{"id":23661,"date":"2021-09-08T08:39:17","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T08:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=99827"},"modified":"2021-09-08T09:38:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T09:38:09","slug":"how-mass-produced-telescopes-brought-astronomy-to-the-masses","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/how-mass-produced-telescopes-brought-astronomy-to-the-masses\/","title":{"rendered":"How mass-produced telescopes brought astronomy to the masses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"><\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Ezzy Pearson\n                \t\t<\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Wednesday, 08 September 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\">In the early days of astronomy, any budding stargazer had one huge hurdle to overcome: getting a telescope.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\">For centuries, the only way to acquire one was to either buy an expensive, hand-made model from a master telescope maker, or spend hours laboriously grinding lenses or mirrors to make your own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p1&quot;\">It was the latter approach Tom Johnson took when he introduced his sons to stargazing in America in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>DIY Astronomy:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\"\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/advice\/diy\/build-your-own-galilean-telescope\/&quot;\"><em><strong>Make your own Galilean telescope<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/advice\/how-to-build-a-dobsonian-mount\/&quot;\"><em><strong>How to build a Dobsonian mount<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/advice\/make-a-small-refractor-telescope\/&quot;\"><em><strong>How to make a refractor telescope<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><div class=\"&quot;image-handler__container\" style=\"padding-bottom:\"> <img class=\"&quot;wp-image-99833\" align=\"\" data-src=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2021\/09\/Tom-Johnson-Celestron-f67462c.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C539&quot;\" width=\"&quot;1000&quot;\" height=\"&quot;870&quot;\" alt=\"&quot;Tom\" title=\"&quot;Tom\" \/><\/div><div class=\"&quot;caption-hold&quot;\"><figcaption class=\"&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;caption-copy&quot;\"><i class=\"&quot;icon-arrow\" \/> Celestron founder Tom Johnson with a 14-inch version of his SCT line. Credit: Celestron<\/span><\/figcaption><span class=\"&quot;im-image-caption&quot;\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">As he worked on the project, Johnson became more and more convinced there was an easier way to make telescopes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">Just like Sir Isaac Newton, he was using easy-to-craft spherical mirrors, but using a Schmidt corrector plate to remove the spherical <a href=\"\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/advice\/understanding-optical-aberrations\/&quot;\">aberrations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">Invented by Bernhard Schmidt in 1930, this was a glass plate positioned across the opening of the telescope tube, adjusting the incoming light so that it focused properly, even on a spherical mirror.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">Johnson found a way to mass-produce these plates. By the early 1960s he had his own telescope company, <a href=\"\/\/www.celestron.com\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener&quot; noopener noreferrer\">Celestron<\/a> (part of Valor Electronics), and <span class=\"&quot;s1&quot;\">began creating high-quality yet affordable <\/span>telescopes for the mass market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">In 1970, Celestron created what would become its flagship telescope, the C8.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">The 8-inch telescope hit a sweet spot \u2013 it was large enough to view deep-sky objects, but not so big as to be unwieldy and expensive. With its distinctive orange barrel it was a huge success.<\/p>\n<div class=\"&quot;image-handler__container\" style=\"padding-bottom:\"> <img class=\"&quot;wp-image-99832\" align=\"\" data-src=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2021\/09\/CGEM_II_Edge_HD_800-e17499a.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C413&quot;\" width=\"&quot;1200&quot;\" height=\"&quot;800&quot;\" alt=\"&quot;Celestron\u2019s\" title=\"&quot;Celestron\u2019s\" \/><\/div><div class=\"&quot;caption-hold&quot;\"><figcaption class=\"&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;caption-copy&quot;\"><i class=\"&quot;icon-arrow\" \/> Celestron\u2019s CGEM II 800 EdgeHD<\/span><\/figcaption><span class=\"&quot;im-image-caption&quot;\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">Yet the C8 still came with a fairly hefty $1,000 price tag (approximately $7,000, or <span class=\"&quot;s1&quot;\">\u00a35,050, in today\u2019s money) that was beyond<\/span> the range of many would-be astronomers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">Thankfully for the more budget-conscious, another astronomer, John Dobson, had been working on making it easier to build your own telescope.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">His design reduced the instrument down to its most basic elements \u2013 the optics, a truss to hold them and a simple swing mount like those used on cannons for centuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">Dobson used affordable porthole glass along with other cheap materials to create large amateur telescopes, which, while not offering as high-quality views as commercially built telescopes, cost a fraction of the price.<\/p>\n<div class=\"&quot;image-handler__container\" style=\"padding-bottom:\"> <img class=\"&quot;wp-image-99831\" align=\"\" data-src=\"&quot;https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-685194345-d3a4d05.jpg?quality=90&amp;resize=620%2C624&quot;\" width=\"&quot;1017&quot;\" height=\"&quot;1024&quot;\" alt=\"&quot;John\" title=\"&quot;John\" \/><\/div><div class=\"&quot;caption-hold&quot;\"><figcaption class=\"&quot;wp-caption-text&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;caption-copy&quot;\"><i class=\"&quot;icon-arrow\" \/> John Dobson pictured during a sidewalk astronomy session using a Dobsonian telescope in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, 1989. Photo by \u00a9 Roger Ressmeyer\/CORBIS\/VCG via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><span class=\"&quot;im-image-caption&quot;\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\">He encouraged people around the world to copy his design and today \u2018Dobsonian\u2019 telescopes are a common sight at any <a href=\"\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/advice\/skills\/star-parties-a-guide-to-attending-an-astronomy-event\/&quot;\">star party<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"&quot;p2&quot;\"><span class=\"&quot;s1&quot;\">The C8 and the Dobsonian helped to bring the stars within reach of the masses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>This article originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of <\/strong><\/em><strong>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong><em><strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\" \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ezzy Pearson Published: Wednesday, 08 September 2021 at 12:00 am In the early days of astronomy, any budding stargazer had one huge hurdle to overcome: getting a telescope. For centuries, the only way to acquire one was to either buy an expensive, hand-made model from a master telescope maker, or spend hours laboriously grinding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Ezzy Pearson Published: Wednesday, 08 September 2021 at 12:00 am In the early days of astronomy, any budding stargazer had one huge hurdle to overcome: getting a telescope. For centuries, the only way to acquire one was to either buy an expensive, hand-made model from a master telescope maker, or spend hours laboriously grinding&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/23661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}