Nathan Koren:
In the course of my architecture practice, I have encountered a client
who wishes to built a personal observatory. Their budget for the
scope itself (nevermind the enclosure and sitework, et cetera) is
$750,000. This seems like an akward number to me -- a lot larger than
any definition of "amateur" that I'm familiar with, but a lot smaller
than any institutional observatory I've ever heard of. Nonetheless,
if you had $750,000 to blow on a telescope, to whom would you go?

*****

Kindly forward the name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of
your client. I need this just in case he/she manages to spend only,
say, $700,000 for his/her 'scope. I could use the change to purchase a
nice little scope for myself.

It could be difficult to find someone to build a 'scope in that price
range, and it would certainly be unnecessary; a *very* high-end scope
can be had for a small fraction of that amount. Fabrication of a
telescope at the specified price would not be speedy; it could require
a couple of years. I take it that your client is not at present an
astronomer, otherwise he/she would already know where to start looking
-- Sky & Telescope magazine, Google, or the astronomy department of a
good-sized university. Beware of the latter; if they know that someone
has a research-grade telescope they're going to want some observing
time!

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com