chevy Caprice cost around $4,000.� In today's dollars, that
price translates to more than $56,000!� But dig
those groovy whitewall tires!
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At the same
time, Optical Craftsmen took aim at Cave Optical and Criterion with
smaller telescopes, such as their 8-inch reflector shown here.�
Competitively priced, it sold well, though did not have the staying power
of its two rivals. |
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Sears Roebuck
Wow, an in-home planetarium and
dome!� The Spitz, Jr. planetarium from Harmonic Reed came out in the
late 1950s, but no one sold a real dome for it other than Sears.
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Skyscope
Was this your first telescope?� If you were a budding
astronomer in the early 1960's, it might well have been!� Horrible
mount, but good optics and a lot of fond memories for its owners.�
A rare find for telescope collectors.
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Unitron
Still the #1 name in refractors, Unitron
tried to play to the BMOC (big men on campus) with this 1961 ad.� But
wait a minute!� You know that you shouldn't smoke around optics!
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