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Hehe... I remember that 16" well, Mike... it was at the back of the Tradies Club in Dickson.
When it opened I think half of CAS were wondering WTF ? while the other half were laughing at the waste of putting a telescope like that in that awful location. I walked away shaking my head in disbelief when it opened.
After restoring its predecessor (Colonel Oddie had a 4.5" Cooke first, on a very beautiful mount which was originally used to do the site survey leading to the selection of Stromlo for an observatory), subsequently I had its big brother (the 9" Oddie at Stromlo) to myself one night a week, for several years before you. Both were great examples of what a refractor could do, and it is little wonder it is being replaced with a slightly smaller and faster APO.
The trouble is, nobody makes 'scopes like that as a "commercial off-the-shelf" item - they're all one-offs built to order. Even in Oddies day.
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