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DISCOVERY MICROSCOPE KIT - New Old Stock
**Due to the nature of antique and vintage items, all items are sold "AS IS" and sales are final, we do not accept returns. If you are unsure about an item and need additional photos or have any questions, please notify us prior to making your purchase. We would be happy to hear from you. Thanks again for looking!
Our Story
As the world’s number one telescope maker, Celestron employs nearly 100 people worldwide, including a robust product development team at our headquarters in Torrance, California. Optical and electronic engineers work closely with product managers and on-site manufacturing staff to produce groundbreaking new telescope technologies. But it wasn’t always this way. The company that would grow to become Celestron was born from a father’s desire to share astronomy with his young sons.
In the late 1950s, Tom Johnson worked as CEO and founder of Valor Electronics in Gardena, California. He was searching for a telescope to introduce his sons to the wonders of stargazing. When he couldn’t find one he liked, he built a 6” reflector from scratch. The project sparked Johnson’s interest in the hobby of telescope making. Over time, he began constructing larger and more complex instruments.
History
The 1960s
By 1960, Tom’s hobby had turned into a driving passion, one he wanted to incorporate into his business. So, he founded Celestron-Pacific as an astro-optical division of Valor Electronics—for the sole purpose of building telescopes.
In July 1962, Tom Johnson attended a star party hosted by the Los Angeles Astronomical Society on the summit of Mount Pinos. He brought along a “portable” 18 ¾” Cassegrain reflector he built from surplus parts. Attendees loved his telescope, and many asked if he would make more. Journalists from Sky & Telescope magazine noticed, too, placing Tom and his telescope on the cover of the March 1963 issue.
Next, Tom pivoted to the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) design, which incorporates features of both refractors and reflectors. The SCT offered many advantages—it was compact, easy to maintain, and could be constructed in large apertures for bright, detailed views.
Before Celestron-Pacific, SCTs existed, but they were rare and expensive, usually only used in scientific research. This was because each telescope had to be produced individually by master optical technicians who spent hours hand-figuring the Schmidt corrector lens.
Tom believed he could devise a method to mass-produce the SCT, making it more accessible and affordable. He achieved his goal by developing ultra-precise match plates, which he could use to shape optical glass into the complex figure of the Schmidt corrector lens at scale. Johnson’s technique allowed him to create telescopes of unparalleled quality and bring them to market at a surprisingly low price. To this day, Celestron manufactures our Schmidt correctors using match plates and Tom’s signature method.
In January 1964, Celestron-Pacific ran its first ad in Sky & Telescope magazine, introducing the Celestronic 20, a 20” SCT. Later that year, produced a 22” SCT and Pacific was dropped from the company’s name, and the brand that we know now, Celestron, was born.
By 1969, Celestron had expanded its line with an entire collection of Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes for observatories and serious amateurs. These famous 6”, 8”, 10”, 12”, and 22” Celestron SCTs featured distinctive blue and white tubes.
The 1970s
In the 1970s, Celestron redefined the hobby of astronomy with its flagship Celestron 8, now with a new orange tube. Known simply as the “C8,” this iconic commercial-grade telescope packed 8 inches of aperture into a compact, lightweight package—with a price tag under $1,000.
Customers flocked to the C8 in droves, making the product an instant smash success. Suddenly, casual observers around the world were viewing faint, deep-sky objects they’d only read about in books or viewed through large observatory telescopes. The C8’s popularity led the company to follow it up with an even more portable version, the C5 (a 5” SCT), in 1971.
After revolutionizing visual astronomy, Celestron set its sights on the emerging field of astrophotography, releasing the Celestron-Williams Cold Camera in 1971. This astrophotography camera increased the speed of standard 35mm film by chilling it to sub-zero temperatures, allowing the film to capture more light in the same exposure time, revealing unseen details in distant galaxies and nebulae.
In 1972, the C14 joined the “orange tube” SCTs. The complete series included the C5, C6, C8, C10, C12, C14, C16, and C22.
The 1980s
In 1984, Celestron made another cosmetic change to the optical tubes, replacing the orange with a sleek black with orange accents. Today’s SCTs still feature variations on this color scheme.
Around the same time, Celestron introduced its revolutionary optical coating, StarBright XLT, which dramatically increases light transmission through the optical path to an astonishing 89 percent. We still use StarBright XLT coatings on our mid- to high-level telescopes and even binoculars.
The late 1980s ushered in the era of computerized or GoTo telescopes, which could automatically slew themselves to objects in the night sky. Celestron’s first GoTo telescope was the Compustar Computer-Controlled Telescope. Powered by an Intel 8052 microprocessor and equipped with a database of more than 8,000 astronomical objects, Compustar opened the hobby of astronomy to people without detailed knowledge of the night sky.
Read More: https://www.celestron.com/pages/historic-milestones
