Several thoughts pop to mind for amateur use:

I wonder how it would do in a stiff breeze? A mirror's larger mass
can be advantageous at times, especially when anchoring a large OTA.

Pretty soon the eyepieces are going to outweigh the telescopes. It
could be difficult to adapt to a Dobsonian mount.

Those Meade marketing folks would have a field day with it. A
whole new set of superlatives might have to be invented...




Mike Maxwell wrote:
An article at http://www.ljworld.com/section/kunews/story/192798
talks
about a prototype telescope whose mirror is made of composites. The
16"
telescope (unclear exactly what they're talking about, but it appears
to
include the mirror, some kind of mirror mount, and the truss tube,
all
in what I take to be a Cassegrain configuration) weighs 20 pounds.
It
was built by Kansas University, San Diego State University, Dartmouth

College, and Composite Mirror Applications in Tucson.

Apparently it's a prototype for larger telescopes--the next one will
be
a one meter mirror. But if someone started making this sort of
telescope for amateurs... Of course, I suppose the cost of materials

would outweight (sorry for the pun) any savings from the construction

method.

An earlier story (before they built the prototype) is at
http://www.ljworld.com/section/archive/story/148016. And
http://www.physics.ku.edu/facilities.../specsfin.html is a rfp for
the one meter scope.

Mike Maxwell