On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:54:25 GMT, "Roger Hamlett"
wrote, in part:
"RichA" wrote in message
.. .

Synta is now the proud owner of Celestron.
They probably bought in because the patents
and technology to make SCT correctors is
essential to reproduce that business in
MAINLAND CHINA! So the next time a tank
rolls over some democracy protester in Tianamen Square,
picture a C8 mounted on the front of it!

Start by getting your data right.
Synta is a _Taiwanese_ company, not a Chinese company. They do have a
manufacturing plant in China, and are already the largest manufacturer of
OEM optics in the world.

But since Synta has a manufacturing plant in _Mainland_ China - I
believe that must be what you meant, since Taiwan _is_ part of China,
although not being part of the People's Republic of China, and thus any
Synta manufacturing plant in Taiwan would be in China (just as a
manufacturing plant in Munich and a manufacturing plant in Dresden would
both have been in Germany even *before* the Berlin Wall came down) -
then the technology for making Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes *could*
sneak into Red China because of this.

Of course, SCTs have been around for enough years that the patents have
expired. Schmidt *himself* successfully kept his secret of how to make
correctors, but it has since become general knowledge:

http://www.quadibloc.com/science/opt02.htm

Also, cheap Maksutov telescopes are already being made in China. It's
true that cheap SCTs would be even cheaper - given that *labor* may be
cheap in China, but optical glass also uses raw materials... sand may be
pretty cheap, but *Barium* costs real money - but is the difference
really a big deal, particularly as Maksutovs are percieved as being
better quality?

John Savard

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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