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Thanks for the link, a (40 ") mirror comes in at just over $50,000, which is 1.4 times my gross yearly salary.
That is outside most non professional budgets I would guess, especially by the time you built a scope around it, but I see your point, for some of the upper league of amatuers a 1m mirror would be affordable.
Interesting though that I can't find a spincast one any cheaper, which was the whole point of the original article that I read.
The hope that after being proved on big observatory mirrors, the process would be commercialised down to the point that 1-2m mirrors would be far more affordable than ones made by a traditional grinding process. This was going to be due to the mirror being closer to the finished shape straight out of the kiln. Affordable in the article meant that a 1m mirror would be around the same cost as a 12" mirror was at the time. i.e. still not pocket money, but affordable to just about anyone that really wanted one. It is a shame that hasn't eventuated.
Great scopes are amazingly affordable now compared to 20 years ago, but the article had me convinced that when I grew up , with a bit of saving and scrimping I could own a 1m scope.
And holiday on the moon and have a hover car if I had a good job...
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