[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Dear Colleagues,
I had to have a good laugh at an old thread in which lots and lots of older blokes like me complained about how increasingly hard we are finding it to manage telescopes that are bigger than about 14 inches in aperture!

The litany of complaints about the lack of usability and practicality of Really Big Telescopes (of 16 inches and over), for those of us in late middle-age or old age, is all too familiar to me!!.......
creaky backs that have to move massive objects around, increasing difficulties climbing ladders to reach the focus, long setup times, etc.

In fact, sadly, it is an all too common story for us seniors to have to downsize to a smaller and (at least for us) a more practical telescope.....
but this Extremely(!) Sad Story of giving away a Really Big Dob can hardly be regarded as progress!

So why do we just meekly accept that we have to abandon the use of a giant telescope? Why not say "we're mad as hell and we're not going to take this any more?" Why not look for a better solution than being forced to move to a smaller telescope?

So let's see if there is some kind of solution!?!?

Let's see if there is any way to go beyond the Dobsonian Revolution, and to practically and economically build and own a really BEEEG telescope which is more compact than a Dob of the same aperture and which does not weigh as much as a Dob of the same aperture.

In other words, is there a feasible and buildable telescope design which is manageable and usable enough for us "old b*ggers" to be able to use it at >=16 inches of aperture ??

So, ladies and gentlemen.....
......have you any ideas?


cheers, madbadgalaxyman

One well-known (but expensive) route to relatively greater manageability and usability for larger apertures is of course a compact "folded" optical system such as a Classical Cassegrain, a commercial Schmidt-Cassegrain , or a Ritchey-Chretien. For instance, the tube assembly of the Meade 16 inch LX200 weighs some 30 kilograms.....
still too heavy for some of us oldies, so one wonders what would be the minimum possible weight of a 16 inch cassegrain-type Tube Assembly?
(Hmmm...not sure if 30 kilos is right)