Celestron first introduced its 5-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT), the C5, in 1971, just one year after it started the SCT craze with the C8, forerunner of today's basic Celestar 8. At the time, it was basically a photo-reduced version of the C8, using even a scale version of the C8's dual axis, AC-powered spur-gear drive. The mount featured a twin-arm fork and the OTA was uncoated. It was bare bones but functional.
The C5 had a lot of things going for it. It was reasonably portable where its big brother was not, and it could therefore be carried on long trips--for example, to solar eclipse sites. Its main competitors were the Meade 2045, a 4-inch SCT, and the Questar 3.5, a 3-1/2-inch Mak, both of whom suffered from inferior light-gathering capacity when compared to the C5.
Unfortunately, the C5 suffered from one negative attribute: its price. Because of the tighter manufacturing tolerances (due to the scaled down nature of the C5 mechanics), it actually cost Celestron more to manufacture the C5 than the C8, though they couldn't actually charge more for it. The C5, therefore, was viewed more as a second scope rather than a beginner's scope; the C8 outsold the C5 by about a three-to-one margin. The higher cost to Celestron meant a smaller profit margin, and when demand for telescopes burgeoned in the year or so before the return of Halley's Comet, Celestron decided to drop the C5 in order to concentrate on production of the C8.
In December 1992, after a hiatus of 7 years, Celestron reintroduced the C5, in three flavors. The old C5, now named the C5 Classic, returned with a single-arm "fork" mount, and there was also the new C5+, which also featured a single-arm fork but sported a brand new DC drive powered from a 9-volt battery (or AC adapter). The C5+ had enhanced coatings, thus lowering light loss at the mirrors and corrector surfaces. Finally, there was a spotting scope version.
The C5+ received a favorable review in Sky and Telescope in 1993, which ensured its success for a while. The Meade 2045 had fallen away, and although the Questar 3.5 was still a viable portable scope, its much higher price guaranteed it a separate niche.
In 1996, Celestron reorganized the C5 offerings. The C5 spotting scope remained as a separate product, but the C5 Classic and C5+ were merged into one. The new C5+ maintained the DC drive and enhanced coatings, but the hand controller formerly standard was now made an option. The price dropped somewhat to compensate.
Two years later, Meade re-entered the portable scope market with its wildly popular ETX (which supposedly stands for Everyone's Telescope; the X is just an add-on), a 3-1/2-inch Mak loosely modeled optically on the Questar 3.5, but with considerably more plastic but also a much lower price--a mere $600. When Celestron didn't respond, Meade turned up the heat in early 1999 by adding GOTO to the ETX and maintaining the same low price.
That spelled the beginning of the end for the C5+. The ETX didn't have the aperture of the C5+, to be sure, but it had dual axis drives, amazing portability, a reputation for smoother optics, and probably most importantly, it cost roughly $400 less. Celestron continued to advertise the C5+, but in the meantime it was busy developing a GOTO version of the C5+, called the Nexstar 5. Celestron finally announced the second discontinuation of the C5+ in mid-May 1999.
The C5+ is now shipping its last units as I write this in September 1999, but it's handed its legacy off to two new 5-inch SCTs, the previously mentioned Nexstar 5 and the lower-level 5-inch G5 on a German equatorial mount. The C5 spotter continues to be made as well.
Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, 2000 Brian Tung