Cosmos Safari

The Story Behind Celestron's Origin Home Observatory - Presented By Celestron

• David Farina & Rob Webb • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Celestron's CEO Cory Lee and Innovation Specialist Eric Kopit join us to share their cosmic journeys and discuss the technological evolution behind the Celestron Origin Home Observatory. Feel the same wonder that captivated Cory and follow Eric's serendipitous path to innovation, discovering how the Origin is transforming backyards into personal windows to the universe.

Have you ever pondered the leap from Galileo's primitive telescope to today's marvels of stargazing? Our conversation traverses this astronomical arc, touching on the historic roots and the collaborative spirit that has driven the design of telescopes to become more than tools—they're now integrated parts of our homes and lives. We peer into the intricacies of creating user-friendly telescopes that resonate with the community, ensuring that novice and veteran astronomers alike can unlock the celestial secrets above.

Finally, we cast our gaze forward to the 2024 total solar eclipse, sharing our excitement and plans for witnessing this rare celestial ballet. We offer nuggets of wisdom for aspiring engineers and telescope aficionados, emphasizing the magic blend of curiosity, mathematics, and practical experience. So join us and let your imagination soar to the stars, as we recount tales of innovation and anticipation, all while basking in the shared glow of our enthusiasm for the cosmos.

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Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

I remember that one trip that I mentioned to you where I took one of the first Origin Poe types out in the under dark skies in Death Valley Right, the sky is pretty good out there. I had to set up outside of the cabin and I went inside and work and hang out with my kids and we just put up some pictures of galaxies and really fang objects. So kids, my kids, got a chance to look through them and also allow them to actually pick out whatever objects that they want the Origin to point to on the iPad, right, and we went there and they were fascinated by what they could see. I thought that was a really interesting experience. I mean to be able to do all that.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

I'm Dave and I'm Rob, last minute astronomer and we have Kory.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Lee, the CEO of Celestron, and Eric Kopit, the Innovations Guru. So can you guys just tell us what have you been up to over the past two years? Lots of cool stuff has been coming out. We're really excited to have you here.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Yeah, absolutely. We have a really exciting product that we just introduced the Celestron Origin Home Observatory.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

It's definitely one of the biggest and most complex projects that I've undertaken in my career and I think one of the bigger ones at Celestron has ever worked on.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Next up. Kory and Eric share their own first experience with a telescope.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Can you tell us a little bit from your personal experiences, like what was your first experience with a telescope?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Sure, I'll go first. So maybe just a little bit background story, right? So I was born in the city of Hong Kong. You know big city, lots of tall buildings, so I don't see a lot of nice guys when I was a kid.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Now, after I moved here to the States, one of the first things I did after I graduated from school was here working at Celestron. At that time we're tackling a big project. You guys may remember that Celestron Altima 2000. So I was one of several engineers working at that time and took it out, had to do some night testing, went out to Enzo Borrego, middle of nowhere, and that's where I actually got my first view of the Whirlpool Galaxy. From then on I'm like, oh, wow, this is what you can see up in the night sky. I never thought that was possible, right I mean. So that made an impression on me. I was like, wow, this is cool. Even though it was years when I wasn't here in Celestron, I still went to star parties and just really wanted to get a view of a nice galaxy in the dark sky.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

So your first experience with a telescope was with Celestron in your job.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

That's right. My real experience was with Celestron. I've seen some smaller telescopes looking at planets. I mean I like that, but that was good. But seeing the galaxy really made an impression on me.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Absolutely, especially in a nice dark sky like that. For sure, how about you, Eric?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

My story is kind of interesting. So I had been very interested in physics and astronomy in high school but I grew up in kind of a small town and I went to school at UC Santa Cruz. So my first day that I arrived in Santa Cruz I was up in the dorms UC Santa Cruz and my roommate was a kid that grew up locally and we started talking and he found out that I had some interest in astronomy and he said, have you ever been to the telescope shop? And I looked at him like he was crazy, like what are you talking about? And he's like, yeah, there's telescopes.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Yeah, there's a telescope store over in Santa Cruz, do you want to go? And I remember I was like what do you mean a telescope store? Like I didn't understand that you could buy a telescope. The only telescopes I'd ever seen up until that point were in textbooks, that basically at observatories or big universities. And he took me to the telescope shop which was a Celestron dealer.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

So I go in and my first thing is when I was 18 years old I saw Celestron telescopes all over the place and what was funny is I remember that the guy that was running the shop there, who would become a colleague of mine many years later, was kind of eyeing me over because I was taking all the brochures, the Celestron brochures but he knew there was no chance that I could afford any of the telescopes.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

So but that was again like same with the Corrie. It was the Celestron really. That really first was the first telescope that I came into contact with. So and then later I started working for that shop and I used a Celestron 60 millimeter refractor and then I bought my first scope, which was an 80 millimeter refractor, a Celestron, and then I graduated to an eight inch SCT, which was a big jump. Yeah, I was very pleased with that one. So that's kind of how I got into it. But yeah, even though I've so I've been in the industry for about 30 years well, actually almost 35 years now, geez and but I've been with Celestron about 13 or 14 years. Before that I was with a different telescope company.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

That's fantastic, I mean. I remember my first telescope was actually when I was told I've got to teach astronomy and my school had a telescope and it was this. It's one of those old Celestron 8-inch orange Schmidt castigranes, one of the classic ones, and it was in a trunk with like just I don't know, some egg foam, egg crate foam, just sort of around it. And it was a challenge as a newbie to be like how do I use this thing? But it worked out. I learned exactly what I was doing. Instead of just pointing it straight up, I actually learned how to use it and it was a nice window into how do I actually see these things. I remember sketching out the Orion Nebula for the first time in my little sketchbook and I still have it. I don't know where it is, but I have it, my little sketch of the Orion Nebula, and that got me hooked, definitely to be able to see these big clouds of gas and dust and I can record it like that. That was awesome. I don't know what about you.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Dave, so my story is somewhat similar in that I didn't really have a chance to use a telescope until I was teaching Similar story. I took over as the planetarium director and there was a telescope there and in fact there was one of those orange telescopes just like you just spoke about and it has a kind of nostalgia to it and we took it out and myself and a few students were trying to use it. I just think I remember one of my students saying hey look, it's Venus. And I said are you sure that Venus has blinking red and blue lights? So it turned out to be an airplane. We were super excited and then we watched the airplane for a little while.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

It took us a number of years to figure out. You know how do you get this to work in every way it possibly is made for and, you know, had an old style clock drive and everything. So we had a handful of upgrades over the years. But it's really interesting that we all have our jobs. Kind of was the first time that we truly had those telescopes in our hands. Pretty cool. Rob is coming in hot with trivia after this short break.

Lance Lucero - Celestron Product Manager:

Introducing Celestron Origin stargazing and astro imaging redefined Origin is completely autonomous. Simply choose a target in the app. Origin captures it with ultra fast RASA optics, perfects it with AI imaging processing and delivers it to your device. The results are better than what you'd see in a much larger telescope under much darker skies. Experience and share the night sky like never before. Learn more at Celestroncom slash origin.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

I've got a little bit of last minute trivia for the three of you. Okay, all right, so we got three questions, and the first question is who invented the telescope? Let's have our guests go first and then we'll know so.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I know most people think it's like Galileo, but I know there's some guy before him and his name isn't coming to me right now. Okay, All right I should know this, because this is the type of stuff that I should know. You guys got me with my pants down.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

First one, dave, do you know?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

I do kind of have an inkling. I believe it's Hans Lipperche or hey, yes, hans Lipperche, yes, and his kids actually were playing with optical glass, if I remember the story correctly, and he kind of took their idea and ran with it. So it may have actually been Hans Lipperche's children that started the whole magnification with optics, which is pretty cool.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Yeah, yeah, it was back in 1608. And I looked a little bit up for this and the first person to apply for a patent for a telescope was the Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lipperche or Lipperche. But then there was also somebody else who was in the same town that also kind of worked on optical instruments as well. So there's a little bit of confusion there. But they go by the patent application, which is how they do that so. But so there we go. There's one. We stomped them Fantastic, all right. Now second one Galileo. He heard about this Danish perspective glass right, and he constructed his own and he improved on the design. Now I'm just going to let you all say the number here of what your guess is. To what X or what times power did Galileo make his telescope?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Hmm, oh wow, was it 30 times or 40 times? One of those is the one that comes to mind for me.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

I'm here in 30 to 40. What else?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

I was thinking maybe a little bit less than that 15, 20.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Okay.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

You can tell.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I'm guessing.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

I'll play the prices right here. We'll go, I'll go 14. Okay.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Okay, not bad, not bad, I'm going to give it. I'm going to give it to you guys. He actually started, it could do three times larger, and then he did some designs, some, some magnification designs, and he eventually got one to go to eight times, then eventually 30 times, oh there it is 30 times.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Nice, Nice job Eric.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Very good.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Yeah, I don't know. You know you're immersed in this stuff for so long that that was just was the first number that came to my head. So yeah good job, good job. Somewhere in the back recesses that little piece.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Why it's trivia, I guess, and also where is Galileo's telescope right now?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Museum somewhere.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

That is correct. I'll give you that. I got him off the hook.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Is it just a?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

museum that we're like? Can we go with city City sure?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Okay, in the UK somewhere.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

I'll say on the European continent. How's that?

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

It is in Europe. Yes, we're giving partial credit for that one. No, it's not Rome, but you're closer. It is Florence, italy, the Museo Galileo, in fact. Actually a couple years ago I was actually able to go and see it and it was absolutely awesome. It's just this big, long telescope and it was just something brand new to actually see, like where astronomy started. I had I tried to get down on the floor to look through it, but it did not work very well, just made me look like a weirdo, weird American tourist doing that. But it was. It was super cool. They also have there at the museum. Did you know? They have one of Galileo's fingers there as well, which is just kind of odd. Kind of odd.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Yeah, you think it would be like his eyeball or something maybe.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Like these hands were the hands that constructed the scope. What is that? Why it's?

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

just one finger. I'd have to look back, but I know that they exhumed his body and they kept. I think it was actually the middle finger.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Oh, interesting, interesting One finalized a man or something like that.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Next up, Dave and Rob get the behind the scenes scoop on the origin of origin.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

I've been really, really enjoying seeing the progression of telescopes from that. You know, sct eight, you know, and it's just, it's got electric electricity in it. You know I've got to get the clock drive to go. But then you start getting into telescopes that are that have the mount, and the mount is tracking. And we've been going to go to mounts for a while now, and now you guys have created this new kind of scope that basically puts a whole lot of stuff into one scope. How do you go about designing something like that? Like where do you, where do you start? Like 10 years ago I think you said where do you start? And then how do you keep going?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Well, it's interesting, it really even started more than 10 years ago, as far as I mean for anything, and I know I'm speaking with Corey. So a lot of this story is conversations and discussions that Corey and I had when I first came to Celestron and we had both been sort of independently thinking along the same lines. I was in charge of product development at the other company I was working for and Corey was in charge of product development here in engineering. And then I came over here and we started talking and it just, you know, a lot of the basis of the talking was, you know, at the time.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

This is when there was more remote telescopes coming online, like where in the early days, it was more renting time through the internet or something like that, where there would be a remote observatory somewhere. And then there was the business model where people were trying to, you know, you rent the telescope and that's still done to this day. However, we both noted that it hadn't taken off in the consumer markets really the way that some people had expected it to, and then we realized that, well, it's because people want that experience, but they want to be able to own the equipment. So that's specific to this project, but really for any project. Robert asked like well, how do you start? Or where you know? It all starts with an idea.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Yeah, and also, I think, just having people who actually are passionate about telescopes. Here they kind of figured out what people want and also what they want right, what kind of equipment they want for their hobby and that kind of drives type of product that we think we should develop, whether we have the engineering capacity to do it and whether it makes sense, right. So that's all where to start, just having the people who actually use the product and they have the ideas and we just follow those ideas, give people what they want. I think that's saying that Eric's been saying for years.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Right.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

What am I saying and this might cause some controversy is give the people what they want, not what amateur astronomers think people should want.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Which I think is a key driver is that and that really does explain a lot of how we wound up here is that, you know, we don't want it Overall Celestron, even back from our founder, tom Johnson. Really, at the core of our company is we. You know, of course we need to be profitable, but really we want to make astronomy fun and easy and accessible to everyone, or as many people as we can, by making telescopes or systems that people want to use and that can use and that have fun using it and have good experiences. So by thinking of stuff through that lens and then, as Corey is saying, actively using the products ourselves and then seeing what's out there. You know, certainly we keep our ears to the street too, but with all these activities, you know, at the core of our company the ideas. We have more ideas than we have time to execute them on. So thankfully we have lots of ideas, but really any of the projects or products that we work on, it all starts with the idea.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

And maybe to add a little bit more to what we talked about how the current product right the origin came about. I vividly remember that one trip that we took was probably in Arizona or New Mexico, somewhere where we were both sitting in a rental car. We were attending an event for Celestron. That's when because we had hours sitting in the car together, right. So we're just kind of bouncing ideas over one another. One idea was this At that time I think I.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

The project took on different names through the years. At one point we called it a MO right Automatic Mobile Observatory, and even before that we called it an eyepiece list telescope. So at that point we were sitting in the car we're talking about wow, wow, there's under, with the galaxies and everything that you can see under dark skies. You'll be nice. You can just make it so much easier for people to view in the city and also just anybody who doesn't really have a lot of experience operating a telescope. We can find a way to deliver the experience to the general users. It'll be nice. So we started talking about it. I remember roughly around that time I was seeing a lot of users using a hyper-saur type of imaging system Yep, and that really bring out like deep sky objects. So relatively, I'm not quickly right so that we started talking more and more about that and that really was the beginning. I thought of origin at that, really, at that point, that conversation we had in the rental car How's that?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Cory, you mentioned about having your family out using telescopes, and that comes to mind with what Eric was just mentioning about access. You know parents want access for their kids. They want to be able to tell them about things they want to know and feel like they can confidently tell their kids. You know ideas and facts and To have that barrier taken down is so important, right absolutely, I think.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Whereas Eric started off as a Astronomer, I started off as an engineer, right. So I, when I started working for Celestron, I really did not notice nice sky that well, so I could really use all the different technology that Celestron had developed Just guiding me through the night sky. I remember that one trip that I mentioned to you where I took one of the first origin pod types out in the under dark skies In Death Valley, right, sky is pretty, pretty good out there. I had to set up outside of a cabin and I went inside and work and hang out my kids and we just put up some pictures of Galaxies and really fang objects. So kids, my kids, got a chance to look through them and also Allow them to actually pick out whatever objects that they want. The origin the point to on the on the iPad, right, and we went there and they were fascinated by by what they could see. I thought that was a really interesting experience. I mean to be able to do all that.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

That's an experience that will probably last for the rest of their lives. That's pretty cool.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

I remember asked them 10 years later. Hopefully they will tell me yes, they remember that I.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Mean one thing.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Just to expand on that a little bit.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

In many ways I feel like origin is the first System, at least in a long time, that actually meets the expectation of what people have of telescopes that haven't actually used a telescope before. In other words, we made it more into like An extension of your home entertainment system. It's not something that you have to learn, which in the past or even up to now, and that's a big part of the hobby, and we're certainly not saying that there's there's anything wrong with that, and you know that's the school that I come from. But there's a whole another set of people, a much larger set, that they don't have time to learn the ins and outs of how the equipment works. They just want it to work like there are other, you know, equipment that they have at home works, whether it be their home stereo or Even their microwave oven or anything like that, just so that it just it works the way that you think it should work and it gives you an experience that actually matches your expectation of being blown away by by astronomy and astronomical objects.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I've gotten like a new kind of telescope or something else and Trying to work it and it just it doesn't connect right. Something goes wrong. Then you know what happens to that telescope Closet collects dust, you know, like it's just done. So, yeah, absolutely, I think you're right. Having that you know, make it work. I think that that's very key. So you designed origin to Be sort of a plug-and-play. I guess you could say how many as you were designing it and building it, how many different iterations did it did it go through?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Well, okay, one one interesting thing that I think we need to talk about is In really. So when we talk about product development for telescopes, the thing that really we start with and it was the same thing with origin is the optical design. So first, we think, you know, we're a telescope company, we do telescopes, so really the heart of any of these systems is the telescope design. And you know, when Corey and I were first having our conversations and he mentioned the hyper star, we realized, like, we're not necessarily thinking about it in terms of traditional astronomical imaging, we're more thinking about it along the lines of replacing visual observing, or what people call EAA, now electronically assisted astronomy, where basically we're trying to replace the eye with a sensor, right? So so the thing that really separates imaging, traditional imaging, with visual observing is time, right? So when you look with your eye, you're getting 30 frames per second, you know, and you don't see it. You know your eye doesn't. It's, first of all, it's not that sensitive, but it doesn't integrate. The camera is much more sensitive, but typically people are doing, you know, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, one minute exposures, which, you know, the longer the exposure has to be, the less it is real time. Right, you're waiting. Once you're like waiting for the next image to come in, then it goes more towards imaging, like, yep, you're imaging, you're waiting, so we're trying, so we rise right away. For it needs to be fast. It needs to provide a very burned in, very pleasing image as quickly as possible in refresh so that people have a real-time observing experience.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

So we very quickly realized we needed a very fast telescope. So so what's what's funny? What's very interesting and I think a lot of the people watching this will be sort of surprised to hear is we. We created the Rasa optical design for this. So we created it first and then we did the iterations that we sell currently the optical tubes, because we knew this was further out. So we knew that, oh my god, we came across. You know, with Dave row and Mark Ackerman, we came up with our Row Ackerman Schmidt astrograph design for this project because we knew it had to be fast. But since we knew this project was further out, we said well, we think that these optical tubes in the larger sizes Will be very well received for, you know, for a lot of other reasons, including wide field astrophotography, but also space situational awareness. We kind of saw that early on.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

But, you explain what that is for those of us that are that are not aware of what that means me watching this guy for transient stuff which can, which could be Space based in origin, or it could be satellites, human based basically. So it's just watching the transient phenomenon above us in many cases to keep things safe.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

You know what I mean in things that things that move against the stars, in other words, like things that are actually Moving across the sky. Right, correct, right, exactly.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Yeah, and in Ross is very well suited for that because it collects a lot of light and it's very fast, so it delivers lots of light to a sensor quickly so you can capture pretty faint objects in Fast exposures, which is what this stuff's, you know, the transient stuff's moving, so. So even though we created it for Origin, we rise that it had all these other applications and we literally released our first Ross. I think it was 2015.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Yeah, I think roughly right there, so so I know it's very surprising to hear like are you kidding me?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

you designed it for this, but you know you're just coming out with this, but Ross has been around a while.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

But yes, the inspiration for creating that optical design was this so, on this kind of same theme, are there any like rabbit holes that you chased down and ended up having to abandon them because of you know that just didn't work out is In this process of doing the it can be this project, or any projects, for that matter that just were like, wow, this, this is what we're gonna do, we're going all in, and then it was like wait a second, that wasn't the right. How do you make that decision? In other words, that something's not worth pursuing anymore?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

There are times we come up with a concept, right, and then we try to pull it together, come up with a prototype, and Sometimes we look at it and go out this is good, this is what people want, and we start selling that, and Sometimes it doesn't quite work out and we have to stop the project. I think one thing that came to mind Eric, you may remember that is a phone adapter. Right now we have a really successful one right. It's called the next YZ, but the iteration before that it looked like a Imelivo torture device.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Right.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

That's for adapter. We wanted to put in a lot of different adjustment to it, but we couldn't quite figure it out at that time a good way to integrate all that together. So there's like long screws, I mean all three directions, a big clamp, and you just look like it's gonna hurt when you pick it up.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

So we think you have a target audience at Kronos with all of the Klingons. They sounds very Klingon like for a phone adapter, Right but unfortunately that wasn't our target audience.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

So we look at it and go, okay, maybe not, so we actually had to kill that project and but you know, but that was a good, that was a good learning experience For us. Eventually we came up with a way to solve all those problems and it became the next YZ and I think that's probably the most popular phone adapter there is today.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Yeah, I was gonna say that rarely do projects get killed, but a lot of times they get shelved and then they get revitalized At some point in the future, maybe in a different form even too. Like that was a perfect example that, yeah, we didn't actually scrap the idea entirely, but we did scrap the design path that we were going on. That's the point. And another example, even with Origin, is that remember when it was first the IPSList telescope, we were first going down the path that we didn't wanna use a Schmitt corrector Because we thought that for cost, we thought that that was gonna be maybe prohibitive and maybe there'd be a different way that was equivalent or better, and we quickly realized that that was completely the wrong direction and it really took Dave Rowe to point us right back to that.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

The Schmitt corrector is actually the key to making this whole thing work. So that was another thing, a rabbit hole that I think Corey and I were talking about for a while, but then we would be gotten to the details. We immediately realized, no, no, no, no, you wanna use a Schmitt variant actually, and that was the basis of RASO.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

So do you ever get when you're designing engineering? Do you ever get something like engineering block, where, like writer's block right, when you just can't figure it out? And for some of the young engineers out there, what do you do to solve that Like? What do you do to make sure that you go past where you're stuck?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Sorry, you have something in mind. You can go first.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Not out of one example. Well, so technically I'm not an engineer, I just happen to play when it works sometimes.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

But, I do work very closely with our engineering department, but so a lot of times I'm more involved with, I guess you would say, the sort of creative side of engineering and the sort of conceptual side. So when I'm working on that type of stuff and I hit, a block for me and I think this is common for a lot of engineers is to put that aside and work on something else. So a lot of times, like it's, none of our engineers have just one thing that they're working on. There's always the main project and then side projects, as we call them. So a lot of times it's like all right, put the main project aside for a while and work on the side project, so that you're freeing up your mind in a way from that problem but you're still staying focused and productive on your job or your work.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Now, for me personally, so that works. But what I'll also do like sometimes it can just be it has to do with freeing your mind really. So for me a lot of times it's putting music on. It's like take a slight break, throw something on, listen to it for a minute and then get back to work and it just it kind of helps if you put in a different mindset. But a lot of times when you put something aside, a lot of times the solutions come when you're not actively trying to find the solutions. So for me also that can be unfortunately laying awake in bed at night. I think a lot of engineers have experienced that, or for me too personally, it's like working out, cause your mind's kind of free and freed up and you start thinking about like your priorities are tacit hand from work and then sometimes the connections just come. So I think those are everything I said is fairly common among engineers.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

I think it's fairly common around, like other creative folks too, yeah, and also maybe I'll point out maybe another example, not necessarily my personal experience, but more like an experience for the entire engineering team here. I remember when we were developing the focal reducer for HHD, our engineer was we have a very good octagon engineering Mark Martinez right, he came up with the HHD optical design. He came over focal reducers for all the different sizes, but when we got to the eight it became very difficult and we realized it's because we're holding one, one number of being the constant right. All these HHD design has to work with a full frame sensor and it became harder. Actually, as you started working on smaller optical system, it was actually not as difficult to put one together for, let's say, 11 versus the eight, and it becomes even more difficult when we try to create reducers for the eight.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Now, I know I'm maybe getting a little bit way too deep in the technical stuff, but so the story is you took Mark a long time and we couldn't quite figure out a optical design that satisfies all of our requirements, and eventually we have to step back as a team and we examine the criteria that we came up with, the design criteria, and we had to make some changes, make some tweaks to basically say, mark, now we're gonna do this instead of that, and that's when we actually make progress with the product event. So, anyways, that was one engineering block example I think I can think of in a moment.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Yeah, sounds like the general engineering process. I like to teach my students. So if you get a design, do a prototype, test it, retest it and you, just you, keep going back and forth until you get it to where you want it to be. Tell us a little bit about the people who are involved in making, designing, prototyping and actually producing. How many people does it take to develop a new telescope, and what kinds of jobs do they have?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Right, right. So making telescopes right, Designing telescopes this is actually I've had this conversation with several people in the past it's actually quite difficult. It's quite involved because it covers a lot of disciplines, right, A lot of different engineering disciplines. We need optical engineer, of course, mechanical engineers. Now, with all the electronics, we need electronics engineer and as we have more and more software in the product, we need more and more software engineers, let alone the telescope experts that we need to have on staff. So actually it takes an entire team of people with different discipline, different expertise to put together a pretty nice telescope. So, yes, we do have a few people.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

So are we talking like 10 people or like 100 people?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Well, so it's gonna vary on each project. I mean like 10, yeah, that's for a lot of projects it's usually about 10. We have a not a huge in-house engineering staff, but a pretty substantial one for a company our size, for something like Origin, including all the consultants on it. Because I knew you were gonna ask this question, I kind of told it up and it was about 20 people working on it and that's our in-house engineers. Like Corey said, we have optical engineers plural mechanical engineers, plural electrical engineers along with firmware engineers, software engineers in-house and then externally, we use other software consultants for different aspects, like one of them was the AI staff. Obviously, we don't do AI in-house, we're a telescope company and then obviously, we have our app development partners over at simulation curriculum. They're involved as well. So we have our in-house engineering staff. That's the core and does the primary engineering, and then, depending on what the project is, we surround it with additional partner or consultant resources. Basically, but on Origin, I told it up, it was like it's about 20 people.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

So Corey, am I correct that you are also an engineer? As your main way you got into this and I've heard from many people how important that is having you as CEO but also having that engineering knowledge and how do you kind of can you leverage that in many ways? Do you think that help you to make good decisions based on engineering concepts rather than just normal everyday CEO type of decisions?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Yeah, so I do have a mechanical engineering background. I went to a school for an ME degree. So I think, aside from the education and engineering degree, I think one thing that was really, really helpful for me when I first came to work for Solestron. At that time management decided, hey, the new engineers, let's put them through assembly, let's put them through a production. So I spent about eight months down in production area putting together telescopes. At that time I didn't quite understand why am I doing this? I went to school for this.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

But then I actually, looking back, I learned a lot. Just putting gears together right, just understanding how a mirror moves inside a Schmidt-Castergreen telescope, what kind of issues people encounter when they put stuff together. That was really, really useful. I think that allows me to actually keep all that knowledge in mind. When I started designing a telescope, one of the telescopes that I worked on I mentioned was Ultima 2000. And then later on they took on a more active role designing the mechanical parts for the CPC telescopes which you are still selling today. So right. So I thought that was really helpful. I mean, it allows me to understand what the products are all about and what's important and what is possible too, and all that knowledge actually stays with me, and it's really helpful when I'm having these discussions with Eric without sounding like I don't know what I'm talking about. So it's good to be able to have intelligent conversations with our engineering team.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Now, do you see any unforeseen technological advancements that were outside? I'm thinking like smartphones, for example, that you just didn't expect? And how can that change the trajectory of a project like Origin, for example, where it's so tech?

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

heavy.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Right. So there are different ideas that Eric and I and the engineering team are always talking about, but I can't really tell you about that now. I'm feeling that maybe in a couple years we're gonna have one of these interviews again. We can talk about the new products that we might be working on.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Fantastic, but definitely, I can definitely say right, what's interesting is right, like in Corey, for a large part too, is I've been in this industry basically before the internet was really even a thing. I hate to say it like to date myself, but the internet wasn't really a thing. So, like the internet was one thing. But smartphones, that changed everything, because now everyone has a processor and a camera and a display screen in their pocket for free that can be leveraged for astronomical imaging or observation. And we've done that right through the years, first with Sky Portal, where now you have a planetary interface on your smartphone to control your scope so it can replace your hand controller. And then Star Sense Explorer, where we leveraged the smartphone for manual telescopes to help people point to objects. And now certainly we're leveraging the smartphone again with Origin as well. So the impact that the smartphone has had on amateur astronomy has been hugely significant.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

So did you need to have technology catch up to your idea for Origin? Were you waiting on stuff to catch up, or did you feel like you could just go with your design right away?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

I think there's an element of that. Right At a time when we were talking about the Origin concept, camera sensors were really expensive and certainly camera sensors have gotten a lot better since we talked about it at first and also a lot more affordable. So now we can put together a package that actually is accessible for a lot of people.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Right. One of the main issues when we first conceived of this was how do we wirelessly get the image from the camera to the smartphone? Right, and there really wasn't anything on the market for that. And in fact we started talking to some of our camera partners about developing Wi-Fi cameras and then we quickly realized so that was kind of maybe a rabbit hole a little bit, but we didn't really go down that rabbit hole much, we were just kind of kicking the tires. But then we quickly realized like oh, because the cost of the R-Pi, the Raspberry Pi type computer, where now you can get this really powerful off the shelf computer and embed that thing in your product for very low cost, because it's a reference design and it's widely available, so that allowed us to now basically get the image into the R-Pi and then the R-Pi can get it over to the smartphone. So that was a breakthrough. That certainly helped us as well was the onboard, the powerful computers and sensitive CMOS sensors at much lower cost so that we could integrate that.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

So yeah, a lot of it, and that was why when we first conceived it, as we couldn't execute on it because some of the mostly with the sensors and the processing right. There's three things that make this work the optics, the sensor and the processing. Essentially so the optics we had, but the sensors, as Corey said, they weren't really sensitive. I mean, the sensitivity of the sensors that are available now for low cost is unbelievable. I mean back then, literally 15 years ago, these were like and or quality sensors that cost $50,000. Cameras would be so the regular, like Starvis, sony, cmos, at like, very like under $50 per sensor price is a huge breakthrough that allows these type of systems to really work.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

So we're gonna take a little break right now and then we're gonna come back and talk a little bit more about the Origin telescope itself In this month's in focus product spotlight.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Gabe takes Origin out for the first time. All right, check this out. This is the Origin telescope from Celestron. It is a six inch RASA design.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Now I have this on the travel tripod I wanted to make abundantly clear that this is the tripod that comes with the Origin. I am gonna be showcasing the Origin with the travel tripod, which I really like it paired with this, but it is a separate purchase which makes an amazingly portable setup here. I love the way it looks. It has some really cool features. The one that I like the most is that this is Celestron's first telescope that will be connecting directly to cell phones and tablets and you'll be able to display and project that up onto things like the screen behind me and I hope to get this guy out now.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

That's been raining and this is not a lie. It's been raining for like two weeks. I've had this thing here. I've not had a chance to get it unboxed and I just got it unboxed a few seconds ago and I'm blown away. This thing looks just beautiful.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

The RASA design is that there is a camera up front here at the prime focus location, making this an astrograph. It's the Roe Ackerman Schmidt astrograph and it is a six inch design, the first of its kind and in the back here we have the brains of the operation. Within here is a raspberry pie. There's a really nice indicator light here when you turn it on, and the ports on the side here are nice to be able to access. There's a LAN port, there's USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. So if you want to, you can basically download the image files directly from the scope and what that does is permits you to do traditional image processing on them like you would do with a traditional astrophotography setup.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

However, this is really designed to be more of an EAA style of scope, where you're using this for electronically assisted astronomy, kind of in place of looking through an eyepiece with your eyes. So the goal here isn't so much to provide you that traditional astrophotography experience. It's live stacking the images, so it's taking 10 second exposures. As it takes those exposures, it creates a better and better image. As it goes, it does some color correction and provides some stretching of the image to provide you with a really nice image that just will blow your mind.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

There's a filter that is going to be going in the front of this scope as well that will cut through the light pollution, which is a great way to kind of get around those city lights that are so annoying and difficult for, you know, to look at with a traditional telescope. So this kind of cuts through that light pollution a little bit for you. It comes with internal Wi-Fi and it also comes with an internal battery, so I'm going to get this thing charged up and then I will have it outside. So come on out and check it out with me.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

And we're back. So one of the big questions in my mind is why did you call this telescope origin?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Well, because we think it's the origin of a new way for people to explore the universe. So in many ways we do think that this is a new beginning, as far as it's just a new way of observing, and I can see how, as time goes by like you know, significant time that this will sort of be the way that people actually observe is more through EAA or basically looking at images in almost real time on a screen instead of looking at directly with your eye, and that's just because it just solves so many problems.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

And I think one of the discussions we have had to a whole team spell out time coming over that name was the fact that the product is great to look at really deep sky objects. Right, we're talking about really distant galaxies. In some ways, we're looking at light that was emitted some time ago and, if we do this far enough, we're looking at the origin of the universe. I like that.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

That's really cool. I like that. So where do you see this? So this is the origin of a new way of looking at things. Where do you see us going from here?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Well, I think I mean just to expound on what you just said a little bit.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I mean it's just once you start using a system like origin that can actually and the key is getting it closer and closer to real time.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

And I use one of these and test it over many years on the balcony that I have and it's definitely very light, polluted, and I mean sometimes you look up and you can't even really see stars. I mean you can see some of the brightest stars usually, but then you point this thing up and it picks things out of the darkness and shows them to you in spectacular detail, more detail than I would be able to see if I got a 20-inch scope, got it in a truck that I'd have to rent, drove four hours away, set that thing up and look through an IP. I'm seeing it in almost real time and again, that's the key, I'm seeing it way better from Los Angeles in seconds than I would by doing all that work to go out to the country or a dark sky. And I'm not saying one necessarily completely replaces the other, but once you experience something like origin, it's really tough to go back to traditional visual observing. I really have to say that.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

So your application here is definitely consumer-based, but what other applications does this technology kind of open up for you guys? You've done it now, you've figured this out, and I'm sure that there's other applications. I know that the RASA itself, for example, there's plenty of applications that you have mentioned a little bit already. Can you go into some detail about what other applications this type of system would be great for?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

So a system like this where it can connect to the internet, right, it just opens up a lot of possibilities. I mean we can have, just on a very, very simple level, we can have content delivered to the product. Or, if you think about it the other way, potentially there's potential for the user of the telescope to provide content for somebody else. So those are all the different possibilities that we're thinking through, but at the very very least, this is something that can be remotely controlled and again, that opens up different possibilities. Consider what Eric had talked about early on when we first talked about this similar product ideas, which is a form of telescope that potentially can be used to collect images, collect data, and remotely for different people. So there's all sort of possibilities with a product like this that we can investigate Right.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I mean the two. So right, the concept in general I guess that Corey's alluding to would be like what we would call a global telescope network. So basically, once you have a whole bunch of users out in the field that have this standard platform type system or an automated system, then it becomes a lot easier for people to collect data and get that to a common source that can be used for a lot of interesting things. So the two main things really are astronomical research or, as I mentioned before, space situational awareness, which is keeping an eye on the sky.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

As far as transient activities, whether it be satellites or asteroids or that type of activity. So once you have a standard platform that anyone can, it's easy for anyone to operate and it's automated. As Corey said, you can get that at some point. Now you can get that connected to the internet and it becomes like a data collection type machine. That and certainly that exists at a much higher level, like automated systems like in observatories or universities, can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, but here now we're making that type of activity accessible to those on a much smaller budget, whether it be a school district or just a group of observers or whatnot. So startups, tech, startup who's collecting data to sell it, these type of things.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

I distinctly remember as a kid that there was a handful of citizen science type of things that they needed computer capabilities and power and they asked you to take a small set of data and your computer would sit there and churn, when you weren't using it, on that data set and it would upload it. We're talking dial up internet still.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

That was so awesome, that was so awesome.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

SETI. There was a number of different ones. Seti was certainly one of them. Yeah.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

But they're still actively involved with that. You know, as far as citizen science like, one of the things that people are excited about in astronomy now are the finding of planets around other stars. You know, watching the either the dimming or the wobble or whatnot and you can get good data with these automated systems so that you can use a global telescope network of people with small telescopes to find planets around sun, like stars, which is kind of, you know, interesting. Whether we'll talk to those people someday or not, assuming there's people or that they're using them. Carbon based life we don't know any of that.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

But yeah, just be able to be able to gather everyone together with a global telescope network. It's like having an eye on the sky at all times. Almost it's like a global eye, so it's can be very interesting.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

One of the important things I think about when people talk about origin is the ability to upgrade and I know you guys kind of had that in mind. You can tell in the design and everything that. And you know you mentioned connecting to the internet, so you know what is that. How does that separate it from some of the other equipment that's out there right now?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Well, I think with origin, one of the things when we made is we want it to grow as you grow. So even though you'll start like you might not know anything, like I'm just buying it and it's automated, it's going to teach you the sky. So as you watch it, point, and as you use the planetary interface, you're going to start understanding the sky and see how things work and you'll grow. And then there'll be more and more things that you want to do, and we've kind of thought that through with origin to make sure that there's no dead ends that like, yep, I've done everything I kind of can with it and close it. That's always the dreaded place is, oh, it winds up being unused in the closet, which is not, you know, we don't want to ever happen. So, like one thing yes, I mean the one thing that does change quite rapidly over times is the sensor technology, and Robin mentioned where do you see things going in the future? And I do.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I do see that there will be continued improvements in sensor technology and how that benefits origin is smaller pixels that are just as sensitive or even more sensitive, Because as we get smaller and smaller pixels, we basically get extra resolution for free with the RASA system. That isn't true with a lot of other smaller aperture systems. Smaller aperture systems, your aperture limited on the resolution. I think it's critically important that people understand that. But something like a RASA is resolution limited by the pixels. So as more sensitive cameras with smaller pixels come out, which is a trend we've seen, we expect that we'll have, you know, replacement cameras for your origin system Because, as you would allude to, yes, the origin camera is user accessible quite easily and we did that. So because, yes, we understand that the most non-static part of the system will be the sensor and we don't want people to have to throw their origin away after 10 years because the sensor is, is is no, I think that's great.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

I think that's wonderful and very well thought out, and people, I'm sure, will very much appreciate that.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Well, that's what I like about my well, not mine the old telescope that I have, the old eight inch SCT. It still works and it's, I think, 50 years old or something like that now, and I think longevity really does help the telescope industry. If you can keep it going, man, it's a tool you have for a lifetime.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Yeah, I think one thing we see being a company that's been building telescopes more than 60 years is telescopes and optics actually can last a pretty long time. You take care of it. So right, I mean 20 years later, 30 years later, once you.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

We started off the podcast talking about Galileo, and these telescopes are, all you know, probably are a much higher quality than that, and it's still around Because they didn't have electronics in them. They're not allowed to have my finger, though they can I keep Right.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

So I was going to say, after you purchase your origin, then you want to be able to, you know, put in the latest technology, the latest camera sensors in there. I mean that's part of the reason why we wanted to make sure that our telescope, the origin, can grow with you. I mean Celestron. We want to make sure that we take care of our customers, not just now but also later down the road, make sure that they stay with us. Because we've been around for a long time, we're hoping our customers will also be with us for a long time.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Next up, Corey and Eric talk about the engineering design process and how you go from concept to reality.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

What kind of advice do you have for some of the young people or even people who are learning engineering right now? What kind of advice would you give to someone who's interested either in engineering or design or telescopes in general? What kind of education or career advice or experience advice would you give them?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

So I think I'll repeat what my dad told me when I was younger Study math, study math. Do you want to get into engineering? There's one of the first things that you need to do Study math. You've got to make sure that you can do math right. I mean, that's one. I think the other thing, as I learn throughout my career, is just having the sense of curiosity. If you see a problem because engineers are supposed to solve problems right you see a problem, even though the textbook doesn't give you a solution, you've got to find it. In today's world, with the internet, you do enough research, you can find a lot of solutions. You can come up with a lot of different ideas. So just having that sense of curiosity and just trying to figure out how things work and then coming up with solutions, I mean, I think that's just that. That's one quality I think being an engineer needs to have.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I mean, I think one thing that's interesting to me is, if I was in high school and I wanted to pursue engineering, well, the first thing, yeah, I'd say, stay in school, expect to go to college, because realistically, to work as an engineer you need at least a bachelor's. But one of the things I would start pursuing is the whole like maker scene. That didn't really exist when I was a young lad. It just seems like there's so much out there like DIY engineering projects that kids can get into with like 3D printing.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Oh my gosh, 3D printing is amazing.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Right. So basically on their own they can sort of get their feet wet and get a taste for how these things work, so that I do think that would give them a nice little jump on people as they go on in their career.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

So yeah, and from what I've heard from others as well, like the coding, if you can learn how to code especially like Python I've heard was a really good one to get started on. That the coding is a really big thing because then you can implement ideas that require coding. And I can't do that and I wish I could sometimes, you know, so that'd be my takeaway from that?

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Yeah, just getting your hands dirty and playing and figuring it out, you know that's what I normally do.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

And expect to fail. Yeah, a lot, and that's okay. Next up, we discussed our plans for the upcoming 2024 total solar eclipse.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

So what are your plans for the eclipse?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

So we have a big event, Celestron. There's a whole team of us going out to Dallas, so we'll be there observing, spending time with a big crowd there. I'm also going to take home my whole family. I want to make sure that my kids get to see the total solar eclipse event and hopefully they remember when they grow up.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

I bet you they will yeah.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I'm going to be somewhere outside of Austin, not with Team Celestron. I sort of worked the last eclipse. I want to do a non-working eclipse this time and I'm bringing my wife out there too. Randy, so it's looking forward to it.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Excellent. That's fantastic. I know we're both bringing our family out to the Midwest and I'm going to Ohio. My son was with me. He was four years old during the 2017 eclipse and he is just stoked about this one Nice, he still remembers it and he talks about it. I'm looking forward to it.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

In my 10-year-old at that time in 2017, he put one of those he put smart glasses on, he looked at the sun. He enjoyed it, but at that time, my younger one was too young to actually realize what was happening. This is a chance. We've got to do this again.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

Yeah, Hopefully it is 20 more years right what it is. There's 20 years in the United.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

States. There's the next one. That's it. Otherwise, we have to travel to the middle of the ocean somewhere.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

So, yeah, I'm going to be going to Indiana and, rob, I was at the 2017 eclipse, but I didn't have a family at that point. My son will be coming with me this time my older son. He's five, and I know he's going to be excited. He's kind of got an idea of what it's going to be, but I don't even think I could have prepared myself for how amazing it was and I was teaching it at that time. So, as a kid, to have that kind of an experience where you get to see the moon covering up the sun and just feeling all of those emotions that come over you, it's memorable for sure, and I just can't wait yeah.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

It's weirdly indescribable. Yeah, for sure.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

Yeah, I always think of there's like a black hole temperature change really, really made it a you know, very different experience than what I expected at that time.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Yeah, I feel like we're coming down toward the end here. Yeah, you have exit ramp.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

I don't know you don't have any more trivia for us.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

I do have three more trivia, so I was figure.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I'll ask you guys about the eclipse, the best we can.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

After we get back from this short break, we've got round two of the last minute trivia. Can Corey and Eric make a?

Lance Lucero - Celestron Product Manager:

comeback. Get eclipse ready with the Celestron Eclipse Mart Travel Scope 50, a 50 millimeter solar telescope with tripod and backpack, or reach for Eclipse Mart solar binoculars with up to 20 times magnification. You can even add an Eclipse Mart solar filter to your Celestron nighttime telescope. They're available in 14 different sizes. All Celestron Eclipse Mart products conform to the current ISO safety standards. Learn more at Celestroncom slash Eclipse Watch.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Now, before you guys go, I have a little more trivia and I'm actually I'm going to turn it up a notch on this one.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

This is a little more esoteric, oh boy, and, and, and.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

to be fair, I didn't know these answers before I looked them up, so we're oh no, don't, don't worry if you get these wrong. So the first question that I have for you and for the audience audience, you got to play along what is the largest refractor? Telescope?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Oh, that I do know the Yerkes 40 inch. Okay, oh, the second biggest is the Lick 36, which I'm very familiar with, being from UC Santa.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Cruz, nice, nice. I'm going to give you the points because you are correct, but there is a technical knockout here. The Swedish one meter solar telescope in La Palma in the Canary Islands is actually 43 inches.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

But only 39 of them are clear for the aperture. So you still win with Yerkes at 40 inches. I'll still give it to you. But yes, that solar telescope is 43. And I learned that it's actually a vacuum telescope, like they suck all the air out of it because if you're focusing on sunlight you there's too much turbulence with it in there. That was pretty cool. He tracks it Right.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Hey, did you know that James Lick is buried underneath?

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

the 36 inch refractor?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

No way, yeah. So the root, the floor, lowers and raises because the refractor right, the height of the IP changes so much. And if you raise the height of the roof you can see it's grave under there.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

And we astronomers do weird things after we die. This is about the Hubble. Okay, now I'm going to give you three reasons, and two of them are correct. One of them is wrong as far as reasons why that had the initial blurry photos. Do you remember that? Yep, of course. So A, b or C which one is not a correct answer? A conversion between the metric SI system and imperial units in the null corrector. B Hubble's primary mirror at the wrong curve, it was too flat near the outer edge. Or C there was a lens spacing error in the testing.

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

So you're asking us to figure out which one is not correct.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Yeah, which one is not correct? Was it not a conversion between metric and imperial? Was it not Hubble's primary mirror had the wrong curve? It was too flat near its outer edge. Or was it a lens spacing error in testing?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO:

I'll say C.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Wait, I think it was A.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

I was going to go with A as the incorrect one.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Yeah, because I know it had spherical operation, which would be like what you're saying in B, basically. And then C is because, right, one of the pieces of test equipment wasn't consistent with the others, so I was.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Yes, exactly, I've heard the legend that it's been a conversion between metric and imperial units, and I could not find any support for that legend.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

We're not that stupid Now. I've also heard with Hubble, though that there was potentially a washer that was possibly causing some of that off. I'd have to check that.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

No, I'd have to look that up too. My research says that they figured out that it had the wrong curve. It was too flat near its edge and that was because of when they were testing it, there was a lens spacing error. It was off by 1.3 millimeters Pretty much, which made it too flat away from the center. So it doesn't take much, does it? No? Just one little issue, and it's kind of surprising. It actually got all the way up into orbit before we actually did anything about it, before we figured it out. Last one the first time that I showed my wife Saturn through a telescope, what did she say? Is it A, wow, b? You put a sticker on there, didn't you? There's no way that's real. Or C, not the ring I was expecting. But fine, cool, cool, cool. This is fine.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

Well, from experience, I've seen the first two. I've never seen the third one. No, we need it. We need it. I'm going to say number two. Number two is correct, that she didn't believe that it was real.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Yes, she insisted. She's like you just put a sticker on there, you know like it. Just there's something about it. It's all black and you just see Saturn. It's gorgeous, but it does look kind of just there.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I've gotten that at outreach before, where people just I'm sure Dave has too where, like people just can't believe that I mean it blows the world. They just can't even comprehend. So they think it's fake. Like you're fooling them by putting a picture in front.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astronomer:

Well, thank you so much, guys. This has been a pleasure talking about all the engineering that goes into this. We really appreciate you spending your time with us today. Thank you, dave, dave you're a honest man.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

It's our pleasure.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari:

It's been fun, thank you. If you're still listening and like this podcast, please consider becoming one of our Patreon patrons. Memberships start as low as $3 per month, with benefits including opportunities to ask questions of our guests. Also, please consider liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast to help us bring the universe even closer than you think. The podcast will be available every third Tuesday of the month.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innovation Specialist:

I got stumped on lip or say I was going to say Levin hook, but I know that that was the microscope. Those were hard ones dude.

People on this episode

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David Farina

Host
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Rob Webb

Co-host