[Wavytone]

Actually, no. The mirror had an excellent figure. The problems were:

a) huge secondary mirror - so big that in many eyepieces you see a big black blob swimming in the FoV;

b) range of useful magnification was very limited, largely due to the limitations with suitable eyepieces - many eyepieces won't work well with mirrors this fast, even now.

c) coma and field curvature (at the time I had this, correctors didn't exist) which were a big problem with most eyepieces except the Pretoria.

d) the fact that the fast f/ratio raises the background sky brightness, which basically defeats the point of a larger scope for looking at extended objects (nebulae, galaxies) in average skies. In really good sites with the darkest of sky, this might not be a problem but even in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney it was evident that f/5 - f/7 would have been a much better choice.

In the heart of Sydney the sky glow is much worse - and at Observatory Hill the naked-eye visual limiting magnitude is about 2.5. An f/3 mirror is about the worst possible choice.