In 1947, a World War II fighter pilot named Don Penning started a small shop that made money selling hobby cameras to Camp Pendleton Marines. Over the years, the shop changed hands and locations and grew. Oceanside Photo and Telescope, better known as OPT, now has annual revenue in the tens of millions, driven by a robust telescope inventory and busy online sales. Craig Weatherwax took over OPT in 1974, transitioning the camera-focused enterprise into a lucrative astronomy-equipment provider.