Re: Inexpensive Telescope Design Revealed

> My goal, therefore, was to eliminate the aspheric meniscus of the
> Schmidt-Cassegrain, and the thick and steeply-curved meniscus of the
> Maksutov-Cassegrain.

SCT plates are made in thousands by simple vacuum method. And they
are making them rather well these days - can't see how can anyone
improve on that price wise.
Cost in meniscus manufacture is not because it is thick and steep, it
is
because tolerance on radii (or more precise radii DIFFERENCE) is
almost nonexistent. And you will have some tolerance (or lack of it)
with your thin menisk as well - which will be even HARDER to achieve.
That is why I'm asking if you made a corrector of sort - obviously not.

What do you use to check your designs ? Oslo LT? Modas ? Or is
this purely an armchair excercise ? Because that is what it looks like.

Run some of your designs (subaperture Maksutov corrector for example)
through a raytracing software. Check for axial color. Then check for
off
axis perfromance and lateral color. Then check for tolerances (THAT
will
be make or break as far as "cheap" goes) - and methinks you are in for
some rather big surprises.

Bratislav

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