The Haggart-Aquila 6 inch Maksutov, '60s

Has anyone out there seen or used one of these? Any photos? Dare I
ask, does anyone still have one? Here's the recent references I can
find:


From Peter Abrahams, Portland, Oregon, telscope-at-europa-dot-com

Harold Haggart. Oregon City. ATM in 1920s, died 1984. Haggart-Aquila
6 inch
Maksutovs produced circa 1960, one 20 inch Newtonian / Cassegrain /
Springfield
/ Coude. Sky & Telescope, September, 1952, pp282-285.

Roland Christen:

I have seen worse, though. Back in 1968 - 1970 there was a scope being
offered
called the Haggard Aquila. It was supposedly a 6" f15 Maksutov, and I lusted
after that scope. It was affordable, unlike the 4" Unitrons, and I had little
or no money for a scope.

Years later someone told me the sad story of his ownership of this instrument.
First, he discovered that it was really a Dall Kirkham design with a plain
plate glass window for a "corrector". Next, he discovered that the primary
mirror was stopped down with a 1" ring of black tape around the periphery, so
it really only had a 4" clear aperture. When he removed the tape, he found a
humongous turned edge which made the scope totally useless. With the tape back
on, stars were little astigmatic triangles at focus. Rotating the "corrector"
showed that the plate glass material was severely astigmatic. It was never
optically polished, just cut round out of a piece of cheap window glass
material. If you go back to S&T ads of that era, in their ads you can read the
hype about this scope and how optically superb it was. People are forever
hopeful.

In article ,
(Doug Peterson) wrote:

Has anyone out there seen or used one of these? Any photos? Dare I
ask, does anyone still have one? Here's the recent references I can
find:

SNIP_

I remember seeing the S&T ads for this scope in the mid to late '60s. I
also actually saw one in about 1970 at the first Vernonscope auction.
What I remember most about their advertising is that they claimed the
Aquila would reveal the companion to Sirius. At the time, the Pup was
at one of its elongations, so it was not a really difficult split for a
6" or 8" scope.

I don't recall that Aquila advertised itself as a Mak. Somehow, I
always knew that the corrector was an optical window.

Starry Skies,
Rich