Re: Religious scope preferences

Being the practical centrist that I am, I prefer my 10" f/8 dob.

For the f/8 ratio giveth thee mighty versatility with little sacrifice. Not too long for low power, not too short for great power.

Yea, a quality f/8 mirror is much easier to make, and thus, easier for thee to find, that would an f/4 mirror. Verily also, an f/8 mirror will require the sacrifice of much less gold than a similar-sized achromat.

Hear this if you have ears! At f/8 thou hast been forgiven of many sins of collimation, where at f/4 thou shalt have no forgiveness. Also at f/8 thou art forgiven of the curse of coma, where at f/4 or f/5 thou shalt have no forgiveness.

And in truth I tell you this: at f/8 thou hast much more manageable length than thou wouldst have with the same aperture at f/15, with little sacrifice in the purity of thine images providing that thou managest thy secondary obstruction in a pious manner.

Verily, at f/8 thou wilst be permitted much more aperture than thou wouldst at f/15, unless thou hast a very large house, and forbidding that thou art so blessed as to have a mighty personal observatory.

And with thine dob thou canst enjoy the heavens with mighty apertures with modest expenditure, whilst thine refractor-buying friends must allocate disproportionate sums to their hobby to achieve such heights of size, followed shortly thereafter and forevermore by allocating disproportionate sums to alimony payments, forcing the sale of said refractors.

OOoooooo good one! Telescopes as religious allegories! May I?

Let's see, you have the die-hard fans of the apochromats. Let's call them "Fundamentalists". They believe in absolute purity of image and a devout following of a system free of any central obstructions or chromatic aberrations, however financially impractical that may be.

Then you have the big dob owners. Let's call them "atheists". They do not believe in the religious dogma regarding unobstructed systems or the inherent superiority of the refractor that is so plain to the believers. They believe in the simple science of brute force aperture above all else. They recite the "Aperture wins" mantra.

Then you have the oddly semi-religious fence-sitters like me, who gravitate toward moderation, and who, seeing the merits of both parties' beliefs, and being of modest means, settle into the land of economic performance by going for f/8 reflectors with modest central obstructions.

At f/15 really you are another such moderate, having not fallen into aprochromatic fundamentalism, but going the more practial route of f/15 achromat. I myself have traveled this road.

Everything is a question of degrees and where we feel 'comfortable'.