[renormalised (Carl)]

That "lightbucket" should be classed as a WMD..."Weapon of Mass Distraction"....because you'd be so in awe of the instrument you'd forget to have a look through it!!!!. That thing is nearly as high as a 2 storey house!!!!. Maybe it should be called a Weapon of Mass Delusion...where in the whole of Europe are you going to get a sky dark enough to fully utilise the capabilities of that scope. Nowhere. It's bad enough for scopes far smaller than that behemoth. A country like Oz or even some of the darker corners of the US it might get a good shake down but not there.

But he wanted one that big, and good on him. However if I were to build a scope of that size, it'd be on a fork mount, in an observatory and would cost considerably more than it did to build.

Actually, it would make a great weapon....of Mass Destruction, it'd collect that much light!!!. Have a bright, cloudless, sunny day and turn it towards the sun. Put in a 10-25mm ocular, and a shaft of semi-coherent, multi-megawatt light would leap out and burn a hole instantly through 16 feet of armour plate steel!!!!