About 30 years ago amateur astronomy equipment was very different than today (1990's). If you owned a telescope at all, odds are that it was a 2.4" refractor and if you were fortunate enough to have a 6" reflector, you most likely built it yourself, maybe even grinding your own mirror. That is the way I started in 1967 at the age of 18; a self-ground mirror, a stove pipe tube, a plumbing fitting equatorial mount and my 6" f/8 newtonian was born.
Equipment came a long way and somewhat full circle, over the next 3 decades. And we eagerly learned of every changing trend, through the pages of popular astronomy magazines; especially via the work of the ad-men. This is a pictorial tour of amateur equipment by means of those magical advertisements; you know - the ones that seduced us out of our hard earned money. But no hard feelings; it was money that we willingly gave and we smiled on the way to our favorite dark sky refuge.
Though these pages surely could not hold all the ads that came and went over the last 30 years, they includes enough to serve two purposes: 1) a reminiscent walk through the memories of our hobby and 2) help for those interested in the "good deals" of the used telescope market; this may give them an idea of just what in the world they are selling!
Enjoy the good feelings and as always your comments, suggestions and corrections are welcomed.
(Please be patient while the ads load)
Late 60's - When the 2.4" refractor was king and the 6" newtonian reflector was large.
Early 1970's - Celestron introduces an amateur schmidt cassegrain.
Late 1970's - Meade gains ground with two newtonian reflectors & Edmund Scientific hatches the Astroscan.
Early 1980's - Meade challenges Celestron's market share with a new SCT & Tele Vue introduces the Nagler.
Late 1980's - Sophisticated electronic control systems appear and apochromatic refractors gain ground.
Early 1990's - Maksutov newtonians and big "light bucket" dobsonian reflectors hit the market.
Late 1990's - Commercial dobs, apochromatic refractors, and "goto" scopes like the ETX and Nexstar sell well.
References used:
Sky & Telescope magazine - Sky Publishing Corporation
Astronomy magazine - Kalmbach Publishing Co.