Serious aperture fever! Can only imagine the deeps sky vies this thing would give!
Like the simplicity and humbleness of the guy who build it - in a video for his local TV station he says that "I bough all that was needed to put it together at Home Depo and Walmart!" - quite funny actually.
John K.
p.s. do we know what the biggest amateur instrument in Australia is? Surely we can do things even bigger here in OZ!!??
Its a folded Newt so you keep feet on the ground , which explains the large secondary. The cold war `spy satellite' tag on the mirror is probably more for media effect - AT f6.1 the blank is likely to have been made up as a spare or rejected mirror for the Mount Hopkins multi mirror telescope in the 1980's.
On the caveat side , light throughput given the large obstruction and 80% spray on silver coating ( assume that secondary had a 99% coating ) is similar to a mirror with enhanced coating and small obstruction not much over 50"
It is hoped to be road portable - anything that gets people aware of the Universe and astronomy in general is a good thing . The owner hopes to take it around the country much as Dobson did with their 24" years ago.
