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

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Corey Lee - Celestron CEO (00:00):
I remember that one trip that I
mentioned to you where I tookone of the first Origin Poe
types out in the under darkskies in Death Valley Right, the
sky is pretty good out there.
I had to set up outside of thecabin and I went inside and work
and hang out with my kids andwe just put up some pictures of

(00:22):
galaxies and really fang objects.
So kids, my kids, got a chanceto look through them and also
allow them to actually pick outwhatever objects that they want
the Origin to point to on theiPad, right, and we went there
and they were fascinated by whatthey could see.

(00:42):
I thought that was a reallyinteresting experience.
I mean to be able to do allthat.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astro (00:47):
I'm Dave and I'm Rob, last minute
astronomer and we have Kory.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (00:51):
Lee , the CEO of Celestron, and Eric
Kopit, the Innovations Guru.
So can you guys just tell uswhat have you been up to over
the past two years?
Lots of cool stuff has beencoming out.
We're really excited to haveyou here.

Yeah, absolutely.
We have a really excitingproduct that we just introduced
the Celestron Origin HomeObservatory.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Inn (01:16):
It's definitely one of the biggest
and most complex projects thatI've undertaken in my career and
I think one of the bigger onesat Celestron has ever worked on.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (01:28):
Next up.
Kory and Eric share their ownfirst experience with a
telescope.

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

Sure, I'll go first.
So maybe just a little bitbackground story, right?
So I was born in the city ofHong Kong.
You know big city, lots of tallbuildings, so I don't see a lot
of nice guys when I was a kid.
Now, after I moved here to theStates, one of the first things
I did after I graduated fromschool was here working at
Celestron.
At that time we're tackling abig project.

(02:07):
You guys may remember thatCelestron Altima 2000.
So I was one of severalengineers working at that time
and took it out, had to do somenight testing, went out to Enzo
Borrego, middle of nowhere, andthat's where I actually got my

(02:27):
first view of the WhirlpoolGalaxy.
From then on I'm like, oh, wow,this is what you can see up in
the night sky.
I never thought that waspossible, right I mean.
So that made an impression onme.
I was like, wow, this is cool.
Even though it was years when Iwasn't here in Celestron, I
still went to star parties andjust really wanted to get a view

(02:49):
of a nice galaxy in the darksky.

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

Corey Lee - Celestron CE (03:00):
That's right.
My real experience was withCelestron.
I've seen some smallertelescopes looking at planets.
I mean I like that, but thatwas good.
But seeing the galaxy reallymade an impression on me.

Dave Farina - Cosmos (03:16):
Absolutely , especially in a nice dark sky
like that.
For sure, how about you, Eric?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innov (03:23):
My story is kind of interesting.
So I had been very interestedin physics and astronomy in high
school but I grew up in kind ofa small town and I went to
school at UC Santa Cruz.
So my first day that I arrivedin Santa Cruz I was up in the
dorms UC Santa Cruz and myroommate was a kid that grew up

(03:45):
locally and we started talkingand he found out that I had some
interest in astronomy and hesaid, have you ever been to the
telescope shop?
And I looked at him like he wascrazy, like what are you
talking about?
And he's like, yeah, there'stelescopes.
Yeah, there's a telescope storeover in Santa Cruz, do you want
to go?
And I remember I was like whatdo you mean a telescope store?

(04:06):
Like I didn't understand thatyou could buy a telescope.
The only telescopes I'd everseen up until that point were in
textbooks, that basically atobservatories or big
universities.
And he took me to the telescopeshop which was a Celestron
dealer.
So I go in and my first thing iswhen I was 18 years old I saw

(04:27):
Celestron telescopes all overthe place and what was funny is
I remember that the guy that wasrunning the shop there, who
would become a colleague of minemany years later, was kind of
eyeing me over because I wastaking all the brochures, the
Celestron brochures but he knewthere was no chance that I could
afford any of the telescopes.

(04:47):
So but that was again like samewith the Corrie.
It was the Celestron really.
That really first was the firsttelescope that I came into
contact with.
So and then later I startedworking for that shop and I used
a Celestron 60 millimeterrefractor and then I bought my
first scope, which was an 80millimeter refractor, a

(05:08):
Celestron, and then I graduatedto an eight inch SCT, which was
a big jump.
Yeah, I was very pleased withthat one.
So that's kind of how I gotinto it.
But yeah, even though I've soI've been in the industry for
about 30 years well, actuallyalmost 35 years now, geez and
but I've been with Celestronabout 13 or 14 years.

(05:29):
Before that I was with adifferent telescope company.

Rob Webb -Last Minute As (05:35):
That's fantastic, I mean.
I remember my first telescopewas actually when I was told
I've got to teach astronomy andmy school had a telescope and it
was this.
It's one of those old Celestron8-inch orange Schmidt
castigranes, one of the classicones, and it was in a trunk with

(05:58):
like just I don't know, someegg foam, egg crate foam, just
sort of around it.
And it was a challenge as anewbie to be like how do I use
this thing?
But it worked out.
I learned exactly what I wasdoing.
Instead of just pointing itstraight up, I actually learned
how to use it and it was a nicewindow into how do I actually

(06:20):
see these things.
I remember sketching out theOrion Nebula for the first time
in my little sketchbook and Istill have it.
I don't know where it is, but Ihave it, my little sketch of
the Orion Nebula, and that gotme hooked, definitely to be able
to see these big clouds of gasand dust and I can record it
like that.
That was awesome.
I don't know what about you.

Dave , so my story is somewhat
similar in that I didn't reallyhave a chance to use a telescope
until I was teaching Similarstory.
I took over as the planetariumdirector and there was a
telescope there and in factthere was one of those orange
telescopes just like you justspoke about and it has a kind of

(07:00):
nostalgia to it and we took itout and myself and a few
students were trying to use it.
I just think I remember one ofmy students saying hey look,
it's Venus.
And I said are you sure thatVenus has blinking red and blue
lights?
So it turned out to be anairplane.

(07:20):
We were super excited and thenwe watched the airplane for a
little while.
It took us a number of years tofigure out.
You know how do you get this towork in every way it possibly
is made for and, you know, hadan old style clock drive and
everything.
So we had a handful of upgradesover the years.
But it's really interestingthat we all have our jobs.

(07:41):
Kind of was the first time thatwe truly had those telescopes
in our hands.
Pretty cool.
Rob is coming in hot withtrivia after this short break.

Lance Lucero - Cele (07:57):
Introducing Celestron Origin stargazing and
astro imaging redefined Originis completely autonomous.
Simply choose a target in theapp.
Origin captures it with ultrafast RASA optics, perfects it
with AI imaging processing anddelivers it to your device.
The results are better thanwhat you'd see in a much larger
telescope under much darkerskies.

(08:18):
Experience and share the nightsky like never before.
Learn more at Celestroncomslash origin.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astr (08:27):
I've got a little bit of last minute
trivia for the three of you.
Okay, all right, so we gotthree questions, and the first
question is who invented thetelescope?
Let's have our guests go firstand then we'll know so.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innova (08:44):
I know most people think it's
like Galileo, but I know there'ssome guy before him and his
name isn't coming to me rightnow.
Okay, All right I should knowthis, because this is the type
of stuff that I should know.
You guys got me with my pantsdown.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Ast (09:05):
First one, dave, do you know?

I do kind of have an inkling.
I believe it's Hans Lippercheor hey, yes, hans Lipperche, yes
, and his kids actually wereplaying 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 beenHans Lipperche's children that

(09:29):
started the whole magnificationwith optics, which is pretty
cool.

Yeah , yeah, it was back in 1608.
And I looked a little bit upfor this and the first person to
apply for a patent for atelescope was the Dutch eyeglass
maker Hans Lipperche orLipperche.
But then there was alsosomebody else who was in the
same town that also kind ofworked on optical instruments as

(09:52):
well.
So there's a little bit ofconfusion there.
But they go by the patentapplication, which is how they
do that so.
But so there we go.
There's one.
We stomped them Fantastic, allright.
Now second one Galileo.
He heard about this Danishperspective glass right, and he
constructed his own and heimproved on the design.

(10:16):
Now I'm just going to let youall say the number here of what
your guess is.
To what X or what times powerdid Galileo make his telescope?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Inno (10:29):
Hmm , oh wow, was it 30 times or 40
times?
One of those is the one thatcomes to mind for me.

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

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

Okay .

You can tell.

I'm guessing.

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

Okay , not bad, not bad, I'm going to
give it.
I'm going to give it to youguys.
He actually started, it coulddo three times larger, and then
he did some designs, some, somemagnification designs, and he
eventually got one to go toeight times, then eventually 30
times, oh there it is 30 times.

Nice , Nice job Eric.

Very good.

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

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

Eric Kopit - Celestron I (11:43):
Museum somewhere.

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

Is it just a?

Dave Farina - Cosmos Saf (11:51):
museum that we're like?
Can we go with city City sure?

Okay , in the UK somewhere.

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

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astron (12:04):
It is in Europe.
Yes, we're giving partialcredit for that one.
No, it's not Rome, but you'recloser.
It is Florence, italy, theMuseo Galileo, in fact.
Actually a couple years ago Iwas actually able to go and see
it and it was absolutely awesome.
It's just this big, longtelescope and it was just

(12:25):
something brand new to actuallysee, like where astronomy
started.
I had I tried to get down onthe floor to look through it,
but it did not work very well,just made me look like a weirdo,
weird American tourist doingthat.
But it was.
It was super cool.
They also have there at themuseum.
Did you know?
They have one of Galileo'sfingers there as well, which is

(12:47):
just kind of odd.
Kind of odd.

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

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

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

Oh , interesting, interesting One
finalized a man or somethinglike that.

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

I've been really, really enjoying
seeing the progression oftelescopes 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 theclock drive to go.
But then you start getting intotelescopes that are that have
the mount, and the mount istracking.
And we've been going to go tomounts for a while now, and now

(13:48):
you guys have created this newkind of scope that basically
puts a whole lot of stuff intoone scope.
How do you go about designingsomething like that?
Like where do you, where do youstart?
Like 10 years ago I think yousaid where do you start?
And then how do you keep going?

Well , it's interesting, it really
even started more than 10 yearsago, as far as I mean for
anything, and I know I'mspeaking with Corey.
So a lot of this story isconversations and discussions
that Corey and I had when Ifirst came to Celestron and we
had both been sort ofindependently thinking along the

(14:29):
same lines.
I was in charge of productdevelopment at the other company
I was working for and Corey wasin charge of product
development here in engineering.
And then I came over here andwe started talking and it just,
you know, a lot of the basis ofthe talking was, you know, at
the time.

(14:50):
This is when there was moreremote telescopes coming online,
like where in the early days,it was more renting time through
the internet or something likethat, where there would be a
remote observatory somewhere.
And then there was the businessmodel where people were trying
to, you know, you rent thetelescope and that's still done

(15:11):
to this day.
However, we both noted that ithadn't taken off in the consumer
markets really the way thatsome people had expected it to,
and then we realized that, well,it's because people want that
experience, but they want to beable to own the equipment.
So that's specific to thisproject, but really for any

(15:31):
project.
Robert asked like well, how doyou start?
Or where you know?
It all starts with an idea.

Yeah, and also, I think, just having
people who actually arepassionate about telescopes.
Here they kind of figured outwhat people want and also what
they want right, what kind ofequipment they want for their
hobby and that kind of drivestype of product that we think we
should develop, whether we havethe engineering capacity to do
it and whether it makes sense,right.

(15:58):
So that's all where to start,just having the people who
actually use the product andthey have the ideas and we just
follow those ideas, give peoplewhat they want.
I think that's saying thatEric's been saying for years.

Eric Kopit - Celestron In (16:13):
Right .
What am I saying and this mightcause some controversy is give
the people what they want, notwhat amateur astronomers think
people should want.
Which I think is a key driver isthat and that really does
explain a lot of how we wound uphere is that, you know, we
don't want it Overall Celestron,even back from our founder, tom

(16:36):
Johnson.
Really, at the core of ourcompany is we.
You know, of course we need tobe profitable, but really we
want to make astronomy fun andeasy and accessible to everyone,
or as many people as we can, bymaking telescopes or systems
that people want to use and thatcan use and that have fun using
it and have good experiences.
So by thinking of stuff throughthat lens and then, as Corey is

(17:01):
saying, actively using theproducts ourselves and then
seeing what's out there.
You know, certainly we keep ourears to the street too, but
with all these activities, youknow, at the core of our company
the ideas.
We have more ideas than we havetime to execute them on.
So thankfully we have lots ofideas, but really any of the

(17:21):
projects or products that wework on, it all starts with the
idea.

And maybe to add a little bit more
to what we talked about how thecurrent product right the origin
came about.
I vividly remember that onetrip 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 forCelestron.
That's when because we hadhours sitting in the car

(17:48):
together, right.
So we're just kind of bouncingideas over one another.
One idea was this At that timeI think I.
The project took on differentnames through the years.
At one point we called it a MOright Automatic Mobile
Observatory, and even beforethat we called it an eyepiece
list telescope.

(18:09):
So at that point we weresitting in the car we're talking
about wow, wow, there's under,with the galaxies and everything
that you can see under darkskies.
You'll be nice.
You can just make it so mucheasier for people to view in the
city and also just anybody whodoesn't really have a lot of
experience operating a telescope.
We can find a way to deliverthe experience to the general

(18:31):
users.
It'll be nice.
So we started talking about it.
I remember roughly around thattime I was seeing a lot of users
using a hyper-saur type ofimaging system Yep, and that
really bring out like deep skyobjects.
So relatively, I'm not quicklyright so that we started talking
more and more about that andthat really was the beginning.

(18:54):
I thought of origin at that,really, at that point, that
conversation we had in therental car How's that?

Cory , you mentioned about having
your family out using telescopes, and that comes to mind with
what Eric was just mentioningabout access.
You know parents want accessfor their kids.
They want to be able to tellthem about things they want to
know and feel like they canconfidently tell their kids.
You know ideas and facts and Tohave that barrier taken down is

(19:24):
so important, right absolutely,I think.

Corey Lee - Celestron C (19:28):
Whereas Eric started off as a
Astronomer, I started off as anengineer, right.
So I, when I started workingfor Celestron, I really did not
notice nice sky that well, so Icould really use all the
different technology thatCelestron had developed Just
guiding me through the night sky.
I remember that one trip that Imentioned to you where I took

(19:50):
one of the first origin podtypes out in the under dark
skies In Death Valley, right,sky is pretty, pretty good out
there.
I had to set up outside of acabin and I went inside and work
and hang out my kids and wejust put up some pictures of
Galaxies and really fang objects.

(20:11):
So kids, my kids, got a chanceto look through them and also
Allow them to actually pick outwhatever objects that they want.
The origin the point to on theon the iPad, right, and we went
there and they were fascinatedby by what they could see.
I thought that was a reallyinteresting experience.

(20:31):
I mean to be able to do allthat.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Saf (20:34):
That's an experience that will
probably last for the rest oftheir lives.
That's pretty cool.

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

Mean one thing.
Just to expand on that a littlebit.
In many ways I feel like originis the first System, at least in
a long time, that actuallymeets the expectation of what
people have of telescopes thathaven't actually used a
telescope before.
In other words, we made it moreinto like An extension of your

(21:05):
home entertainment system.
It's not something that youhave to learn, which in the past
or even up to now, and that's abig part of the hobby, and
we're certainly not saying thatthere's there's anything wrong
with that, and you know that'sthe school that I come from.
But there's a whole another setof people, a much larger set,
that they don't have time tolearn the ins and outs of how
the equipment works.

(21:26):
They just want it to work likethere are other, you know,
equipment that they have at homeworks, whether it be their home
stereo or Even their microwaveoven or anything like that, just
so that it just it works theway that you think it should
work and it gives you anexperience that actually matches
your expectation of being blownaway by by astronomy and

(21:47):
astronomical objects.

Yeah , I can't tell you how many
times I've gotten like a newkind of telescope or something
else and Trying to work it andit just it doesn't connect right
.
Something goes wrong.
Then you know what happens tothat telescope Closet collects
dust, you know, like it's justdone.
So, yeah, absolutely, I thinkyou're right.
Having that you know, make itwork.

(22:09):
I think that that's very key.
So you designed origin to Besort of a plug-and-play.
I guess you could say how manyas you were designing it and
building it, how many differentiterations did it did it go
through?

Well , okay, one one interesting
thing that I think we need totalk about is In really.
So when we talk about productdevelopment for telescopes, the
thing that really we start withand 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 heartof any of these systems is the
telescope design.

(22:46):
And you know, when Corey and Iwere first having our
conversations and he mentionedthe hyper star, we realized,
like, we're not necessarilythinking about it in terms of
traditional astronomical imaging, we're more thinking about it
along the lines of replacingvisual observing, or what people
call EAA, now electronicallyassisted astronomy, where

(23:09):
basically we're trying toreplace the eye with a sensor,
right?
So so the thing that reallyseparates imaging, traditional
imaging, with visual observingis time, right?
So when you look with your eye,you're getting 30 frames per
second, you know, and you don'tsee it.
You know your eye doesn't.
It's, first of all, it's notthat sensitive, but it doesn't

(23:29):
integrate.
The camera is much moresensitive, but typically people
are doing, you know, 10, 20, 30,40, 50, one minute exposures,
which, you know, the longer theexposure has to be, the less it
is real time.
Right, you're waiting.
Once you're like waiting forthe next image to come in, then

(23:50):
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 veryburned in, very pleasing image
as quickly as possible inrefresh so that people have a
real-time observing experience.
So we very quickly realized weneeded a very fast telescope.
So so what's what's funny?

(24:13):
What's very interesting and Ithink a lot of the people
watching this will be sort ofsurprised to hear is we.
We created the Rasa opticaldesign for this.
So we created it first and thenwe did the iterations that we
sell currently the optical tubes, because we knew this was
further out.
So we knew that, oh my god, wecame across.

(24:36):
You know, with Dave row andMark Ackerman, we came up with
our Row Ackerman Schmidtastrograph design for this
project because we knew it hadto be fast.
But since we knew this projectwas further out, we said well,
we think that these opticaltubes in the larger sizes Will
be very well received for, youknow, for a lot of other reasons

(24:58):
, including wide fieldastrophotography, but also space
situational awareness.
We kind of saw that early on.
But, you explain what that isfor those of us that are that
are not aware of what that meansme watching this guy for
transient stuff which can, whichcould be Space based in origin,
or it could be satellites,human based basically.

(25:19):
So it's just watching thetransient phenomenon above us in
many cases to keep things safe.

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

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

(25:57):
Ross.
I think it was 2015.

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

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

But yes, the inspiration for
creating that optical design wasthis so, on this kind of same
theme, are there any like rabbitholes that you chased down and
ended up having to abandon thembecause of you know that just
didn't work out is In thisprocess of doing the it can be

(26:32):
this project, or any projects,for that matter that just were
like, wow, this, this is whatwe're gonna do, we're going all
in, and then it was like wait asecond, that wasn't the right.
How do you make that decision?
In other words, thatsomething's not worth pursuing
anymore?

There are times we come up with a
concept, right, and then we tryto pull it together, come up
with a prototype, and Sometimeswe 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 workout and we have to stop the
project.
I think one thing that came tomind Eric, you may remember that

(27:05):
is a phone adapter.
Right now we have a reallysuccessful one right.
It's called the next YZ, butthe iteration before that it
looked like a Imelivo torturedevice.

Right .

Corey Lee - Celestron CE (27:22):
That's for adapter.
We wanted to put in a lot ofdifferent adjustment to it, but
we couldn't quite figure it outat that time a good way to
integrate all that together.
So there's like long screws, Imean all three directions, a big
clamp, and you just look likeit's gonna hurt when you pick it
up.

So we think you have a target
audience at Kronos with all ofthe Klingons.
They sounds very Klingon likefor a phone adapter, Right but
unfortunately that wasn't ourtarget audience.

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

Yeah , I was gonna say that rarely do
projects get killed, but a lotof times they get shelved and
then they get revitalized Atsome point in the future, maybe
in a different form even too.
Like that was a perfect examplethat, yeah, we didn't actually
scrap the idea entirely, but wedid scrap the design path that

(28:33):
we were going on.
That's the point.
And another example, even withOrigin, is that remember when it
was first the IPSList telescope, we were first going down the
path that we didn't wanna use aSchmitt corrector Because we
thought that for cost, wethought that that was gonna be
maybe prohibitive and maybethere'd be a different way that
was equivalent or better, and wequickly realized that that was

(28:56):
completely the wrong directionand it really took Dave Rowe to
point us right back to that.
The Schmitt corrector isactually the key to making this
whole thing work.
So that was another thing, arabbit hole that I think Corey
and I were talking about for awhile, but then we would be
gotten to the details.
We immediately realized, no, no, no, no, you wanna use a
Schmitt variant actually, andthat was the basis of RASO.

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

(29:43):
stuck?

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

Not out of one example.
Well, so technically I'm not anengineer, I just happen to play
when it works sometimes.
But, I do work very closely withour engineering department, but
so a lot of times I'm moreinvolved with, I guess you would
say, the sort of creative sideof engineering and the sort of

(30:10):
conceptual side.
So when I'm working on thattype of stuff and I hit, a block
for me and I think this iscommon for a lot of engineers is
to put that aside and work onsomething else.
So a lot of times, like it's,none of our engineers have just
one thing that they're workingon.
There's always the main projectand then side projects, as we

(30:33):
call them.
So a lot of times it's like allright, put the main project
aside for a while and work onthe side project, so that you're
freeing up your mind in a wayfrom that problem but you're
still staying focused andproductive on your job or your
work.
Now, for me personally, so thatworks.
But what I'll also do likesometimes it can just be it has

(30:55):
to do with freeing your mindreally.
So for me a lot of times it'sputting music on.
It's like take a slight break,throw something on, listen to it
for a minute and then get backto work and it just it kind of
helps if you put in a differentmindset.
But a lot of times when you putsomething aside, a lot of times
the solutions come when you'renot actively trying to find the

(31:16):
solutions.
So for me also that can beunfortunately laying awake in
bed at night.
I think a lot of engineers haveexperienced that, or for me too
personally, it's like workingout, cause your mind's kind of
free and freed up and you startthinking about like your
priorities are tacit hand fromwork and then sometimes the
connections just come.
So I think those are everythingI said is fairly common among

(31:41):
engineers.

I think it's fairly common around,
like other creative folks too,yeah, and also maybe I'll point
out maybe another example, notnecessarily my personal
experience, but more like anexperience for the entire
engineering team here.
I remember when we weredeveloping the focal reducer for
HHD, our engineer was we have avery good octagon engineering

(32:07):
Mark Martinez right, he came upwith the HHD optical design.
He came over focal reducers forall the different sizes, but
when we got to the eight itbecame very difficult and we
realized it's because we'reholding one, one number of being
the constant right.
All these HHD design has towork with a full frame sensor

(32:32):
and it became harder.
Actually, as you startedworking on smaller optical
system, it was actually not asdifficult to put one together
for, let's say, 11 versus theeight, and it becomes even more
difficult when we try to createreducers for the eight.
Now, I know I'm maybe getting alittle bit way too deep in the
technical stuff, but so thestory is you took Mark a long

(32:58):
time and we couldn't quitefigure out a optical design that
satisfies all of ourrequirements, and eventually we
have to step back as a team andwe examine the criteria that we
came up with, the designcriteria, and we had to make
some changes, make some tweaksto basically say, mark, now

(33:23):
we're gonna do this instead ofthat, and that's when we
actually make progress with theproduct event.
So, anyways, that was oneengineering block example I
think I can think of in a moment.

Yeah , sounds like the general
engineering process.
I like to teach my students.
So if you get a design, do aprototype, test it, retest it
and you, just you, keep goingback and forth until you get it
to where you want it to be.
Tell us a little bit about thepeople who are involved in

(33:55):
making, designing, prototypingand actually producing.
How many people does it take todevelop a new telescope, and
what kinds of jobs do they have?

Right , right.
So making telescopes right,Designing telescopes this is
actually I've had thisconversation with several people
in the past it's actually quitedifficult.
It's quite involved because itcovers a lot of disciplines,
right, A lot of differentengineering disciplines.
We need optical engineer, ofcourse, mechanical engineers.

(34:28):
Now, with all the electronics,we need electronics engineer and
as we have more and moresoftware in the product, we need
more and more softwareengineers, let alone the
telescope experts that we needto have on staff.
So actually it takes an entireteam of people with different

(34:49):
discipline, different expertiseto put together a pretty nice
telescope.
So, yes, we do have a fewpeople.

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

Well , so it's gonna vary on each
project.
I mean like 10, yeah, that'sfor a lot of projects it's
usually about 10.
We have a not a huge in-houseengineering staff, but a pretty
substantial one for a companyour size, for something like
Origin, including all theconsultants on it.

(35:19):
Because I knew you were gonnaask this question, I kind of
told it up and it was about 20people working on it and that's
our in-house engineers.
Like Corey said, we haveoptical engineers plural
mechanical engineers, pluralelectrical engineers along with
firmware engineers, softwareengineers in-house and then
externally, we use othersoftware consultants for

(35:43):
different aspects, like one ofthem was the AI staff.
Obviously, we don't do AIin-house, we're a telescope
company and then obviously, wehave our app development
partners over at simulationcurriculum.
They're involved as well.
So we have our in-houseengineering staff.
That's the core and does theprimary engineering, and then,

(36:04):
depending on what the project is, we surround it with additional
partner or consultant resources.
Basically, but on Origin, Itold it up, it was like it's
about 20 people.

So Corey, am I correct that you are
also an engineer?
As your main way you got intothis and I've heard from many
people how important that ishaving you as CEO but also
having that engineeringknowledge and how do you kind of
can you leverage that in manyways?
Do you think that help you tomake good decisions based on

(36:38):
engineering concepts rather thanjust normal everyday CEO type
of decisions?

Yeah, so I do have a mechanical
engineering background.
I went to a school for an MEdegree.
So I think, aside from theeducation and engineering degree
, I think one thing that wasreally, really helpful for me
when I first came to work forSolestron.
At that time management decided, hey, the new engineers, let's

(37:06):
put them through assembly, let'sput them through a production.
So I spent about eight monthsdown in production area putting
together telescopes.
At that time I didn't quiteunderstand why am I doing this?
I went to school for this.
But then I actually, lookingback, I learned a lot.
Just putting gears togetherright, just understanding how a

(37:29):
mirror moves inside aSchmidt-Castergreen telescope,
what kind of issues peopleencounter when they put stuff
together.
That was really, really useful.
I think that allows me toactually keep all that knowledge
in mind.
When I started designing atelescope, one of the telescopes
that I worked on I mentionedwas Ultima 2000.

(37:51):
And then later on they took ona more active role designing the
mechanical parts for the CPCtelescopes which you are still
selling today.
So right.
So I thought that was reallyhelpful.
I mean, it allows me tounderstand what the products are
all about and what's importantand what is possible too, and
all that knowledge actuallystays with me, and it's really

(38:12):
helpful when I'm having thesediscussions with Eric without
sounding like I don't know whatI'm talking about.
So it's good to be able to haveintelligent conversations with
our engineering team.

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

Rob Webb -Last Minute Ast (38:41):
heavy .

Right .
So there are different ideasthat Eric and I and the
engineering team are alwaystalking about, but I can't
really tell you about that now.
I'm feeling that maybe in acouple years we're gonna have
one of these interviews again.
We can talk about the newproducts that we might be
working on.

Eric Kopit - Celestro (38:59):
Fantastic , but definitely, I can
definitely say right, what'sinteresting is right, like in
Corey, for a large part too, isI've been in this industry
basically before the internetwas really even a thing.
I hate to say it like to datemyself, but the internet wasn't
really a thing.
So, like the internet was onething.
But smartphones, that changedeverything, because now everyone

(39:22):
has a processor and a cameraand a display screen in their
pocket for free that can beleveraged for astronomical
imaging or observation.
And we've done that rightthrough the years, first with
Sky Portal, where now you have aplanetary interface on your

(39:43):
smartphone to control your scopeso it can replace your hand
controller.
And then Star Sense Explorer,where we leveraged the
smartphone for manual telescopesto help people point to objects
.
And now certainly we'releveraging the smartphone again
with Origin as well.
So the impact that thesmartphone has had on amateur

(40:04):
astronomy has been hugelysignificant.

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

I think there's an element of that
.
Right At a time when we weretalking about the Origin concept
, camera sensors were reallyexpensive and certainly camera
sensors have gotten a lot bettersince we talked about it at
first and also a lot moreaffordable.
So now we can put together apackage that actually is

(40:42):
accessible for a lot of people.

Right .
One of the main issues when wefirst conceived of this was how
do we wirelessly get the imagefrom the camera to the
smartphone?
Right, and there really wasn'tanything on the market for that.
And in fact we started talkingto some of our camera partners
about developing Wi-Fi camerasand then we quickly realized so

(41:08):
that was kind of maybe a rabbithole a little bit, but we didn't
really go down that rabbit holemuch, we were just kind of
kicking the tires.
But then we quickly realizedlike oh, because the cost of the
R-Pi, the Raspberry Pi typecomputer, where now you can get
this really powerful off theshelf computer and embed that
thing in your product for verylow cost, because it's a

(41:29):
reference design and it's widelyavailable, so that allowed us
to now basically get the imageinto the R-Pi and then the R-Pi
can get it over to thesmartphone.
So that was a breakthrough.
That certainly helped us aswell was the onboard, the
powerful computers and sensitiveCMOS sensors at much lower cost

(41:53):
so that we could integrate that.
So yeah, a lot of it, and thatwas why when we first conceived
it, as we couldn't execute on itbecause some of the mostly with
the sensors and the processingright.
There's three things that makethis work the optics, the sensor
and the processing.
Essentially so the optics wehad, but the sensors, as Corey

(42:14):
said, they weren't reallysensitive.
I mean, the sensitivity of thesensors that are available now
for low cost is unbelievable.
I mean back then, literally 15years ago, these were like and
or quality sensors that cost$50,000.
Cameras would be so the regular, like Starvis, sony, cmos, at

(42:36):
like, very like under $50 persensor price is a huge
breakthrough that allows thesetype of systems to really work.

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

Gabe takes Origin out for the first
time.
All right, check this out.
This is the Origin telescopefrom Celestron.
It is a six inch RASA design.
Now I have this on the traveltripod I wanted to make
abundantly clear that this isthe tripod that comes with the

(43:16):
Origin.
I am gonna be showcasing theOrigin with the travel tripod,
which I really like it pairedwith this, but it is a separate
purchase which makes anamazingly portable setup here.
I love the way it looks.
It has some really coolfeatures.
The one that I like the most isthat this is Celestron's first

(43:38):
telescope that will beconnecting directly to cell
phones and tablets and you'll beable to display and project
that up onto things like thescreen behind me and I hope to
get this guy out now.
That's been raining and this isnot a lie.
It's been raining for like twoweeks.
I've had this thing here.
I've not had a chance to get itunboxed and I just got it

(44:00):
unboxed a few seconds ago andI'm blown away.
This thing looks just beautiful.
The RASA design is that there isa camera up front here at the
prime focus location, makingthis an astrograph.
It's the Roe Ackerman Schmidtastrograph and it is a six inch
design, the first of its kindand in the back here we have the

(44:24):
brains of the operation.
Within here is a raspberry pie.
There's a really nice indicatorlight here when you turn it on,
and the ports on the side hereare nice to be able to access.
There's a LAN port, there's USB3.0 and USB 2.0.
So if you want to, you canbasically download the image

(44:48):
files directly from the scopeand what that does is permits
you to do traditional imageprocessing on them like you
would do with a traditionalastrophotography setup.
However, this is really designedto be more of an EAA style of
scope, where you're using thisfor electronically assisted

(45:10):
astronomy, kind of in place oflooking through an eyepiece with
your eyes.
So the goal here isn't so muchto provide you that traditional
astrophotography experience.
It's live stacking the images,so it's taking 10 second
exposures.
As it takes those exposures, itcreates a better and better

(45:32):
image.
As it goes, it does some colorcorrection and provides some
stretching of the image toprovide you with a really nice
image that just will blow yourmind.
There's a filter that is goingto be going in the front of this
scope as well that will cutthrough the light pollution,
which is a great way to kind ofget around those city lights

(45:55):
that are so annoying anddifficult for, you know, to look
at with a traditional telescope.
So this kind of cuts throughthat light pollution a little
bit for you.
It comes with internal Wi-Fiand it also comes with an
internal battery, so I'm goingto get this thing charged up and
then I will have it outside.
So come on out and check it outwith me.

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

Well , because we think it's the
origin of a new way for peopleto explore the universe.
So in many ways we do thinkthat this is a new beginning, as
far as it's just a new way ofobserving, and I can see how, as
time goes by like you know,significant time that this will

(46:51):
sort of be the way that peopleactually observe is more through
EAA or basically looking atimages in almost real time on a
screen instead of looking atdirectly with your eye, and
that's just because it justsolves so many problems.

And I think one of the discussions we
have had to a whole team spellout time coming over that name
was the fact that the product isgreat to look at really deep
sky objects.
Right, we're talking aboutreally distant galaxies.
In some ways, we're looking atlight that was emitted some time
ago and, if we do this farenough, we're looking at the

(47:31):
origin of the universe.
I like that.

Rob Webb -Last Minute As (47:36):
That's really cool.
I like that.
So where do you see this?
So this is the origin of a newway of looking at things.
Where do you see us going fromhere?

Well , I think I mean just to expound
on what you just said a littlebit.
I mean it's just once you startusing a system like origin that
can actually and the key isgetting it closer and closer to
real time.
And I use one of these and testit over many years on the
balcony that I have and it'sdefinitely very light, polluted,

(48:09):
and I mean sometimes you lookup and you can't even really see
stars.
I mean you can see some of thebrightest stars usually, but
then you point this thing up andit picks things out of the
darkness and shows them to youin spectacular detail, more
detail than I would be able tosee if I got a 20-inch scope,

(48:32):
got it in a truck that I'd haveto rent, drove four hours away,
set that thing up and lookthrough an IP.
I'm seeing it in almost realtime and again, that's the key,
I'm seeing it way better fromLos Angeles in seconds than I
would by doing all that work togo out to the country or a dark

(48:52):
sky.
And I'm not saying onenecessarily completely replaces
the other, but once youexperience something like origin
, it's really tough to go backto traditional visual observing.
I really have to say that.

So your application here is
definitely consumer-based, butwhat other applications does
this technology kind of open upfor you guys?
You've done it now, you'vefigured 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 havementioned a little bit already.
Can you go into some detailabout what other applications

(49:28):
this type of system would begreat for?

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 avery, very simple level, we can
have content delivered to theproduct.
Or, if you think about it theother way, potentially there's
potential for the user of thetelescope to provide content for

(49:53):
somebody else.
So those are all the differentpossibilities that we're
thinking through, but at thevery very least, this is
something that can be remotelycontrolled and again, that opens
up different possibilities.
Consider what Eric had talkedabout early on when we first
talked about this similarproduct ideas, which is a form

(50:17):
of telescope that potentiallycan be used to collect images,
collect data, and remotely fordifferent people.
So there's all sort ofpossibilities with a product
like this that we caninvestigate Right.

I mean the two.
So right, the concept ingeneral I guess that Corey's
alluding to would be like whatwe would call a global telescope
network.
So basically, once you have awhole bunch of users out in the
field that have this standardplatform type system or an
automated system, then itbecomes a lot easier for people

(50:53):
to collect data and get that toa common source that can be used
for a lot of interesting things.
So the two main things reallyare astronomical research or, as
I mentioned before, spacesituational awareness, which is
keeping an eye on the sky.
As far as transient activities,whether it be satellites or
asteroids or that type ofactivity.
So once you have a standardplatform that anyone can, it's

(51:17):
easy for anyone to operate andit's automated.
As Corey said, you can get thatat some point.
Now you can get that connectedto the internet and it becomes
like a data collection typemachine.
That and certainly that existsat a much higher level, like
automated systems like inobservatories or universities,
can be hundreds of thousands ofdollars, but here now we're

(51:38):
making that type of activityaccessible to those on a much
smaller budget, whether it be aschool district or just a group
of observers or whatnot.
So startups, tech, startupwho's collecting data to sell it
, these type of things.

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

That was so awesome, that was so
awesome.

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

But they're still actively involved
with that.
You know, as far as citizenscience like, one of the things
that people are excited about inastronomy now are the finding
of planets around other stars.
You know, watching the eitherthe dimming or the wobble or
whatnot and you can get gooddata with these automated

(52:41):
systems so that you can use aglobal telescope network of
people with small telescopes tofind planets around sun, like
stars, which is kind of, youknow, interesting.
Whether we'll talk to thosepeople someday or not, assuming
there's people or that they'reusing them.
Carbon based life we don't knowany of that.

(53:02):
But yeah, just be able to beable to gather everyone together
with a global telescope network.
It's like having an eye on thesky at all times.
Almost it's like a global eye,so it's can be very interesting.

One of the important things I think
about when people talk aboutorigin is the ability to upgrade
and I know you guys kind of hadthat in mind.
You can tell in the design andeverything that.
And you know you mentionedconnecting to the internet, so
you know what is that.
How does that separate it fromsome of the other equipment
that's out there right now?

Well , I think with origin, one of
the things when we made is wewant it to grow as you grow.
So even though you'll startlike you might not know anything
, like I'm just buying it andit's automated, it's going to
teach you the sky.
So as you watch it, point, andas you use the planetary
interface, you're going to startunderstanding the sky and see

(53:59):
how things work and you'll grow.
And then there'll be more andmore things that you want to do,
and we've kind of thought thatthrough with origin to make sure
that there's no dead ends thatlike, yep, I've done everything
I kind of can with it and closeit.
That's always the dreaded placeis, oh, it winds up being
unused in the closet, which isnot, you know, we don't want to
ever happen.
So, like one thing yes, I meanthe one thing that does change

(54:23):
quite rapidly over times is thesensor technology, and Robin
mentioned where do you seethings going in the future?
And I do.
I do see that there will becontinued improvements in sensor
technology and how thatbenefits origin is smaller
pixels that are just assensitive or even more sensitive

(54:43):
, Because as we get smaller andsmaller pixels, we basically get
extra resolution for free withthe RASA system.
That isn't true with a lot ofother smaller aperture systems.
Smaller aperture systems, youraperture limited on the
resolution.
I think it's criticallyimportant that people understand
that.
But something like a RASA isresolution limited by the pixels

(55:05):
.
So as more sensitive cameraswith smaller pixels come out,
which is a trend we've seen, weexpect that we'll have, you know
, replacement cameras for yourorigin system Because, as you
would allude to, yes, the origincamera is user accessible quite
easily and we did that.
So because, yes, we understandthat the most non-static part of

(55:29):
the system will be the sensorand we don't want people to have
to throw their origin awayafter 10 years because the
sensor is, is is no, I thinkthat's great.

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

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

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

We started off the podcast talking
about Galileo, and thesetelescopes are, all you know,
probably are a much higherquality than that, and it's
still around Because they didn'thave electronics in them.
They're not allowed to have myfinger, though they can I keep
Right.

So I was going to say, after you
purchase your origin, then youwant to be able to, you know,
put in the latest technology,the latest camera sensors in
there.
I mean that's part of thereason why we wanted to make
sure that our telescope, theorigin, can grow with you.
I mean Celestron.
We want to make sure that wetake care of our customers, not

(57:01):
just now but also later down theroad, make sure that they stay
with us.
Because we've been around for along time, we're hoping our
customers will also be with usfor a long time.

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

What kind of advice do you have for
some of the young people or evenpeople who are learning
engineering right now?
What kind of advice would yougive to someone who's interested
either in engineering or designor telescopes in general?
What kind of education orcareer advice or experience

(57:40):
advice would you give them?

So I think I'll repeat what my dad
told me when I was younger Studymath, study math.
Do you want to get intoengineering?
There's one of the first thingsthat you need to do Study math.
You've got to make sure thatyou can do math right.
I mean, that's one.
I think the other thing, as Ilearn throughout my career, is

(58:03):
just having the sense ofcuriosity.
If you see a problem becauseengineers 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 theinternet, you do enough research
, you can find a lot ofsolutions.

(58:24):
You can come up with a lot ofdifferent ideas.
So just having that sense ofcuriosity and just trying to
figure out how things work andthen coming up with solutions, I
mean, I think that's just that.
That's one quality I thinkbeing an engineer needs to have.

I mean, I think one thing that's
interesting to me is, if I wasin high school and I wanted to
pursue engineering, well, thefirst thing, yeah, I'd say, stay
in school, expect to go tocollege, because realistically,
to work as an engineer you needat least a bachelor's.
But one of the things I wouldstart pursuing is the whole like
maker scene.
That didn't really exist when Iwas a young lad.

(59:01):
It just seems like there's somuch out there like DIY
engineering projects that kidscan get into with like 3D
printing.

Oh my gosh, 3D printing is amazing
.

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

So yeah, and from what I've heard
from others as well, like thecoding, if you can learn how to
code especially like Python I'veheard was a really good one to
get started on.
That the coding is a really bigthing because then you can
implement ideas that requirecoding.
And I can't do that and I wishI could sometimes, you know, so

(59:50):
that'd be my takeaway from that?

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

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

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astron (01:00:11):
So what are your plans for the
eclipse?

Corey Lee - Celestron CEO (01:00:15):
So we have a big event, Celestron.
There's a whole team of usgoing out to Dallas, so we'll be
there observing, spending timewith a big crowd there.
I'm also going to take home mywhole family.
I want to make sure that mykids get to see the total solar
eclipse event and hopefully theyremember when they grow up.

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astrono (01:00:36):
I bet you they will yeah.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Inno (01:00:38):
I'm going to be somewhere outside
of Austin, not with TeamCelestron.
I sort of worked the lasteclipse.
I want to do a non-workingeclipse this time and I'm
bringing my wife out there too.
Randy, so it's looking forwardto it.

Rob Webb -Last Minute (01:00:54):
Excellent .
That's fantastic.
I know we're both bringing ourfamily out to the Midwest and
I'm going to Ohio.
My son was with me.
He was four years old duringthe 2017 eclipse and he is just
stoked about this one Nice, hestill remembers it and he talks
about it.
I'm looking forward to it.

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

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (01:01:30):
Yeah , Hopefully it is 20 more years
right what it is.
There's 20 years in the United.

Eric Kopit - Celestron I (01:01:36):
States .
There's the next one.
That's it.
Otherwise, we have to travel tothe middle of the ocean
somewhere.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safari (01:01:44):
So, yeah, I'm going to be going to
Indiana and, rob, I was at the2017 eclipse, but I didn't have
a family at that point.
My son will be coming with methis time my older son.
He's five, and I know he'sgoing to be excited.
He's kind of got an idea ofwhat it's going to be, but I
don't even think I could haveprepared myself for how amazing

(01:02:06):
it was and I was teaching it atthat time.
So, as a kid, to have that kindof an experience where you get
to see the moon covering up thesun and just feeling all of
those emotions that come overyou, it's memorable for sure,
and I just can't wait yeah.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Inn (01:02:26):
It's weirdly indescribable.
Yeah, for sure.

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

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astr (01:02:39):
Yeah , I feel like we're coming down
toward the end here.
Yeah, you have exit ramp.

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

Rob Webb -Last Minute Astrono (01:02:47):
I do have three more trivia, so I
was figure.

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

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safa (01:02:56):
After we get back from this short
break, we've got round two ofthe last minute trivia.
Can Corey and Eric make a?

Lance Lucero - Celestr (01:03:02):
comeback .
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(01:03:23):
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Rob Webb -Last Minute Astro (01:03:33):
Now , before you guys go, I have a
little more trivia and I'mactually I'm going to turn it up
a notch on this one.

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

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 Ihave for you and for the
audience audience, you got toplay along what is the largest
refractor?
Telescope?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innov (01:04:03):
Oh , that I do know the Yerkes 40
inch.
Okay, oh, the second biggest isthe Lick 36, which I'm very
familiar with, being from UCSanta.

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

(01:04:33):
But only 39 of them are clearfor the aperture.
So you still win with Yerkes at40 inches.
I'll still give it to you.
But yes, that solar telescopeis 43.
And I learned that it'sactually a vacuum telescope,
like they suck all the air outof it because if you're focusing
on sunlight you there's toomuch turbulence with it in there

(01:04:55):
.
That was pretty cool.
He tracks it Right.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Inno (01:05:00):
Hey , did you know that James Lick
is buried underneath?

the 36 inch refractor?

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innov (01:05:04):
No way, yeah.
So the root, the floor, lowersand raises because the refractor
right, the height of the IPchanges so much.
And if you raise the height ofthe roof you can see it's grave
under there.

And we astronomers do weird things
after we die.
This is about the Hubble.
Okay, now I'm going to give youthree reasons, and two of them
are correct.
One of them is wrong as far asreasons why that had the initial
blurry photos.
Do you remember that?

(01:05:36):
Yep, of course.
So A, b or C which one is not acorrect answer?
A conversion between the metricSI system and imperial units in
the null corrector.
B Hubble's primary mirror atthe wrong curve, it was too flat

(01:06:00):
near the outer edge.
Or C there was a lens spacingerror in the testing.

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

Yeah , which one is not correct?
Was it not a conversion betweenmetric and imperial?
Was it not Hubble's primarymirror had the wrong curve?
It was too flat near its outeredge.
Or was it a lens spacing errorin testing?

I'll say C.

Wait , I think it was A.

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

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

Yes , exactly, I've heard the legend
that it's been a conversionbetween metric and imperial
units, and I could not find anysupport for that legend.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safa (01:06:58):
We're not that stupid Now.
I've also heard with Hubble,though that there was
potentially a washer that waspossibly causing some of that
off.
I'd have to check that.

No , I'd have to look that up too.
My research says that theyfigured out that it had the
wrong curve.
It was too flat near its edgeand that was because of when
they were testing it, there wasa lens spacing error.
It was off by 1.3 millimetersPretty much, which made it too
flat away from the center.

(01:07:29):
So it doesn't take much, doesit?
No?
Just one little issue, and it'skind of surprising.
It actually got all the way upinto orbit before we actually
did anything about it, before wefigured it out.
Last one the first time that Ishowed my wife Saturn through a
telescope, what did she say?

(01:07:50):
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 wasexpecting.
But fine, cool, cool, cool.
This is fine.

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 shedidn't believe that it was real
.

Yes , she insisted.
She's like you just put asticker on there, you know like
it.
Just there's something about it.
It's all black and you just seeSaturn.
It's gorgeous, but it does lookkind of just there.

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

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

It's our pleasure.

Dave Farina - Cosmos Safar (01:08:56):
It's been fun, thank you.
If you're still listening andlike this podcast, please
consider becoming one of ourPatreon patrons.
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Also, please consider liking,subscribing and sharing this
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(01:09:20):
.

Eric Kopit - Celestron Innova (01:09:21):
I got stumped on lip or say I was
going to say Levin hook, but Iknow that that was the
microscope.
Those were hard ones dude.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Story Behind Celestron's Origin Home Observatory - Presented By Celestron