100mm ED price drop likely

It seems reasonable that there will be a similar
price drop on the 100mm ED Orion when Skywatcher
brings theirs out. That could mean a $750
100mm apo. For another $500 you can mount it on
a G5 or whatever and suddenly, reasonably priced
apos are for real. What I do wonder though is
when will we start seeing the larger ones?
Is it even possible they have large-disk glass supplies to
produce such scopes?
What I think I'd like would be a better than achromatic
5" (you won't see apochromatism in a big doublet of reasonable
speed)about f7 for a good combination of widefield
and higher magnification work. Any residual colour
could be taken up by a filter, such as one from
Sirius optic.
With a 30mm Nagler or Meade, you'd get a 3 degree FOV
which is plenty plus it would be capable of higher
powers for planetary viewing.
Plus, with a filter, it would also make a great imager.
-Rich

"RichA" wrote in message
...
It seems reasonable that there will be a similar
price drop on the 100mm ED Orion when Skywatcher
brings theirs out. That could mean a $750
100mm apo. For another $500 you can mount it on
a G5 or whatever and suddenly, reasonably priced
apos are for real. What I do wonder though is
when will we start seeing the larger ones?
Is it even possible they have large-disk glass supplies to
produce such scopes?
What I think I'd like would be a better than achromatic
5" (you won't see apochromatism in a big doublet of reasonable
speed)about f7 for a good combination of widefield
and higher magnification work. Any residual colour
could be taken up by a filter, such as one from
Sirius optic.
With a 30mm Nagler or Meade, you'd get a 3 degree FOV
which is plenty plus it would be capable of higher
powers for planetary viewing.
Plus, with a filter, it would also make a great imager.
-Rich


Mr. Rich Field: The glass used in Orion and Skywatcher are blanks made in
Japan.
The actual machining is done in China. It has taken the Chinese at least 5
years to
learn how to deal with ED glass in grinding and polishing since they can't
produce it themselves. The glass is sensitive to heat build up due to the
friction of grinding and polishing and often times fractures. It seems
likely they will get better in the coming years to eventually approach Vixen
ED quality for 1/2 the price. We can only hope.

Sooner or later I knew someone would do "something" for the poor and
homeless! Hooooray!
Mark



RichA wrote:

It seems reasonable that there will be a similar
price drop on the 100mm ED Orion when Skywatcher
brings theirs out. That could mean a $750
100mm apo. For another $500 you can mount it on
a G5 or whatever and suddenly, reasonably priced
apos are for real. What I do wonder though is
when will we start seeing the larger ones?
Is it even possible they have large-disk glass supplies to
produce such scopes?
What I think I'd like would be a better than achromatic
5" (you won't see apochromatism in a big doublet of reasonable
speed)about f7 for a good combination of widefield
and higher magnification work. Any residual colour
could be taken up by a filter, such as one from
Sirius optic.
With a 30mm Nagler or Meade, you'd get a 3 degree FOV
which is plenty plus it would be capable of higher
powers for planetary viewing.
Plus, with a filter, it would also make a great imager.
-Rich

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 01:19:39 -0600, Mark Spenser
wrote:

Sooner or later I knew someone would do "something" for the poor and
homeless! Hooooray!
Mark

How about a new cardboard box for you?
-Rich