Blog

With each passing day, attendance levels are really beginning to soar here at Photokina.  Guests to the Celestron booth have been increasing dramatically, as our CPC 1100 and new CGEM 1100 are now pointed at various targets throughout the exhibit hall for everyone to view.  Guests have been really enjoying the views through the CPC 1100 of people moving up and down the escalators, while others are remarking at the clarity of a string holding a sign as seen through the CGEM 1100. Guests eagerly waiting in line to peer through the telescopes are not uncommon to see.   Meanwhile, Celestron’s Sales Representatives have been meeting with clients and Distributors behind closed doors, while Celestron Representatives have been demonstrating and answering questions regarding the products on display. International Sales Coordinator, Anne Barton, which we dubbed “The Queen of Microscopes” can be seen sharing her knowledge of our very popular Hand Held Digital Microscope and LCD Digital Microscope for many hours at a time.  If anyone has any questions regarding microscopes, Anne is always ready to assist.  Assistant Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill, can be seen passing out Celestron’s famous orange Frisbees, hand warmers and orange star pens to our guests.  Michelle especially loves to hand out Frisbees to all the children, and their happy smiles say it all.  These items are very popular, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we run out of stock before Photokina ends.  We’ve also been extremely grateful to have Mr. Thomas Baader of Baader Planetarium and Baader Planetarium Representatives – Michael Risch and Jan Glockenthőr working beside us in the Celestron booth.  These talented gentlemen have been such a tremendous help by translating the German Language to English and by using their astronomical and Celestron product expertise to interact with guests.  Their customer service skills are impeccably first rate, and we are all very happy to have them as part of the Celestron family.  Famed European Astrophotographer, Sebastian Voltmer, of France, stopped by our booth today and presented a CD-ROM of some of his latest works.  Sebastian’s images are so good that they are featured on Celestron’s website and telescope catalog, not to mention on European TV as well.  It’s just amazing to see the finely detailed images he produces using a C8, C11, C14 and PlaneWave Instrument’s 12.5” CDK optical tubes.  The most remarkable images Sebastian showed us were almost identical images of Mars taken during the 2003 Opposition through his C14 and one by the Hubble Space Telescope.   Nearly every Martian features were accounted for, with the Hubble Space Telescope taking the nod for having just a tad bit better resolution, as any 1.5 billion dollar telescope operating in perfect seeing conditions should have.  In reality, the C14 really showed its true capabilities when in the hands of an expert imager like Sebastian.  More of his work can be found on his website at www.weltraum.com and our website at www.celestronimages.com.   More from Photokina to follow soon.