Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
That may well prove to be prophetic....but I'm still inclined to adopt a wait and see approach.
However I don't think the value of albeit less expensive, but good RC telescope, will affect RCOS anymore than a luxury Hyuandai would affect S-Class Benz sales.
A 12.5" optical set (from Star Instruments, the RCOS supplier) alone will set you back a cool $US6000..... Why? For starters the optics are Zygo tested and certified to 1/25th wave RMS, and have thermal properties an order of magnitude better (actually 20x better) than the fuzed quartz by GSO. (BTW this talk of 500% mark-ups is utter nonsense)
I applaud Paul's ingenuity. By adding a more robust and accurate focuser and adapting 3rd party field flattner to a modest scope, plus putting the ensemble on a top-of-the-line mount, he is indeed getting a great result!
But we are hardly talking about "cheap" systems out of the made in China box anymore.
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Peter,
I think it will affect RCOS, more so than Benz, simply because there is very little competition in RCs. In this day and age, people are looking at their dollars twice, three times, nay, 4 times or more. If I had the money, I'd probably buy an RCOS, because they are the best, there's no argument there. But - the GSO RC comes close, for a fraction of the price. Again, all this talk about 1/12 wave, 1/25 wave, etc etc - I honestly doubt that the average person could tell the difference between those 2 measurements in real life images. Again, like with another hobby of mine (hi fi), all these fancy measurements are great, but they generally mean bugger all in the real world, and that's *what* counts. I've been around far too long to believe that measurements holistically accurately describe the real world characteristics of something.
I don't begrudge you owning a RCOS (sorry if I sound that way, it's not my intention) - I simply dislike artificial pricing for the sake of making a buck because people are gullible enough to buy the item, instead of walking away from it when they realise that the item is way overpriced. I've spoken to a few people in private, and one person in particular used to work for RCOS and he guaranteed me that they have huge markups.
Dave