Largest privately owned objective?

I'm curious as to what the biggest objectives are in privately-owned scopes you folks have ever heard of- any type of scope. And recent things, not the famous ones of bygone years. Does anyone own something at 40 in., 50? Bigger?

Jess Tauber

I am a member of the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society located in Allentown, PA. Our club has been working for several years on installing a 40" f/16 cassegrain observatory at our dark sky site. Figuring and polishing remain to be done on the optics but the mechanics are mostly complete. Photos can be seen at the following link.

http://www.lvaas.net/copper/thumbnails.php?album=27

A very ambitious project for which the dedicated members who donated time and have overcome seemingly endless problems should be rightly proud of!

I am curious as to where this scope would stand (when completed) among privately owned scopes. I seem to remember a web site by a group in california nearing completion on figuring a very large (40-60")mirror a few years ago.

There is I believe at least one (if not two) 73" reflector scopes out there. There was a good web site dedicated to the buildibng of one of them - "project73" or some such. About 6-8 years ago....I think it was the one Mark was mentioning...

Jess,

It sounds like you are referring to an achromat or other objective lense scope ?? A fellow Al George in Washington had a 15" achromat IIRC.

Otherwise the group-70 project in the south San Francisco Bay is the largest I am aware of. I did not realize it at the time, but I used to work a few blocks away from the shop they were renting to figure the mirror.

Now up here in the North Bay, we are working on a 40" scope, but other private parties also have such scopes these days.


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jess tauber said:

I'm curious as to what the biggest objectives are in privately-owned scopes you folks have ever heard of- any type of scope. And recent things, not the famous ones of bygone years. Does anyone own something at 40 in., 50? Bigger?

Jess Tauber

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A friend of mime, Mike Clements owns this 70" The mirror was a prototype of the Hubble, made by Itek in the 70's. It is a lightweight fused silica cellular mirror. 70" diameter 12" thick and f/6!! It was 1 of 3 mirrors made, this one was dropped and the side was chipped, and it sat in a box for 30 years. Mike is looking for land now, and will be building the observatory in about a year.

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