Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Well, all it needs is collimation and a focuser, shroud and a dew heater installed. Not that much tinkering. The scopes are now mature. All the large scopes have good mirror cells, sensor centering adjustment rings, plenty of back focus, good baffling, but you will need to find a good flattener that does not cost the earth. That is the only catch. Still searching myself. I think TS have one but it might mean not using my AOX (89mm+ or - 2mm). It they are using a small sensor, then there is no issue as the correct field covers easily.
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Sure, while the 12" scopes look like they can be well tamed, the lack of a
usable focuser, rotator, dedicated flattener, reducer, robotic dust cover is not trivial.....they do add significantly to the cost.
An Optec Gemini rotator/focuser is around $A6k landed alone....making the
telescope itself, at $A7.5k look positively cheap.
Running the numbers, PMEII, GSO16, Optec Gemini = $38.5k
The mass increase from 12" to 16" is basically double...which begs the question how good are the horizon to horizon collimation/bending moments?
The design being functional at 12" could be a world of hurt at 16" if all GSO do is scale components up.
Perhaps the above gives original question more clarity....as, if you paid near enough $40K for the "telescope" bits (we haven't factored in the cost of a Dome yet) and you received no optical certification data....
......but the images have Hubble-Mark-I haloes...it would be hard to swallow and explain to the funding authorities.
Hence my dilemma.