Richard, somewhere Dr Tim Wethrell, of Mt Stromolo's Oddie refractor restoration fame, has his 8" frac on a wooden pier ...I think, for the life of me I have no idea where it is on the net. Could be on cloudy nights or possibly the Istar link on my sig, where he compares his 140mm APO TEC to the 200mm APO TEC scopes he owns. Some one else may have a link??? I'll post it if I find it. Might be of some interest.
Found it but not exactly what I was looking for.
http://platypusart.com/wetherell/
Matt