Peter Bealo wrote:

Very cool, but I have my concerns...

Raytheon just isn't very good in the commercial arena. They don't know how
to deal with vagarities of the market and with non-FAR accounting.

How do I know this...I was part of the Raytheon commercial electronics group
that got sold 1.25 years ago to another large company. It was so refreshing
not having to justify prod. dev. where a Govt. entity hadn't already ordered
$B of units or deal with an export admin. who thought it unpatriotic to
EXPORT to Taiwan because they're the bad guys (thought that taiwan was
China...)

If Elcan wants to truly be a commercial player they should endeavor to be
spun out somehow. That same thing happened to Raytheon Marine (small-boat
radars and other electronics) and several other Raytheon divisions.

PeterB
Sweet Hill Observatory

Agree on the Raytheon comments - that may be part of why the guys I was
visiting with were being cagy. It may well be a spin-off business, and
it may well not go very far. As I replied to Dan Chaffee, there may
only be a few of these incredible telescopes ever built and sold if the
profits don't come in. An even greater reason to try to buy one while
they can be bought.
Mike