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Probably just worked out a usable price point for the mirrors performing within optical tolerances. Its common practice. CPUs are made all the same speed but a certain number of defects in the silicon during manufacture means when they are tested they perform stably at various speeds, they then get separated and packaged at different lower speeds. There is no design different in the silicon chips themselves, they all have the same number of transistors etc, the only difference is not all are functional. So maybe the 9.25 mirrors get made from failed 10" mirrors? or maybe the 8" process pushed to its limit results in the 9.25"? I don't think anyone started with saying "we have 8 and 10" scopes, lets do a 9.25" one. It would have been a viable economic reason due to manufacturing processes or from the wavefront equations indicating it would be a good performer for the size, possibly the offshoot of a military/space project?
Has anyone actually dismantled one to see what is actually 9.25" in diameter in the OTA?
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