Recently I pursued the possibility of building a 5 or 6 inch refractor with a kit from Newport Glass. Ultimately I decided that I would probably end up spending twice what the cost of a new Synta or equivalent 6" OTA would cost. Personally I would rather have a refractor of an f/12 or even f/15, but I just can't seem to justify the many hours of work that would be necessary to make one myself. Not to mention the absolute necessity of an accurate spherometer, whick would add another couple hundred to the cost! What I really need is a time machine to allow me to go back the the Jaegers heyday and get one of their 6" f/15 lens set in a cell for under 400.00. Some of them produced some darn good images!!

• too serious - glasspusher - October 26, 2001 - 01:29 UTC