ATM Assault On Telescope Making

["M.E. Germann" <CCMEG@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>]

The Assault On Telescope Making --

Val Germann
Central Missouri Astronomical Association

It began as early as 1955, the ads for low-priced
finished mirrors, saying, "Put an end to months
of grinding!"  Back then, 41 years ago, Sky & Tel
cost $4.00 per year, making the implicit price
deflator there about what, EIGHT!  Let's say it's
about a factor of seven.

In 1955 a Questar cost $795; a finished, 6-inch
Cave mirror $60; an 8-incher, $92.50 and a 10-inch
paraboloid, get this -- $160(!), the equivalent of
at least ONE THOUSAND dollars today.  A Cave Astrola
Model "A" 6-inch equatorial was $295 (multiply THAT
by SEVEN!) and an 8-inch version was $375!

Four manufacturers advertised mirror-making kits in
1955 and a 6-inch package was about ten bucks, an
8-inch, $17.00; a 10-inch, about thirty dollars, a
12.5-inch, just over fifty dinari.  It cost ten
dollars to put a Beral coating on a 12.5-incher then!

BUT, you could get a FINISHED 5-inch, f/12 sphere
for $13.00; a COMPLETE 4-inch telescope (shakey and
dumb, yes, but. . .) for $49.95 and a three-inch,
f/15 refractor objective from Edmund for THIRTY dollars!

It only got worse in the late 1950s, with the 6-inch
Dynascope going onto the market for $200.00 and then,
about ten years later, the Celestron-Eight and the
Coulter Dobs.  I guess, in one respect, it's amazing
that ANYONE ever puts two pieces of glass together in
the first place!

***