Zerochromat

[MarkAR]

Came across this website a few days ago and thought their approach for large refractors was quite ingenious.

http://www.zerochromat.net

 

[KevS]

The design is as you say "quite ingenious". Very reminiscent of the old Unitron folded refractor; think they only did a 3" but stand to be corrected. The idea of a 21" frac seems enthralling, but I hasten that justifying the $300,000 for "command" approval would take some doing. 

[MarkAR]

Yup the 21" is a bit overkill, maybe the 10" at £16K might interest you 🤣

[Stub Mandrel]

John Wall, inventor of the Crayford Focuser made a 30" Zerochromat, the biggest refractor ever made by an amateur and the fifth/seventh/eighth (depending on who you believe) largest refractor ever built. It's currently at the Hanwell Community Observatory*.

 

John Wall

 

http://www.hanwellobservatory.org.uk/telescopes/john-wall

 

*This scope is mentioned but not detailed on the Zerochromat website.

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Stub Mandrel

[KevS]

On 2/6/2021 at 3:47 PM, MarkAR said:

Yup the 21" is a bit overkill, maybe the 10" at £16K might interest you 🤣

If I was forking out that much on a hobby, it would have sails.😂

[MarkAR]

Just thinking if folding the light path similar to this on a newtonian would work, it would place the eyepiece at the back along a second tube making it easier when viewing on an EQ mount.

[Tom Corbett]

On 2/8/2021 at 12:59 PM, MarkAR said:

Just thinking if folding the light path similar to this on a newtonian would work, it would place the eyepiece at the back along a second tube making it easier when viewing on an EQ mount.

There are off axis Newts that do not have a secondary obstruction. I had one for a long time. In my opinion it was comparable to a refractor of equal aperture.

 

DGM Optics

 

http://users.erols.com/dgmoptics/

[MarkAR]

18 hours ago, Tom Corbett said:

There are off axis Newts that do not have a secondary obstruction. I had one for a long time. In my opinion it was comparable to a refractor of equal aperture.

 

DGM Optics

 

http://users.erols.com/dgmoptics/

Never knew they existed, interesting stuff.

[Nightspore]

If I was forking out that much on a hobby I would expect it to achieve orbit under its own power.

[MarkAR]

On 11/10/2021 at 12:59 AM, Nightspore said:

If I was forking out that much on a hobby I would expect it to achieve orbit under its own power.

Well we know that Hubble is getting on in years, wonder how much they want for a used scope. 🤣

[Nightspore]

33 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Well we know that Hubble is getting on in years, wonder how much they want for a used scope. 🤣

 

Depends if it's in stock, or not, I reckon.